City Council Meeting   9/24/2024

I will call our Tuesday, September 24, 2024 meeting to order.

Mayor Reed, President.

City Manager Banks.

Here.

Vice Mayor Dent.

Here.

Council Member Fleming.

Here.

Council Member Jones.

Present.

Council Member Robinson.

Here.

Deputy Chief Miller.

Here.

Chief Tobias.

If you would please stand for the invocation, if you wish, and remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Father God, we come before you to ask for your guidance and wisdom, grant us the insight to work for the common good, to show compassion and understanding, and to act with fairness and integrity.

May our decisions be just and beneficial for all members of our community.

We ask for your blessings.

Amen.

All right, we have no special recognitions.

We can go straight into our consent agenda.

Any items placed on the consent agenda shall be removed and taken up as a separate matter if so requested by any member of council.

Otherwise, all items will be voted with one motion.

So moved.

Any discussion?

Council Member Robinson.

Aye.

Council Member Fleming.

Aye.

Aye.

We have no public hearings.

We go straight into our regular items.

Erin.

You can raise it up if you need to.

How's that?

It's fine.

We're good.

I'm preaching to the choir tonight.

Thank you all.

Thank you for welcoming me here today.

My name is Erin Bishop.

I serve as the vice president on the board of directors of the Bildar Park organization and on behalf of which I'm so glad to be here with an update for you all.

since January of 2023 when this council voted to authorize city staff to engage with us in a collaborative phase of feasibility and design.

Significant progress has been made.

Much credit to many of you here.

We've grown our board of directors in size and in strength as a group.

We have varied and meaningful skill sets and interests and a shared vision to create a public part for our community.

Many members are here today, and as I call their names, I hope they will stand.

Our officers include Eddie Bomba, our president, Jamie Marsh, our secretary, Sarah Kate Garmin, our new treasurer, and board members, Letitia Bates, Tim Brady, Jared Burden, William Colbrith, Andrea Dono, Lee Forrester, Barry Kelly, Zach Koops, Trevor Palmer, Andy Perrine, Arushi Sashon, Valerie Sampson, and Henry Way.

Thanks to each of you.

All of these board members have taken active roles in the project, serving on committees and engaging with our stakeholders and the project.

We've hired a talented design team.

The team is comprised of Monteverde Engineering and Design Studio and Eugene Stolzfuss Architects.

I don't think they're here yet tonight, but had planned to attend.

We wanted to recognize John Ernst and Adam Steinerger.

John is from Monteverde and has taken the project lead as well as the landscape architecture, environmental, and civil engineering lead.

Adam with Eugene Stolphsfuss Architects is responsible for the architecture and urban design pieces of the project and we have great thanks to them

Their leadership has been outstanding and as mediators they've just gone above and beyond in how they've helped us interface with stakeholders, the community, and through some of the various departments with the city.

So their guidance is appreciated.

We also, with great thanks to our guidance from Citi, you really are our primary stakeholder and those of you on the board are representative of our community members.

As always, we're thankful for the guidance from our ex officio representatives, including Andy Banks, Vice Mayor Dent, Mr. Jones, Brian Mancini as the Director of Parks and Recreation Department.

We've also benefited from great guidance from the input of Tom Hartman and the Public Works Department.

over the past year.

Other city staff have engaged when they've been called upon, and we've worked diligently together with them toward a conceptual plan.

We have built upon the support of the greater community and outpouring that we showed in earliest years of our project and vision.

We've worked closely with key stakeholders more recently, including neighbors, businesses, community groups, and non-profit organizations, some of whom are here tonight or watching.

They include the Arts Council of the Valley, Ashbury United Methodist Church, the Harrisonburg Electric Commission, the Harrisonburg Farmers Market, the Ice House and Liberty Street Businesses, the Community Foundation of Harrisonburg and Rockingham County, and many more.

We have letters of support from many of these organizations.

Others are working to formalize them through their boards.

We've recently received a formal letter of support from the Shenandoah Valley Alliance.

and these are without really even a call to action as community members at this point.

So we've listened to new ideas through this process, we've heard concerns, we've adapted to many changes and in doing so our plan is very well informed, it's been strengthened since our last Ask of You All and it's very refined at this point.

And with that I'm very excited to share the conceptual design that has resulted from this work.

This is an overview of the site showing the bounds of the park to the west, which is the top of the screen on Liberty Street.

You can see that this even reflects conceptually the future of the Liberty Street bicycle project that would be implemented there.

To the south, the area shown is currently a gravel parking lot that was purchased with the intent of being used for the future park.

To the east, you can see the parking lots for both City Hall and the current Lindsay property.

and to the north municipal parking lot and HEC property.

The park footprint complements the surroundings and also considers future projects.

And as the city strives to achieve the vision of the downtown 2040 master plan, we really hope that this park would ultimately achieve its goal of becoming a keystone for that project's success.

This is a bit closer look showing the capacity of a level lawn area.

which would make the space much more connected than it is right now, also safer as a recreational space, a gathering space, and an entertainment space.

Something to consider are that there would be areas for public art, water features, smaller scale amenities like children's play spaces, donor recognition, and other artistic features.

This specific design and placement of those features would be incorporated at the next phase of planning that would result in construction design and specs.

So that's something to keep in mind.

The small scale amenities are still part of our guiding principles.

They're not necessarily reflected in this level of a walkthrough.

Here you can see that the Turner Pavilion is a central feature of the park and the Harrisonburg Farmers Market would continue to be a key player in the space.

Access to and around the pavilion would be maintained.

So much that I should mention that in these renderings you can see some flower plantings.

Even those were conceptual to this design rendering, but something like that would not actually be implemented on the ground because we've heard so much from them that they really want to maintain access to and around the space with nothing impeding that.

So that's just something to keep in mind.

Within the context of the park, we feel that the market would become an even stronger and more inviting destination with people feeling invited to linger, spend time there, and you could

Imagine it as a place where you would go not only to buy and then go home but to enjoy your coffee or have lunch business meetings and stuff like that with neighbors and co-workers So you can see the future of the Turner Pavilion would also include the addition of solar panels And that's a great feature that the design has allowed for that flexibility

Another feature of the conceptual plan is a multi-purpose space.

The plans would include this to be either a building or a covered structure.

It could be something as flexible as shade sales or as permanent as a building with walls and potentially even plumbing.

This is a place that would be multi-use and would be programmable.

It could be daily use.

It could be special events, smaller scale gatherings, you can imagine musicians busking in a space like this, yoga classes happening, and things like that that would take place in a park.

So that's another under view of what that could be and the flexibility that that space would afford.

Then we take a closer look toward a stage.

Inspired by the success of the Levitt-Amp Harrisonburg Music Series, our plans include a permanent stage.

As a park, the entire space would make a stage more inviting.

It would make it more comfortable.

Things we saw this summer and through the success of Levitt is that our community loves to come together.

There's been an outpouring of requests for use of the stage.

A lot of those were made to HDR.

Some came in through Parks and Rec.

It showed that the community, when presented with the opportunity, they really wanted to know how they could make use of it.

The current cost of about $2,000 per use should you rent a stage like that is a real barrier to our community.

And so having a structure permanently installed with a low barrier, whether it's a reservation process or a small fee,

would really invite the community to make use of that space.

We've already had people reach out to us gasping very much ahead of the cart and the horse, how they can reserve a future stage.

So we know that there is great demand for something like that.

So much so that we thought it would be appropriate to flesh out a design so that we could spec some costs for a stage.

by working with local architects who know our community well and who understand our appreciation for trying to connect authentically with our geographic place and also create a stage that would be unique to Harrisonburg.

They designed a stage with an elevation low to the ground that would be accessible.

It could be repurposed for many different uses.

It could be accessed by all users and it would have the flexibility to host

Small to medium and large size events.

It could also be created to accommodate for solar involving storage and green room space.

This would not be public bathrooms, but the types of spaces that performers and things would need backstage, if you will.

These elevations show we could use local rocks, potentially from local quarries.

and really give a functional feature, a unique to Harrisonburg look and feel.

We've already identified a potential grant that could help fund in part a major portion of a stage like this and that's very much due to the success of the Levitt series as we've seen it so far.

Taking a step back from the stage, you can see that a lawn area, leveling that space between the Turner Pavilion and the stage,

would really create a cohesiveness.

It would add safety and connectivity where we currently have a very steep hill in a space that's not, it's very disconnected and not useful.

And another thing we have heard loud and clear, especially with the Levitt Amp series is the desire for trees and the shade that they provide.

So something very prominent in the current

concept is that we would plant significant numbers of trees, but that they would be utilized with the knowledge and best practices of planting the right tree in the right space.

So these could be native where appropriate, but that that would be something that we would rely on guidance from the Public Works Department and the Virginia Urban Forestry Initiatives to truly inform the best

Types of trees that can grow and work in the space in ways that won't create litter and won't impede other uses and that would work in harmony with the different surfaces that surround them.

So these are all things we're taking into account as we're making these plans.

Again, here's another overview of the concept as a whole.

It allows you to see how it could function as both a gathering space when needed, but informally for daily use, the way that most of us envision that we would interact with a park like this.

just as if not more important than our conceptual designs at this time are the agreements and model that we would use to achieve the park and with very concerted efforts from a team including guidance from Chris Brown, lawyers who are on our board, our entire

Park Task Force Committee and our design team.

We have drafted what we're calling a Downtown Harrisonburg Park Construction and Consulting Agreement and that agreement really defines and aims to give shape to the way that we would move forward from here.

We acknowledge the unique circumstance of a private group of citizens aiming to build a public park

on Public Property and ultimately hand that over to the city as a public park.

The agreement defines how the construction could take place, the roles of both the city and the Build Our Park organization.

It speaks to topics like how we would be authorized to proceed upon raising significant funds that would be proven to

cover the costs of construction.

It talks about licenses, insurance, it goes over construction contracts and how Build Our Park could enter those.

It talks about how the project aims to be revenue neutral and we acknowledge that there could be opportunities where a grant or similar funding could be acquired by the city that might not be eligible for Build Our Park as a private non-profit.

to go after.

And therefore, we acknowledge that there could be ways where our grants writing team could, with partnership with city, seek out grants that the city would be eligible for.

And so that is an extension of our intention to privately fund the creation of this public park.

An example of that might be a stormwater type credit, something to that effect.

or very much like the Levitt series.

That's something that is awarded to a municipality that we would work hand in hand to minimize the work that the city would have to do to be eligible or acquire funds like that.

Also in the agreement we acknowledge that there are already things in place dictating naming rights in the city of Harrisonburg and that any

Major gifts that are made to the park if they were recognized on a donor wall would be done so in alignment with current best practices that you already have authorized.

We talk about time limitations and then the future role of Build Our Park in what we would call the park phase when the park exists and our intention to continue to exist in a supportive capacity and the acknowledgement that the city will guide the definition of what that partnership looks like going forward.

in conjunction with our downtown construction and consulting agreement.

We continue to be guided by a very well-informed and living document that is our business plan.

I know you all have received a copy of that with our presentation.

That document really reaffirms our commitment to our guiding principles.

and it will continue to be not only a guidestone for us, but it will be updated as we move forward through this process and are committed to working hand in hand and the results of which we've done over the past year have already been just outstanding to stand here with a conceptual plan and a proposed agreement to go forward.

is really thrilling after the years of work that all of us have done, yourselves included.

So with that commitment to our guiding principles, I really want to reaffirm the Build Our Park mission statement, which is that we will work hand in hand as a private group with public partners to create and sustain this vibrant, beautiful, and welcoming urban park for Harrisonburg.

and the larger community that surrounds us.

We want to see the enhancements for our downtown, for our quality of life, not only for us, but our neighbors and the entire Shenandoah Valley region.

So with that, I'm sure you would have questions.

We have a very skilled team, including our park board and also Brian Mancini here to answer questions that you might have.

But I would respectfully like to request your approval of this conceptual plan

and authorization for the city attorney to prepare the construction and consulting agreement from our draft form for an upcoming public hearing that could be held.

Thank you.

Well, I'll just make a comment.

I appreciate the persistence and dedication of the folks who've been working on this for a long time.

and listening and adapting to the various take holders to arrive at the plant.

It's gone through a number of iterations, scaled up, scaled down, the full range of things.

You know, it's next to, I'm just building where we do our city business as well.

And so, taking that into consideration, I appreciate the work you guys have done in putting this together.

Okay, so we need a motion.

Madam Mayor, I move that we approve the conceptual plan as presented and as suggested that we authorize city attorney to prepare.

Do you need that?

I think we're very close anyway.

I did meet with Mr. Mancini and Mr. Garber last week and walked through the agreement and had to make a few

Okay, great.

So I move to approve the conceptual plan as presented and support the finalization of the construction agreement, whatever the long title is Any discussion?

Well, this is exciting as you say

Thank you for all your hard work to all the board.

Just to note, I think, you know, at this point there's really no contribution you've asked from the city other than, you know, I guess Parks and Rec would maintain this, moving forward in the future potentially.

We currently do maintain that facility, so whether there's some marginal increase for that facility, I guess we'll figure out.

Yep, Parks and Rec would definitely become the overseer, if you will.

It would become part of the Parks and Rec system, one of their properties and maintained.

that role is identified in the draft that we have and it does talk about as we move through the construction phase, Brian would have, he would essentially be in a role where he would be overseeing and signing off on, but involved much more beneath the point where he would get to signing off on it.

So it would be very well informed and a part of the project as if it were still

created by the city.

And I have one question because there was a little bit of confusion among staff.

The parking on the south side of the farmer's market pavilion that's currently used for employees mostly, that will go away.

That is the only parking that we have.

The boundary comes right up to the pavilion.

Okay.

So that in the gravel lot?

Yes.

Okay.

Okay.

We'll come to think of it.

Wonderful presentation.

Um, I think the pictures are beautiful.

I shared that with Andrea.

Um, when Dany and I met with her, um, I have, um, um, something I'd like for us to discuss.

I'm just wondering about dominant identities that will use the park and really questioning or really struggling with my decision in terms of centering equity into this conversation and really looking at

the many items that other communities have asked for and I've shared this before with you all that although I love the idea of a center park

Center Park for all the downtown park concept.

I really question the use of the park as a tool or the park having the capabilities of pulling in those other marginalized community and I don't want it to be a park that makes us feel more apart than we are together.

And so just really wondering if we wouldn't be

not even terms of trying to line every community up is getting exactly what they ask for every time.

But I'm just wondering about requests and if we are jumping over many things that have been asked by others and what would that look like for us to then approve or move forward with this process.

I'm just really wondering what message that would send to our citizens and that is really what my only concern is with this is that I want to think about equity and having that the focus of my

My decision, I really wonder about elitist groups that will benefit from the park, not that that's what the intention was from the beginning, but it's still being a part

Park that kind of separates us, kind of like when I was growing up and we had Keester Elementary that was in the middle where most people made all the money.

So we had all the people with higher income brackets, all their children ended up going to school at Keester Elementary and benefited from having the JMU student teachers come over and give them extra assistance.

So I just wonder

I really am struggling with this.

Well, let me go real quick.

I've been very upfront about that.

I wasn't approving this.

One reason was because of that, because we have seven parks and we have work to be done with those parks.

I think that's one reason why it's taken so long for this is almost a decade that this has been going on.

I also think that they have done a great job in answering our questions and they have scaled, they have built this park up and then they've scaled it down and I had a meeting

with them.

And I told you, I was like, I'm one of the ones that been against this.

However, I can, I like this plan.

And we've been pumping a lot of money into Parks and Rec via the cap the COVID money that we got, the ARPA funding that we got.

So

because I think we knew this was coming, or we knew this was coming.

So we did a lot of work already within our parks.

And they're raising the money for it.

So that's another thing.

I mean, they've been raising the money for it for 10 years.

So I understand what you're saying.

And that's where I was all along.

And then, and I know Crestman Jones is going to speak

and Councilman Jones is on the committee.

So he's on the committee, vice mayor's on the committee, um, Arushi's on the committee as well as Val's on the committee.

So there is some, some folks on the committee that can speak into that.

Um, but that's one of the reasons why I feel like when we got the ARPA funding that we put our, our money into our parks and parks is to

to move the needle where there were things that Ralph Sampson Park that has been, I mean the whole issue of the splash pad, the splash pad was on Ralph Sampson Park back in 2008.

We're just now getting to it.

And we only getting to it because of the ARPA funding.

So a couple things.

So I've seen a lot of downtown parks lately.

So the value of the park is, I think the value of having a park downtown is, kind of goes without saying, like does it, is it beneficial to have a park downtown?

Yes.

Can it be a good gathering spot for events?

Absolutely.

We proven that without having an organized park.

So having one that's, you know, laid out properly.

Could it be beneficial?

Yes.

Just off the

and

and Snowdon and Frozenon and then Sunburn.

And so I just, I'm curious as to what the upkeep of that looks like with the standalone structure floating behind our city hall and our freshly renovated municipal building and then the new buildings that'll be across the street.

I wonder what the maintenance of that will look like because when you do an outdoor structure like that, anyone that's a homeowner that has a deck, commits to buying a power washer,

or something to

There was a huge lack of enthusiasm, I would say, from the vice mayor when our former vice mayor, Sal Romero, was looking and seeking hard to engage for the Smithland Fields.

In fact, so I think it's interesting that this group comes and there's a high excitement level here.

But families were saying, hey, we need lights, we need bathrooms.

and to Councilman Fleming, he got me anyway, didn't he?

So I'm gonna say what you said to me earlier.

So when I was out coaching and recognized the problem and just helping Parks and Rec about the lights and bathrooms, you know, I really became a big advocate for that.

And the Vice Mayor at the time, Selma Merrill was advocating also for additional space.

And I think we all know we need additional space.

and so I'll just be really blunt and say it seems as though when those communities were voicing concerns and needs that they weren't really followed up on.

Now by certain members of council so much so that I believe they weren't even like they didn't visit the locations until like we got close to the votes which is fine

but I do think it sends a message to folks to like the wrong message because folks from Build Our Park have been doing this work since I was sitting out in the audience beside Barry like many many many years ago over a decade ago just learning about city council and learning about the park so is it a genuine thing for this park to be here absolutely I think it's a great idea but there were no black and brown voices there until like

except for my voice and I get, you know, I have to sit there, right?

I wasn't, I wasn't put on the board like I'm on the HDR board.

I was asked to be on that board by Eddie Bunbar and by Andy Perrine, you know, and I've always taken great pride in that because they asked me as a person, they didn't ask me as a city council member.

And so, and so I've struggled with that, that there weren't really a bidding black and brown voices in the construction of this.

There have been in the advocacy of it, but not in the construction of it.

And so I'm curious as to what stakeholders look like and what those conversations have looked like or has it been a hey here we here's where we are now type thing which makes sense because this is where we are but you at that point they're just participants they're not stakeholders all right or they're just kind of part of the byproduct

So I'm concerned about that because folks won't see everything that the park's done.

They're going to see it as this is what council and parks and rec is doing and this is what the city is doing.

So it's a I think it's a double-edged sword because they're there.

I mean there's

20% of our city is clamoring for more soccer field space 20% of the city is asking for one thing now it's a very very very very very expensive thing let me be clear and I'm an advocate for it and even I'm saying hey this is expensive and I don't think that Brian or Vick are against that I think it's just expensive and so I think we have to keep that in mind when we're packaging this because

From sitting here, I would say those communities wouldn't feel as welcomed to come to the city to say, hey, I want to see this happen for us.

So I think it's cool that they set this precedent because that means that if other communities come, then we have to be as equally accepting and reviewing what those communities want to do.

But what I think is interesting is, like I said, the lack of support and enthusiasm

when those folks were sitting right here, you know, meeting after meeting when we were going through Cares Act money and ARPA money, and it wasn't there.

So I'm just curious as what's the, what's the difference, you know, because had I not spoken up and said, Hey, we need to hear those voices on that committee.

I don't think those people that you mentioned, Madam Mayor, would be on that committee.

And so I bring it up again tonight and say, do we need this park?

Absolutely.

I think it's going to be dope.

but are there communities in Harrisonburg that are going to go but we asked all for lights and Morrison or we asked for this at Ralph Sampson or I asked for daycare at Ralph Sampson maybe because there's a lot of babies over there and people laughed at me and thought I was crazy so I mean they're just very basic things that we have as needs as a city and I just want to make sure because a lot of times we forget

that we are a resource for service delivery.

And so Parks and Rec is a wonderful amenity and a wonderful service, a service that we've got to provide for everybody.

And so everybody's paying for the park.

And so I guess the other part, and I guess this would be directed towards Chris Brown is every resident and taxpayer in the city of Harrisonburg owns this park, right?

The BOP will have no authority over anybody else.

over this park.

Now one of the things that we're working, I'm working with Mr. Mancini and Mr. Garberon is to ensure exactly what the roles of Plan R Park will be after the construction is finished and make sure that the city

The Northeast neighborhood would be completely transformed and look completely different had we known that we could come to the Sydney and say, hey, we would like a section of land and we would like to do this idea in this section of land.

I don't know if even if it's for the greater good, right?

I don't know if communities know that that's a thing.

So I think it's cool that now communities know that this is a thing.

I hope that folks from Build Our Park

will go to more vulnerable communities and show them this roadmap and show them that this is a thing.

And let's tap on some of the things that we know are 100% missing in the city.

And we can keep going, but quite honestly, we seem to just skip over those things sometimes.

Unless they get to this level, right?

And they only get to this level if one of the five of us bring it up.

Some people didn't agree with that.

But that's why we did it.

So that we could update the parks that needed to be updated.

And I felt like, I mean, I mean, we needed to do that.

But I do believe that I think this is something.

Well, with the whole series,

Right.

It's shown that people enjoy being downtown.

And there's been, I mean, they've done a great job with the diversity of the concerts.

We just didn't go down there.

Now, you know, at that thing there, there was a disconnect, but they had several diverse acts down there.

Oh, absolutely.

Right.

We just didn't support.

Now, why?

You know, I don't know what the disconnect was, but I can say HDR, you know, they really did a great job with making sure that those concerts were diverse.

Oh, no, no, no.

Absolutely.

In fact, on Andrea's behalf, she has stated clearly and very transparently that she knows there is a disconnect.

and getting different groups of folks there so I don't want you to think that I don't think there's not an effort being made.

Beyond is my local cheers.

I think everybody knows that right so it's I love downtown so and if you like downtown you like downtown you come down to you people go where they like to go, but I do think that there's a Even beyond the marketing because I know that the efforts so beyond marketing It's a I think just creating that new social pattern and people feeling accepted and feeling welcome But you also have to feel invited, right?

and I don't think it's inviting.

Like I said, when it comes from this desk, hey, that's not that important.

Oh, but this is that important.

Like when communities get that feeling from their leadership, it changes how you move and you operate.

And I noticed that from up here, sometimes people are really behind like politically motivated ideas and not people motivated ideas.

And so that's why I wanted to make sure we spoke to at least I spoke to those communities and I appreciate what you

Both of you actually just said, because the average citizen, the average person doesn't see all of this part.

They just see, they can't get a parking, we can't get a, we had to beg for a bathroom.

Or how long this has been going on.

Right, they don't.

A long time.

It's over a decade, right?

I thought it was beyond that.

Yeah, okay, I was gonna say I knew about it in 08.

Yeah, I was gonna say I knew about it in 08 Aaron, so that's what I mean.

I have a 15 year old who was pregnant with my now 10 year old when we came to do one of our second presentations to you all was icy and I almost slipped.

Well I just wanted to say exactly what the Mayor just said that we that I really appreciated the diversity of the concerts themselves.

Now, the disconnect is, how do you get the diverse community to see that?

And I was talking about this with the mayor and she said, well, we would come for bands that we know.

Well, it seemed that the whole point of this Levitt Amp series was relatively unknown bands that are really good that were recruited to do these concerts.

It's not just the four tops or whoever you would know to go to.

That we would promote the style of the music hip-hop meets jazz or you know or Latino meets funk you know just really cool combinations like that but that in itself is a little esoteric so how does it get it how do we get across to the community that this is for you this is your music your culture our culture

Right.

I think that's something that we're going to have to work on, you know.

But I do think this is a beautiful idea because when you do go to Charlottesville and Richmond and, you know, the other, they're there, right?

There's a beautiful downtown park.

So I think we'll, I think we'll, I mean, we're not at that stage right now.

We're just approving.

So, you know, in our city, our schools and our parks are the places where we convene and commune across the whole community, right?

And those are the places, our parks, you know, when we were officially segregated as a city.

And now when we're not officially segregated as a city, right?

But those are all the places that we've done that.

We grew up in the park system.

This is where folks came together.

So our parks have been that place where that happens all across our city.

And it's along with our schools.

We have schools that are fairly, equally diverse now.

And that's really a strength of ours and really critical that we keep that as part of how we operate our school system.

I think we're unique to many cities that way.

and the Parative to the fabric of our community that we have this happening.

Creating this downtown, to my other council members, yeah, this becomes our responsibility in the Parative to make sure that this park, like our other parks, is that convenient community place like all our other parks are.

It's really the opportunity to do that.

How do we go about doing that?

Yes, I mean, I don't know anything other than to say if we have the place there, now it's, you know, our responsibility to make sure this place is the welcoming place that all our other parks are, folks to get to.

And I think we recognize that we have, you know, likely some obstacles to get folks downtown for that.

I'm not sure the solution for that, how we make that happen.

but I don't think we'll have the opportunity unless we have the place there to do this with, is what it comes to.

I think this place will give us the opportunity and really the great responsibility.

It's just something we've talked about for a long time here, right?

How to make this space downtown owned by anyone in the community who wants to be here, our entire community.

I think this might be the opportunity that we can step into for that and so it'll, you know, I think, again, having the parks and rec as the group that oversees this, you know, this is the group that oversees, you know, our places in our city where folks come together across economic and cultural divides and differences.

And so I think, you know, to me, that's one of the benefits of one of the opportunities we have, you know, with this park, with Parks and Rec.

Madam Mayor, I just want to make sure I made this one last comment.

Because I appreciate what Captain Fleming just said, except the other parks won't have a fund behind it.

and I wonder if that creates an inequitable position for the other parks based off of proximity and upkeep and so you know I guess that's what the law uses for so hopefully you can look at that but based off of 45 years of living in an inequitable America I would imagine that the folks with money going behind one source and not money behind other sources and people based off of we know right based off of workforce transportation

and before and after school care and housing affordability, they won't get there.

Like you know that because you can't sit up here and go, man, they need cheaper houses and man, we got to work on transportation and man, we got to work on affordable and then be like, oh, but like come like all the way out of your way to come to our new fancy park.

Like it doesn't work that way.

So we've got to make sure that the equity is there for the park that's there when they open their front door.

and make sure that balance is there.

And that's kind of my fear for the city.

I think it's great for Bob and I think we need the park.

I think it will then put the burden on the city to make sure that when I open the door to Purcell Park and what does it look like?

And how do I feel when I open that door versus when I open whatever door I'm opening?

You know, based on neighborhood, based off family,

because what you said is perfect.

In fact, the city manager brought that up when we were first looking at ARPA funding.

It's truly, he brought it up in one of our real sessions and it's true, from a race and equity standpoint, I mean, Parks and Records is probably the most equitable place that you're gonna find within the city.

That and I always bring up safety and water.

The water park, I was hoping to see more diversity in my backyard across the whole spectrum of colors, hoping that that would pull more whites to our park.

I'm in the yard every weekend and I know who I see in my backyard and I just was thinking about this park and I was thinking, wow,

would people then have a reason, less of a reason, because there's a low rate now of folks who are in our backyard, who have written shelters, who don't look like me.

I don't see that very often.

And I was just thinking, wow, is this going to pull the tiny bit of diversity in the other way from us?

I just think about all those things.

But like I said, it's

It's a beautiful thought and I know we can't, we can't change 50 years worth of poor decisions and unfair circumstances.

We can't change it all in a day.

But I just want folks out there to know that I am thinking about it in every, every decision, every decision that we make.

So yeah, I just feel like it's my duty to ask those questions and voice my concerns.

And I really am very thankful for

It's a different part.

You're going to have, hopefully, it's got an amphitheater over there, right?

It's going to have like music bands, whatever.

You know, and so it's for adults.

That's why there's no on playground.

That's where I see it.

You know, when I go to the Charlottesville staff, I mean, I'm there for, I don't see a lot of kids running around there.

when there's also alcohol.

I sat in Chicago, Detroit, Atlanta, at least, both, all three, and she's right.

It's tourists and adults that live or work near it.

That's what you're gonna see.

So that's, again, and then event-based, right?

So it's good for, I think it'll be good for the lunches downtown, I think it's gonna be good for

downtown businesses.

Like I say, I just I've sat here and saw people walk in here and leave defeated.

And this will be a victory for some and others will feel like the defeat is even more of the power.

That's all.

It's so, Danny, you remember this, but you were at home.

Well, because you can't fix stuff.

You can't build new stuff with broke stuff.

This is literally your favorite story.

It's not.

But go ahead.

It breaks my heart.

No, go ahead.

It does.

Talk about Thomas Harrison.

It's not me.

It's that we would go, hey, we need a new school while the other kids are sitting there cold or not.

And the teachers are telling you that they're cold or not.

But that's what we do with everything.

Right?

We got to fix the parks.

I didn't mean to have you standing up here.

I appreciate your discussion.

My whole thing in the beginning was we got to fix the parks that we have, but we got beautiful parks.

One of our most rundown parks is Hillendale, and you wouldn't even think that.

But it is.

It needs a lot of work.

But it ain't in the neighborhood that you think that, oh, why does that run down the way it is, right?

I'm sure we had this problem with dream come true part came out.

That was like the blue stone of schools, dream come true part.

Everybody's out of dream come true part now, right?

It's a diverse part.

Everybody goes out there now.

So, anything else that we can move on?

Anybody else?

You can go sit down.

You've been up here for like an hour.

Vice Mayor Dent.

Aye.

Council Member Robinson.

No.

Council Member Fleming.

Aye.

This is spicier than I was expecting.

My goodness.

Approve the conceptual design.

We're just approving for... What's the motion, Pam?

You made a motion.

Well, I was wondering whether to add the attorney.

No, but he's already working on it.

So it's simply a motion to approve the conceptual design to go to the next step.

So let's be clear.

This is not approving the park.

This is approving the design.

That's all this is the conceptual design at this stage.

Mary?

Yes.

Is that it?

Oh, Dany?

Is that everybody paying?

Yes.

Is that be a public hearing?

I think it's one even after.

You got a whole bunch of votes for that.

So, are we good?

Are we clear?

We got through that one.

Thank you, Mayor Reed, City Council.

I'm Gerald Gatobom, the Director of Public Transportation for the City of Harrisonburg.

Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination based on race, color,

and National Origins.

We are a department that receives federal funds.

So we have to have federal regulations that govern our programs.

We receive operating funds and we receive capital funds from the federal government.

So we have to come up with a Title VI plan that includes a limited English proficiency assessment.

So that's what we've done.

I was back in 2021.

We're just updating it, making sure that we

are good with the federal government and then at that point we'll submit it and we can get our federal funds.

So the governing body that does the approval is City Council.

We appreciate your help and assistance with this.

Thank you.

Any questions?

Yes, ma'am.

Yes.

I'm just wondering in practical terms, how does this work?

If someone gets on the bus with limited English proficiency, if they say in

Curtis, how do I get to the grocery store?

What is the bus driver?

What's the response?

Good question.

What happens is the driver will message dispatch and we have what you call a language line that we call.

I've actually gone out there.

I speak more than one language.

I've helped somebody.

So if I can go or somebody can help, but if we have to get an interpreter or something, we'll do that.

This part will call, talk to the driver and kind of try and make sure that the person understands that they can get help.

Even sometimes before the, for paratransit before they actually get on, we try and make sure that they can have the help that they need to be able to go from not just where they are to where they're going and back and be able to communicate with the driver if they can.

So we use the public participation plan also for the MPO, for which you are chair.

Yes, we have it in here, it's in the plan.

Yes.

Great, thank you.

The chart you put in there of language breakdown was fast-editing to me, so I appreciate seeing the website and seeing it in that detail as part of that.

Another question I was going to ask is there's a complaint form that's part of this and I know folks, if they have concerns,

They can do that.

They can also just contact.

They don't have to go through the complaint form.

They can call or send a letter.

And it's on the website.

I'm just wondering about kind of ease of access of that for folks.

So if it's on the website, you know, if it's a PDF or something, it might as well download it.

To me, that's not

Yes.

A lot of times people will call, then what happens is we actually, we have to help them with a form, we actually help them with a form.

But a lot, maybe 99% of the time people will call because the website is in English.

So they're trying to make sure that they can understand what's going on and they usually have an interpreter.

We make sure that we also have somebody who can communicate with them.

The largest and most frequent use is Spanish.

So we usually have staff members who are Spanish speaking as well, so we try and help them.

But as we go on, as we look at our website and all this, and our website in relation to having it on an app or even on the phone, we are trying to make sure that that's something that's visible.

And the federal government will come and order us next year and that's something we can talk to them about.

Yeah, I see now this language list you were talking about.

Yeah, there they are.

Thank you, Gerald.

Thank you.

Roll call please, Pam.

Ice Mayor Dent.

Aye.

Council Member Robinson.

Aye.

Council Member Fleming.

Aye.

Council Member Jones.

Aye.

Mayor Reed.

Aye.

Perfect.

Good evening council members.

I come before you this evening with a request to approve a proposed street naming for the new street that is going to be part of the fire station number five project.

As has previously been identified, the city is going to be constructing a new street off of Mount Clinton Pike onto the 15 acres of property upon which the fire station will observe a piece of that property and the rest of that

Property is being reserved for future development, but we need to name this street.

This is going to be a city street, and so we are proposing that the street be named Integrity Drive.

That is one of the five core values of the Harrisonburg Fire Department, Teamwork, Integrity, Professionalism, Safety, and Excellence.

And so we work together collaboratively

Any questions?

Thank you, ma'am.

Thank you.

Madam Mayor, I move that we approve the naming of the new street as Integrity Drive.

and Parkview section of Harrisonburg as part of the fire station number five project.

We'll call please pale.

Vice Mayor Dent.

Aye.

Council Member Robinson.

Aye.

Council Member Fleming.

Aye.

Council Member Jones.

Aye.

Aye.

and alternate voting delegate for the VML conference, both the urban section and the annual business meeting for our upcoming VML conference in October.

Normally it is the mayor and vice mayor, but it's totally up to council.

Is that a motion?

Listen to me speaking for you.

Any discussion?

Well, now I'm just curious, is that the same two representatives for both the business meeting and the urban section?

We can do this by a voice.

Call in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

All right, thank you.

You're leaving Mayor Reed City Council, Larry Props, Finance Director.

What you have in front of you is a to consider supplemental appropriation in the amount of $600,000.

for the School Transportation Fund.

Recently, public transportation was able to secure a $600,000 grant, an EPA grant to purchase three electric school budget.

And the buses, so that's three is $200,000 for each bus.

The cost of each bus is a little over $400,000.

So this grant covers about half of it.

R. Reed

We file tax returns.

Like the minimum of 30%.

It's at this point what we've seen.

We haven't got down in the weeds yet on this thing.

What we understand is 30%.

But there is a cap of about $40,000 for each vehicle.

Where's my new transit buses?

That's right.

Somewhere in Colorado somewhere.

They are being driven from California as we speak.

So yeah, they have been in manufacturing.

They were in on September 3rd by around September 15th.

They were done.

So there's 15 of them.

They'll drive them down in batches.

So some of you, if you see it, just look away.

It'll come to a facility.

We'll have you all come and we'll have something celebratory to make sure.

You asked a good question of and forgotten how the paint will look like.

A lot of times, you know, we see it on a screen, but even I'm curious to see how it really looks like.

Advertising Harrisonburg to the country in essence.

We have gotten calls of people seeing the buses somewhere in the middle of America and said, what's your bus doing then?

We tell them, it's okay, it's coming down.

Yeah, as Larry has said, I'll just tell you some basics.

An electric school bus costs about 387,000 and then we also have a charger that's included in that.

Charges about 19,000.

The total becomes about 406,117.

So we get 200,000 for each bus, which brings it down to about half.

We try when we're going to keep trying to make sure that we have space for 10.

We planned ahead.

So we're just applying for different grants.

We got this because we have the infrastructure

All we need is a charger and the bus.

You're over there, you saw, so we're just kind of filling out the spaces.

And as we go along, we are using different grants that come along.

We go about it aggressively just to make sure we can reduce the amount of money the city has to pay.

So we plan ahead.

We are really happy and we appreciate your support on this.

So thank you.

Yes.

This will be three.

We have to kind of look at the requirements.

Yes, and I saw the video.

So it literally is destroyed.

So with this, we are at that level where we're getting our purchase order ready by November.

And then at that point, we can start ordering the bus.

and then they'll tell us what the requirements are for reimbursement.

So it's a reimbursement program.

We will pay for the 600,000 but then they'll kind of reimburse the money to us again.

Now as I recall when we took the Riding the School Bus tour, the first five HEC has already installed the

Infrastructure 4, and the second five will take a second unit of whatever you call that electric thing, transformer.

Yes, what will happen is, once we get after the fifth, we have HEC knows they'll come in and upgrade the transformer.

So we had, we didn't want to put the whole thing in there.

There's a huge demand for them.

So they said once we get to the sixth, actually, they'll come back in and they will not charge us because we have to pay for the electricity.

They'll come and upgrade the infrastructure themselves.

Well, I really appreciate the way you're staging this to be practical and economically feasible and I'm especially glad to hear you're pursuing the direct pay.

Larry, okay.

The Money Man.

Thank you.

Madam Mayor, I move that we approve the supplemental appropriation in the amount of $600,000 for the school transportation fund, as presented by staff.

Second.

We'll call Please Pam.

Vice Mayor Dent.

Aye.

Council Member Robinson.

Aye.

Council Member Fleming.

Aye.

Mayor Reed.

Aye.

And then the last one is a reallocation request to reallocate $350,000 to the Navigation Center.

If you recall, we placed a million dollars during the budget process for ARPA projects.

These are our general fund dollars we're putting into that, yeah, 350.

Yeah, the supplementary.

Now wait, is this the ARPA contingency fund we've been talking about?

Yes.

Well that's what we call it.

No, it's city dollars.

It was money through the budget process that we went ahead and set aside to supplement the ARPA projects that we had on the books.

Any more questions?

Second.

Yes, I'd like to report two yards that need to be mowed.

Most of us pay to have our yards kept up nice and neat, and these two are out of control already.

And the house of grass needs to be cut.

All right, thank you very much.

Harrisonburg, Virginia is just great to the community and Harrisonburg Harping Reservation.

Yes, I called last week and called the price a month ago.

On two properties, still has the truck in the front yard and no grass cutting has been done.

Still has the shrubbery hanging in the street.

If you could please

Get back to me, I would appreciate it.

Thank you.

Christopher, about four to six weeks ago, I called about these two homes, one that has overgrown into the road, and has for several years now, and every time I call, they don't seem to do anything.

And the other one is, it's not just overgrown, but that truck that does not run is sitting in the middle of their front yard.

Could you please take care of the situation?

Yes, I'd like to report some yards that haven't been cut, and the yards are 1205, 1215, and 1212, and 1213, and 1216.

Yes, there's a property on 1215 here in the city,

that has not complied with cutting the grass.

It's getting on to four feet tall.

Hello?

Well, this is Harold Long, Harrisonburg, Virginia.

I just want to tell you that if I call you all about the two or three weeks, you thought about a lot been mowed.

The lot has not been mowed.

And this is a disgrace to the community.

Everybody in here, there's got nice houses, lights for them.

It looks nice, but it looks terrible with a lot out there.

And I said, y'all said you ought to check on two or three weeks.

I don't know why you don't take somebody's work and go ahead and have it done.

But I think somebody in the city of Harrisonburg needs to get on the job and get these lots mowed.

And if we can't get it mowed, I'm going to go to the city council and I'm going to get in the lawyer and see what the hell is going on.

Christopher, my name is Daphne Stone.

I am calling once again.

It seems like I have to call every year several times regarding someone that lives in my neighborhood that does not maintain their yard.

They just refuse.

They don't know it.

They get out every once in a while with a single.

I know that you all have sent letters before, but it is well over 12 inches.

I'm surprised the mail carriers haven't even complained about it in the back yard.

The grass is so high.

You can almost can't see the front porch.

Thanks, Julie.

My name is Daphne Stone.

I am calling again to report a house in Harrisonburg that does not mow their grass ever.

Their backyard looks like a jungle, and it's to the point where you can't even see these people's mailbox.

I know several other people have complained about the yard.

I've called for several years

And if somebody could just come out, take a look and ask these people to mow their grass.

They sickle it maybe once every four months, but they will not mow their grass or cut it down.

Hey Tyler, this is Don Pederson.

I called about this property before.

It's a detriment to our community.

to the mic in front of me.

I play this in particular today.

I decided to go ahead and put it on the record so that people who are victims of these complaints know, based on the experience that Mr. Jones shared last time, Council Member Jones, it's not your nearby neighbors.

It's not your nearby neighbors unless community development sent you a picture of your backyard.

It's people from far away.

It's a very small group of people.

Don't let it undermine your trust in your neighbors.

And if you need help figuring out who's tormenting you, contact the Harrisonburg Martin Luther King Junior Way Coalition.

And I hope City Council will think better of allowing continuum to enable this kind of behavior.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

Good evening, Mayor Reed, Council.

I'm back again here to talk about pickleball.

Harrisonburg Citizen mentioned something about it being a pickleball resolution being on the agenda tonight, which is why I'm here.

Did nothing happen with that?

I said it would be a pickleball resolution, whatever that means.

So, I'm here to encourage you again in this manner.

Morrison Park lights, my understanding, have been budgeted, but it's not in the budget, which I don't understand that.

I'm too small of a mind to understand those workings and how that happens, but my understanding too was that the Parks and Rec people said that

that their ears perked up when they heard that the Rotary Club would entertain a matching grant towards it.

Now, I understand you have two major projects for Parks and Rec that you're looking at, but if there's this little $25,000 lights installation that could be met with a matching grant, my suggestion would be strike with the irons hot.

And can we just call them?

I don't see them.

I don't see rotary making a move unless the city calls them, is what I'm saying.

And that would be my urgent suggestion, is that someone would call them and make this happen.

42 to 45 people on Sunday night, completely overloaded.

8, 10 EMU students showed up, JMU students were just completely overloaded there.

Okay, clean break, second thing.

I live in 845 College Avenue and at the end of my street tonight I walk down the end and there's a rezoning and special use permit comprehensive plan amendment sign posted at the very end of my street which is the big development that's being planned to go in I suppose I haven't even had a chance to scan the thing and look at it but I have to say that if you want people to know about this which I'm assuming that you fulfilled your

Dutty to do the bare minimum, which is post the sign.

But this is a big thing on our street, and only like four families will see this little little sign at the end.

And my suggestion would be a sign like that would be at the intersection of Greystone and College, so that people all in that neighborhood are going to be affected by this, can see it.

I have no idea if there's any other signs put up related to that, but we're already starting to organize our neighborhood because we're very concerned.

So we want to start getting more people to know about it and this little little teeny-meeny sign that's over brushed over and everything else isn't going to cut it in my opinion and letting people know what's going on.

So thank you.

Good evening, Council.

Mayor.

Randy Klein, 480 Hartman Drive.

Can you hear me?

Observation.

We just built a brand new high school and to my knowledge we have not had an invitation for the community, for the community to go through the high school.

I'd like to see that happen.

Probably won't, but I'd like to see it happen.

Item two.

It's been brought to my attention, and if I'm going to go over plowed ground here, just raise your hand and I'll leave.

It's been brought to my attention that at Harrisonburg High School, the old one before the new one was open, in year 2223, the test scores for history and social science

12th grade, All Peoples Does anybody have any idea what the score was out of 100?

22 22, it's on the state education website

everything else math science was higher and I don't know about you but I think it's the the most important discipline that we have is history and we made in the 12th grade all peoples 22 I think that's unacceptable and I called staff and they said well

The scores for 23-24 are not out yet.

So, what if you double it?

You got a 44.

I think this is unacceptable.

And it goes to our leadership of our school systems.

Not the state of Virginia.

Well, I mean, you got dominion over their money.

No, you don't.

You do.

The residents do.

Well, I think the residents... That's the history.

I think the residents deserve something better than that.

And taxpayers deserve something better than a 22 in history and social science.

And go on the website, look at it.

I couldn't believe it.

I thought it was a typo.

The lady at the city hall or city school board, she didn't even, the lady that's in charge of the curriculum had no clue what score was.

If she did, she wouldn't.

She didn't transmit it to me.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

Thank you.

Vice Mayor?

Okay, let's see, last week

A couple of good meetings back to back.

One, the CDFI, that Dany was instrumental in bringing here, as I understand it.

You can talk more about how you did that.

And a lot of in-depth information, what does it stand for?

Community Development, Finance Institute, something like that.

Right.

And after hearing Dany give an excellent presentation about the uniqueness of Harrisonburg's demographics,

and then an overview of what the CDFI can do.

Basically, it's private non-profit funding for underserved communities such as in housing, entrepreneurship, food services, food systems even.

My response was, wow, it sounds like the CDFI is made for Harrisonburg.

How do we do this?

What are the next steps?

So continue the conversation, I guess, as next steps.

and I had to bolt out of there to go chair the HRMPO meeting where, as Gerald was saying, he told us about the electric school buses and the transit buses on their way and the usual update on VDOT projects and highways and such.

It's really good to hear.

Now, for next week, a couple of things happening or in the next couple, yeah, next week

First, I think this was an invitation, an elevating housing solutions across Virginia to Harrisonburg that we're going to, some of us I guess, at the Hotel Madison, and that's Tuesday the October 1st.

And then, sort of public announcement, if anybody's interested, Wednesday October 2nd is I believe the 4th.

Valley Tech Con, Brian Scholl assured me I'll have perfect attendance at all of them, planning to go.

because I've gone there with several hats, first as a high-tech employee, then as a freelancer, then as an adjunct faculty, and now as city council.

So, sort of covered all bases going to that.

And they have two tracks, I think it's, be off the top of my head, I should have looked it up.

One is AI and other advanced technologies and how they affect businesses, and other is more generic business economic technologies.

I don't have many of these left, so I want to make sure I say a few things.

Mike and I saw Brian sitting there, but he's already gone.

Those guys have been very instrumental, but Mike Collins took the time to make sure he thoroughly educated me over the years, and I appreciate it.

I really do.

And I remember when all of the different leaders came to City Council pretty much just to educate me because the other four guys had already been there.

And so that memory sticks out.

And I really appreciate you, Mike.

So glad you're sitting there.

and then lastly I'd like to say to the gentleman's point because we don't have the median over the school system that's why they have the school board but to his point I do think if people have direct questions about finance and how the school system is going, how your money is being spent you should challenge those things when we are doing the budget here but you should challenge them directly to the school board

instead of playing them out here because what happens is if you don't go to them and vote against them and put pressure on them then your comments here are actually kind of too late because typically the detail that you want us to vote on is a detail that we don't have authority over and to that vein I would like to say since my time on here is ending if there are people or organizations that

I felt like they couldn't get their point across or need to be educated about how to use city council or how to use local government.

I would be more than happy to help you.

But that's the only reason why I did this, was so other people could have greater access.

And so I could have access to give people back the information.

I don't have to live here and I don't have to use it.

But there are a whole bunch of other people that I've tried to represent over the years that I have been able to help.

In fact, I've helped probably

myself and people that look like me in some cases the least but then in other ways I've helped them the most my goal has just been so that everybody could have as much access to government as possible I don't care what your race demographic how much money you got if you need to know something this is free information and if I'm sitting in the seat then you should be able to have it so I love to spend the next three four months helping you get all the access you can get

because I mean people don't really even know how the funding works even though we try to educate you and try to provide those opportunities.

I know it's a challenge because you're working or you're in school or you're raising your kids or you're trying to be a single individual and work on your dreams or whatever the case may be, but government is a tool and so you should use it to your benefit because it's yours.

You pay for it.

You own it.

You own the schools.

You own this.

We own all this together and we should be using it together.

and understand how local government works.

Absolutely.

I think that's probably one thing that I'm trying not to go there, but you know, recently I've been getting these mail.

I got one today that actually went through the water bill mail mayor.

It was for me and it was all about

I need to sidewalks.

I need to.

The mayor can't do anything alone.

The mayor cannot do anything alone.

I can't put sidewalks.

I can't put traffic calming or speed bumps or I can't do that by myself.

I sit on a council with four other people.

So I agree with you because I'm to my wits end with being

asked and blamed, why are you mayor not doing this?

Well, the mayor sits on the council before the people.

If you want something done, you need to get free people to vote your way.

The mayor doesn't do it on her own.

Thank you for letting me say that.

Look, I like a hay man.

But to enter her point,

I think even Andy can vouch for this.

When people have complaints about sidewalks and streets, I personally have driven around and then call him and tell him what I see and what I don't see.

We will follow up on this stuff, but you can't send a letter through the water bill and then expect us to get it in response.

It's almost like you're making it hard on us to serve you.

So help us serve you by just email and calling or come down here and leave us a note.

be happy to follow up on how local government works.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Mr. Collins, niceness goes a long way.

He was very nice to me when we went out for, somebody helped me here, Harrisonburg.

What is it that I took with Mr.

Mr. Parks, Harrisonburg Citizens Academy.

And I'll always remember how kind you were and helpful.

So yes, I echo what Chris says.

Pride event last Saturday.

I'm just going to name some things I've been to.

I read again for the Wish Tree reading at Thomas Harrison Middle School.

They asked me back a second time and I just ran right out there.

I've been having such a good time doing that.

Attended the Harrisonburg African American Festival, which was great.

attended a Young Life Gala event last night where they gave away trips while we played bingo and they talked about their work within the school systems.

I didn't win anything, but I had a ball just talking with folks and met some folks from your church, Chris.

Rhino Reynolds, the fellas from Rhino Reynolds, the brothers, yeah, the twins.

Harrisonburg International Festival is coming up Saturday.

The forecast looks like we're in trouble, that it's gonna rain.

But let's pray the rain down and come on out.

Tomorrow night at Horizons Edge at 6.30 is Vale Valley Association for Independent Living.

Harrisonburg Cardinals wheelchair

basketball game and I will be participating and I'll let you know how that works out I'm going to be attending an open house Thursday about Corey Heights No, I'm sorry at VMRC on September 26th, which is Thursday and then I'm just asking that

Councilwoman Robinson can I add this to your point and that if you have specific concerns

So we'll be having that meeting September 30th at 2.30 as of right now.

But if you could, you know, so I'll ask this gentleman's question, right, that he brought up here.

And there's a several other ones.

So for example, I know I asked specifically about supplies and I thought we had an extensive conversation.

We shouldn't be seeing any other.

I call them taxes, because when you tell me to spend more money after I've given you money, that's a tax.

So, taxes are tips.

Have you ever looked at it?

But it looks like we're still getting those from the school board, right?

Directly from.

after school has started and I'm curious and struggle with why they can't seem to budget everything they need before school starts and then budget a contingency so that we can stay out of parents pockets after they're already paying for multiple new schools and already volunteering and donating and giving, you know, on the athletic side and on the extracurricular side.

So to turn around and then do it on the academia side, it just feels unfair to a vulnerable community.

that we already know is vulnerable.

So don't say we're vulnerable to get money from the state, but then turn around and not treat the people like they're vulnerable.

So, with that being said, that's one of mine that I'll be bringing up.

But I know that there's a host of others, so I'd love to hear from parents, business owners, individuals, or organizations that have questions concerned about the process of HCPS right now.

Thank you.

Thank you.

A couple of things over the last couple of weeks.

A week and a half ago, I was part of a session with other city staff.

Liz Webb, our housing coordinator, is kind of a key staff and it's the NLC's Healthy Housing Cohort Group, which we're part of.

I believe there are eight cities across the country that are part of this group that we're getting funding for.

Liz and other staff are leading this.

And it really is about housing and the associated health concerns you would have in housing, particularly lower income housing would have issues of asbestos or as environmental issues associated with that.

And so this grant will allow us to assemble information

and it'll pay for the technology development and the app development for us.

So there are three national groups, technology groups that are high-end producers of these things that will become available to us, the city, as part of the grant.

And so it'll just give us more information about our housing stock and how healthy or unhealthy

It is.

Allow us to look at areas of the city where we have trends that are happening.

And so it was give, you know, us and citizens, you know, more ability to dig into our housing stock and understand it and better understand, you know, historically where we are, what's happening in our housing stock.

And so I guess the ability to kind of do some problem solving from that point forward.

I had, I guess, well, Councilman Jones and I and City Manager Banks had a

Liaison Meeting with the JMU in the county.

And JMU is continuing with their dorm expansion, so they'll be doing a good bit of the village that is getting torn down.

So you can see the current one going up.

I think there'll be 500 beds in that.

Currently they have 250, so they'll be kind of doubling the capacity of all there of the village.

of course they'll also be letting in more students so they won't be pulling students off campus to that I don't think so it won't ease our housing concerns.

Jamie did make mention of the need for housing and that staff have turned down job offers coming to Harrisonburg

and not being able to find housing.

And they've had that across a number of different departments.

So it's just a point they made.

I guess related to that, I had a planning session with our University Communities Council last week looking at the national conference coming up and planning what the conversation will be at the National Legal Cities Conference there.

And it really centers around, and this is something I've been leading this group around,

is, you know, re-looking at the university-city relationship we have from a mutually beneficial point of view and looking at some of the revenue generation models the universities are having now, which are really expanding their footprint into the community and, you know, adding additional cost often to the city.

And so we have a mutually beneficial relationship

Jamie is a contributor here, but we're looking at how the city then in return is contributing to the health of the university.

So this will be a topic of conversation at the National Conference, I think, and we're kind of leading that nationally to push that conversation.

I was in D.C.

last week at the National League of Cities.

They were with what's called the Child Savings Account program that they've been leading.

They're about

about 18 or 20 of us from around the country that pulled in.

This is something I've been working on for probably over a decade.

Child savings accounts are really just long-term investments accounts that you would give to children in your community from many places.

They start at birth or sometimes when they're starting kindergarten and just small amounts that are put into those accounts.

Some of the sources of funds could be municipality, departments of health, local banks, nonprofits, a full range of ways you can do that.

What happens is, as someone matriculates or gets through their high school years, they have funds set aside.

They started when they were kindergarten or at birth.

They can contribute to that.

They have money set aside by the time they're

12th grade, it may not be a lot.

Maybe $100 or $200.

For many places, it could be $1,000 or $2,000 for students.

But the effect of it is that it increases the aspiration and the ability of folks who might not otherwise look at continuing education after high school.

And the results are pretty significant.

And you can target who you're trying to get involved in these type of programs.

There are about 130 cities around the country that do this, most of them are larger cities.

There's something I've been looking at for us as a city here.

We had the CDFI Innovation Session, as Vice Mayor Dent mentioned, which is the Community Development Financing Institutions.

Harrisonburg and Harrisonburg Rockham County historically hasn't had a significant amount

of these types of investments coming into our community.

A lot of CDFIs are targeted specifically around low income housing around economic development and a lot of the economic development around kind of the financial empowerment work.

So, Charles Stevens Accounts were part of the kind of a financial empowerment portfolio for residents.

How can we step into economic development from the terms of our residents and their financial empowerment?

So CDFIs do a lot of this work.

They hit the mark where other financial institutions don't step in.

So if you have a low income housing project and a traditional bank loan doesn't work for you or if you're an entrepreneur and you can't get the type of loan through the bank, CDFIs step in.

Sometimes they offer no interest loans.

One of the vendors

One of the CD5s that was at the session we had is in the food processing arena, in the farming arena there, out of Charlottesville.

And they give no interest loans to black farmers across Virginia and West Virginia who are looking to expand their product line or do more processing.

So the goal is to get some of that back into Harrisonburg.

It was a good session we had.

The DuPont Community Credit Union attend.

Yeah, Dupont, we had three or four local banks, you know, that were part of that conversation.

We had kind of our three major foundations, the Harrison Rockingham Community Foundation, JMU Foundation, and Sintar.

Those folks were present there.

So part of the goal was to educate them on our city, you know, who we are.

Often folks hear about Harrisonburg and they think of JMU.

But if you look under the hood of Harrisonburg, we're a city with a really low-medium income, right?

We're not a city of great wealth here.

And so, attracting these folks here and say, this is a place where you can invest and you can get a good return.

This is a city where we run schools that are pretty solid.

We have a good quality of life here for folks.

So when you invest in low-income housing here,

The folks who are in those housing units have access to things they might not have in other cities, again like our school system or like our park system.

So I think it was pretty well received by the folks who were at that meeting and so there will be some follow-up with staff and looking at next steps.

and was at Sunday at the Houston Fire Department promotion ceremony.

So Chief Tobias, we had three captains who were promoted and five lieutenants who were promoted there.

And you know, I'm just, when Chief Tobias stands up there to pin and give his promotion to the

the folks who are moving up, lieutenants to captains or firefighters to lieutenants.

He has a personal story.

He talks about every single person there in such a personal way.

I think partly because those folks' families are there in the audience, right?

And the other firefighters are there.

And he's not reading off a script.

He's reciting it from his heart and from his memory.

And it's just so amazingly impressive to see how much attention to detail and to those individuals that Tobias pays.

Because they know they're part of a family.

So he calls us a family, right?

The five departments a family.

And they certainly feel that when he talks about them there and creates that cohesion among the folks who work there.

And so it's just so impressive.

to see how he does that.

So Chief Walsh, I want to thank you and appreciate what you do there for that.

We have the Peace Bowl, but Mayor Reed, you can mention the Rotary Peace Bowl maybe.

Okay.

I only have a couple of things.

I attended the reopening of the 100

150 Franklin Street Art Gallery, which is owned by Joanne Gavin.

So she has reopened her art gallery.

This was Furious Flowers Conference.

They do it every 10 years.

And so she started the conference with the reopening of her art gallery.

She ended the conference

went to the Britney Spencer concert, Forbes.

It was Ferris Flower Night and I was invited by Kathy Moran and Britney Spencer is African American woman country singer.

She was fabulous.

So that was

a full week with Furious Flower, Peace Pole by the Rotary.

Dany and I went to, well, Dany, well actually you walked, you went to the beginning and I went to the end.

He did no Peace Walk.

I was at the end of it.

At Furly City Co.

Update, put a Peace Pole there.

How many different languages is on the pole?

Seven?

Seven or eight?

I think they're trying to get more, but we have two here in the city.

Pride Festival went to that.

It got rained out a little bit, but when I got there, it was still pretty packed with people.

Royals Go Downtown, which is EMU's version of the block party that we do for JMU.

That will be September 26, Thursday, from 5 to 8.

We'll start at Magpie and go through downtown, stopping at various restaurants.

And then we'll end at Toronto Pavilion with a dance party by the mayor.

And just a personal announcement that I know you've heard me talk about.

the Green Book House and we got on the National Registry for Historic Places.

So that was the last thing we were waiting on.

We got on the state and now we got on the National Registry.

So very excited about that.

And just some personal stuff.

Just think about my nephew Dylan.

Tor, he's a football player.

First game, first game, first quarter.

Tor is ACL, MCL, PCL, LLA.

I don't even know.

It was three things.

And so he had a surgery on Monday.

And so he's home recovering.

And hopefully he can get through this.

He's a junior.

So I think he'll be back.

They said he'll be back.

And then y'all all know that

Sorority and I'm the advisor of the Alpha Chapter at JMU and we lost one of my girls recently.

So I might have a tough Friday.

We're going to do our Delta service in Lynchburg on Friday evening and then I have to turn around on Saturday.

I have to speak at her service on Friday and then I have to turn around on Saturday and do her sorority sisters wedding in D.C.

So I'm going to be doing a funeral on Friday for one of them and then doing a wedding officiating a wedding on Saturday.

So it's going to be a really, it's been a really tough time, but it's really going to be tough for the next couple of days.

So just keep us in thought.

That's all I have.

And I do believe we're going into closed session.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Well, I'm sorry.

Just really quick.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

I have just one or two highlights of the city manager's staff that I want to bring to your attention.

But first, I want to thank city council.

It has become apparent to me that not all organizations have the support

for professional development that we do here in the city of Harrisonburg.

And to that end, I want to thank Council for your continued support through our budget process.

For instance, Mr. Mike Parks recently completed and is a master public information officer through the certificate program through the National Disaster and Emergency Management University provided by the United States Department of Homeland Security.

Come on out here, Mike.

Yay!

I am severely understaffed tonight.

Ms.

Amy Snyder, our deputy city manager, and Mr. Brian Vandenberg, our assistant to the city manager, are at the International City County Management Association.

and that association guides us ethically, professionally, educationally and provides tremendous resources so I'm so excited that they could be there and learning from their colleagues across the country and around the world because again as we know the council manager form of government is the most popular and most implemented form of local government in the world.

So to that end I just want to thank you all again in as far as acknowledgement for those resources

because again, it has become apparent to me in recent weeks that not all organizations highlight professional development.

10 seconds.

I just realized the reason why I missed all this stuff is because I'm a board member for the Wendell Scott Foundation and the late great Wendell Scott was the first black race car driver from Danville, Jenny, my hometown and he was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame last week.

There's no way I would miss the CDFI

described racing in the Harrisonburg, Stanton, Shenandoah Valley area as actually the most welcoming, even back then.

It was one of the only safe places where they felt they could truly come work on the car without having the car dismantled and robbed, where they could take pictures, where they could actually even get sponsorship.

So when we were driving to one of the events, he was telling me the stories.

And lastly, I received even pictures from one of Mr. Scott's cars from Gary at Glens Fair Price many, many years ago.

So Harrisonburg has that connection.

So it came up during the week.

So anyway, I wanted to make sure I slipped that in there.

So I wasn't here, but I was doing a big Virginia thing.

So it was Wendell Scott's induction into the automotive hall of fame.

And I mean, he went in with, you know, like Bill Ford and all these other huge big wigs.

And so it was a pleasure to be there.

But it was a pleasure to hear like that that part of Harrisonburg never died.

You know, it only got bigger and better.

and that part of Stanton and that part of up and down the corridor of 81 was welcoming to because it was his family that was running the car and a couple of other men from Danville and so to know that they were welcoming to those men that were strangers is awesome because I've received the same treatment from Danville in Harrisonburg so I appreciate it and Scott family appreciates it and I appreciate y'all letting me step out for that so I'm sorry I missed that meeting Danny and

the week before I was at the Congressional Black Caucus and all this other stuff.

But I wanted to make sure I spoke to that because I've talked about CDFI for the last four years and then I miss it when they come.

But I had to for that.

Vroom vroom.

Oh, well, we go by 34, but I think the car, Gary had a picture of was 11, but we go by the number 34.

Most people know him from the orange car he had, or it's like a Carolina blue color car that he drove.

Those were the two that were super popular, but he drove a little bit of everything.

Heck, he wore Pumas before Ralph Sampson wore Pumas.

He was wearing them driving in his car.

Yeah, when they went bad, he would duct tape them and keep driving like he was old school.

You and Maru played in the movie.

Richard Pryor, of course.

I knew Mr. Kentucky would perk up over here.

Are you ready?

Yes, ma'am.

The Harrisonburg City Council going to closed session is authorized by the Virginia Freedom of Information Act.