City Council Meeting   6/10/2025

If you would please rise for a moment of silence or a silent prayer as you wish.

and then remain standing for Pledge of Allegiance.

We have one special recognition today, this evening.

Proclamation recognizing June 20th, 2025 as World Refugee Day.

Whereas World Refugee Day is an annual commemoration adopted by the United Nations in 2000 to honor and raise awareness of refugees.

And whereas the city of Harrisonburg is a welcoming city that celebrates the growing diversity of its residents,

and acknowledges that refugees, immigrants and all newcomers enhance the culture and the economy.

And whereas more than 100 million displaced people have been forced from their homes worldwide more than any time in recorded history, including over 31 million refugees.

And whereas refugees are people who have fled their country because they have a well-founded fear of persecution because of their race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership

and a particular social group.

And whereas resettlement provides safe haven in a third country when refugees cannot return home and cannot rebuild their lives in a country where they first fled due to lack of access to safety shelter, healthcare, education or protection.

And whereas resettlement to the U.S.

is available only for those who demonstrate the greatest and most immediate need for protection such as unaccompanied and other at-risk children

female-headed households, victims of torture, physical disabled, and members of minority groups that are experiencing oppression in the host country, for example, religious minorities or LGBTI individuals, and takes place after eligible refugees undergo a rigorous selection, security vetting, and medical screening process.

And whereas the city of Harrisonburg is home to a diverse population of refugees and immigrants,

adding to the economic strength and cultural richness of our community.

Whereas residents of the city of Harrisonburg aspire to live up to our highest societal values of acceptance and equality and treat newcomers with decency and respect, creating a vibrant community for all to live in.

Now, therefore, Mayor Deanna R. Reed, city of Harrisonburg proclaim June 20th, 2025 as World Refugee Day.

Council Member Dent.

Aye.

Council Member Robinson.

Aye.

Aye.

We will now go into our mini

I thought you were going to do something special.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Adam Fletcher, Director of Community Development.

We'll get right to it here.

So our first item I want to present to you is a rezoning for a parcel that's just about 5,400 square feet in size at the corner of West Brew Street and Academy Street.

In this particular case it's 302 West Brew Street.

Yapkin is requesting to rezone the property from the R2 residential district to the R8.

There are proffers associated with it, and I'll get into those details.

But the site on the left-hand image here is, you can see where the red box is, approximately where it's located in the vicinity, and then a close-up image here of our zoning showing that it's right on the border, really, of some R2 properties and R3 properties.

So across Academy Street is R3 properties, and then everything to the west of Academy is zoned R2.

Long term plans for this area of the city is that it's designated neighborhood residential and which is similar to what's already out there today.

So this red designates this whole neighborhood designated for neighborhood residential, which is really a mixture of different housing types from single family all the way up to multifamily, different densities.

Some of our older established neighborhoods actually have this designation.

because it really is a mixture of all different types of housing.

So this really fits that bill quite nicely.

And then the aerial photograph.

For fun, I was trying to determine exactly when this home was built and I could not answer that question because our building permits, I'm going to get back to 1939, and our 1937 aerial does show this image or this building in the image.

So I was just curious myself to see when it was built.

But a house that has withstood the stand of time, at least here in Harrisonburg, and we're very excited that

The current property owner is currently renovating the structure.

They recently were given building permits to add a bathroom and a bedroom to it.

And their rezoning request is to hopefully bring it closer to conformancy with the zoning ordinance.

As you can see in this image, the property sits quite close to the intersection of Academy and Bruce.

So even with the rezoning, they'll still be, if you approve it, there would still be some nonconformities, the setbacks, but it does bring the site, the lot area into conformance with the zoning ordinance.

if it's approved in the R8 district because the R8 zoning district allows for as small as 2800 square feet of lot area to have a single-family detached home and as noted this is about 5400.

There were proffers that were submitted by the applicant Mr. Reiner who's with us this evening.

All of them are associated with sidewalk construction so I won't go into the details in fact this is just a snapshot of them it's quite

The description of those is quite lengthy in your staff report but it's associated with dedicating easements or right-of-way when the city requests them both along Bruce Street and Academy Street along with that comes easements for construction that no permanent structures would go into those same spaces because when you do that then you go back in to build the sidewalk just makes it that much more complicated to have to remove them and potentially replace them

And then the fourth proffer is associated with the fact that if they were to subdivide the property or do something ahead of the city schedule, that they would provide all of the identified dedications, whether it be right of way or easements for sidewalk construction in this area.

And staff supported the request.

We believe that the request is in conformance with the comprehensive plan, and so did Planning Commission unanimously with a six to zero vote.

Okay, thank you.

Do we have any questions?

and the applicants here, right?

Okay, thanks.

Okay, I will declare this public hearing open, so if anyone wishes to speak, please state your name and address.

You'll have five minutes, and if the applicant wants to come up to speak, you can do so.

Good.

Like the city said, I'm Paul Reiner, I'm the property owner.

Really the goal here is just to come more into conformity with where the lot is, where the house sits on the lot.

It doesn't really grant us any additional benefits.

other than when we're hoping to renovate and sell the property and we're hopeful that whoever purchases the property then gets a property that is more conforming than what it is in its current state and may give them some future flexibility depending on what they'd like to do.

It was a two bedroom, one bathroom.

And so we're adding a bedroom and a bathroom on the first floor.

So it'll be a three bedroom, two bathroom with a first floor bedroom and bathroom and then doing a renovation from there.

Yeah.

If you haven't been by the site, that picture's not representative currently.

We just got siding and soffits.

Nice.

Yep, there's not.

Originally we had looked into that.

We're about four feet short from a subdivision unless we wanted to tear the house down and subdivide down the middle of the current structure.

Anyone else?

Thank you.

All right, we'll close public hearing on this item.

Madam Mayor, I move that we approve the request from Paul C. Reiner to rezone 302 Westbrook Street as presented by staff.

Thank you.

We need those.

Thank you.

Yeah, it's good to see a renovation like that.

But R8 works in short.

What I liked about this plan was that

Putting that bedroom on the first floor and having a bathroom, it really made me think about myself who lives in generational housing, how for my mother it would be perfect to be able to live and not have to worry about going up and down the steps.

I'll do that for you when I'm finished.

I'm going to present items 6B and 6C together.

This situation is somewhat complicated and I'll try to simplify it as best as possible here.

So we have a site at 865 Port Republic Road.

I was here almost a year and a half ago explaining when the applicant had requested to rezone the site to what it is zoned today to be too conditional and they had applied for two special use permits.

As the year and a half almost has gone by, the folks who operate the wireless telecommunications facilities on top of the building had gotten contact with our office and they wanted to upgrade their facilities and just bring it closer to technological advancements based upon the facilities that were there.

And lo and behold, we realized that their rezoning actually prohibited the wireless telecommunications facilities in a very odd way because of the way they proffered some things.

So as part of this request they're going to clean that up and also bring into compliance a situation with a tobacco smoke and vape shop and I'll explain the details of that as well.

So what we're doing tonight is we're doing a proffer amendment to the B2 conditional component of the property and then an update to a special use permit that was previously approved almost a year and a half ago.

It is on target to expire July 1st of this year.

But if you approve it, you will be granting them a three-year window of opportunity just like every other special use permit that is granted for residential special use permits.

And they're hoping to be able to utilize that as they miss that window because in January 24, they got their approved special use permit.

Then in June of 24, last year, we did a zoning ordinance, excuse me, in July of last year, the state code was updated.

that then requires that localities give that three year window of approval.

And then in September of last year, we updated our own code to do that.

So every special use permit that is associated with the residential use gets that three years.

So they're hoping to take advantage of that with the approval tonight if you so wish to grant it.

So again, here we are 865 top of the hill Port Republic Road as you're headed really southbound on Port Republic Road and you can see approximately where it's located there in the vicinity map on the left hand side of the screen.

It's surrounded by R3 zoned properties.

You have multi-family, you have townhomes, multi-family across the street, and then another B2 conditional site that received a rezoning and special use permit not too long ago for a similar kind of use that 865 is, which a multi-story facility for residential uses on that site.

Actually, you have not reviewed that yet, and that is coming up.

I am like ahead of myself, because that's going tomorrow.

at Planning Commission.

As I was saying it out loud, I thought, I think I'm ahead of this.

The land use guide for this area of the city calls for high density residential, which carries approximately 24 units an acre.

In fact, you're seeing a couple of properties in the image on the right here where it shows it's mixed use.

And that carries the same type of density in this area for 24 units an acre outside of the downtown, of course.

Our downtown, which is also designated mixed use, has no maximum occupancy restrictions.

And then the aerial photograph shown in this area, which is predominantly built out.

You only have a few undeveloped parcels along this section of Port Republic Road, but again, this is to update their special use permit and the rezoning that was done in 24, which was granting the permission to add 60 units to the site to the rear of the property.

So they would be building that platform up on the building that would be going down the hill in the parking area.

Real quick if you've been around long enough you'll recall that this site was annexed in the city in 83 and was zoned to R3 and then in 2002 it actually went through a rezoning to B2 conditional and then that development never took place and then in 2007-2008 it went through the rezoning to give it the permission to have 865 east there today so they actually rezoned to the R5 conditional and

along with three special use permits which included height, number of units in the building and then have mixed use on a building itself to have the non-residential on the first floor.

Then in 2017 it received a special use permit to have the wireless telecommunications facilities on top of the building.

Recall at that time it was still zoned residentially which is what required the special use permit to have the wireless facilities.

Now coming back up to 2024, they rezoned back to be too conditional to give them the ability to have an addition to the building to take advantage of a special use permit for reduced setbacks.

And it was with that 24 rezoning that prohibited the wireless telecommunications facilities on this particular property.

know that any B2 property has the by right ability to have that wireless telecommunications facility.

This is solely because the voluntary proffers prohibited it, so they're trying to rectify that this evening.

All proffers that are today regulating the site, there are 11 of them, remain exactly the same except for the things I'm going to show you on the screen.

Proffer number one is including, to be very clear, so in number one here that they are including tobacco smoke in vape shops in this request, and I'll tell you why in a minute, and then uses permitted under city ordinance section 10390 subsection 20 is the wireless telecommunications permissions putting back in the proffers.

The reason that they're including tobacco smoke in vape shops is because the existing use that is in the first floor of that building today was conforming because when it was rezoned to be too conditional it met the requirements.

It's within a thousand or it's not within a thousand feet of a public school or private daycare or public private school.

But when they rezoned it, just a few months later is when this body approved the additional regulations associated with tobacco smoke and vape shops.

So in their original proffers, it was not a distinction of uses at that time.

If you recall, the smoke shops was just a retail use, and now it's a separate use entirely because it has additional regulations.

So they wanted to clarify, and this is important, especially from an implementation standpoint,

Say we get 10 years down the road and staff is investigating something going on with this property, it will clearly be represented in the proffers that a smoke and vape shop use is permitted on this site because had it not been that we made them non-conforming with the additional regulations, it would have been permitted anyway.

So, complicated.

If there's questions about that, I'll try to answer them.

The only other change was to proffer number four and this is the proffer associated with the types or the size of non-residential that can be on the property which is all entirely on the first floor except non-residential associated with wireless telecommunications facility.

Again, clearly specifying that they have that permission.

The special use permit that they are updating is the special use permit associated with the reduction in side yard setbacks.

So in 2024, there were two special use permits that were granted.

One, to allow multifamily on the site.

That has immediately been established because of the existing facility that's on site.

So they have that approval and they're okay.

The second one is to expire July 1st, and that's to give them the ability to have reduced setbacks in the B2 district.

If you approve that this evening, you will make them sort of equivalent to all other special use permits associated with residential uses that they'll get that three-year extension to be able to take advantage of that.

And of course, I know we hope that they make those additions before three years, but it gives them that permission to be consistent with other special use permits across the city.

Which is what I just explained.

That's the slide that's on the screen.

So it will be granting them that additional three-year window.

and to be consistent with the special use permit that was approved in 2024 staff recommended the condition that's bulleted here that it shall be applicable only to the existing building that's on site and then the planned addition again that was going to be coming off of the back of the building

Maybe a little bit probably but not in our realm so it would be on the private side of things that Mr. Callahan can answer if a few so wishes.

Yes, great question.

So tobacco smoke and vape shops were previously just categorized in the retail use.

What we did was we created a definition, we pulled that use out of the retail category and made it its own use.

and then placed upon additional regulations that that specific use that is permitted on B2 property cannot locate any closer than 1,000 feet from public schools, private schools, child daycare centers.

I think that might have been the gist of it.

If there is a facility, I don't imagine a facility, a daycare facility, for example, would be made in that area generally, but if it is,

Any future tobacco, smoke, and vape shop they would locate here, when they go to get their business license, we would help check for them about their location vicinity with regard to those other uses.

But you're absolutely correct.

And we're essentially amending this to let them stay there.

Yeah, and they can stay there.

Now, another question.

The three-year window applies to residential, right?

So even though this is being rezoned back to business, it's a business of a multifamily apartment.

Any other questions?

Thank you.

Okay.

This public hearing is now open.

If anyone wishes to speak, please state your name and address.

You'll have five minutes.

Good evening, Quentin Callahan, Clark and Bradshaw, 92 North Liberty Street here on behalf of the applicant.

My partner Todd Ray, it's his client, he had presented to Planning Commission.

I think Mr. Fletcher did an excellent job explaining everything.

I have nothing to add other than to say this is simply cleanup.

We were trying to clean up various items.

In response to the question, I don't think they've made any progress in terms of actual development.

I think there's been some engineering, but they also wanted to get this piece done before they dug into moving forward.

That's my understanding at least.

Now they have the time.

No good deed goes unpunished.

They were trying to be more in compliance and then it brought up these few issues so they're just trying to clean up those items.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

Seeing none in person.

One moment, please.

And this public hearing was for both items 6B and 6C, but we have to vote on it individually.

And counsel?

Thank you.

I'll second that.

Any discussion?

Council Member Dent.

Aye.

Council Member Robinson.

Aye.

Madam Mayor, I move that we approve the request from 865 East LLC for a special use permit

to allow reduction in required side and or rear yard setbacks at 865 Port Republic Road.

And that also includes the time extension, right?

Time extension and the condition.

And the condition, okay.

Thank you.

Second.

Thank you.

Any discussion?

All right.

Councilmember Dex.

Aye.

Councilmember Robinson.

Aye.

Vice Mayor Fleming.

Aye.

Aye.

All right.

Next item, located here on the south end of the city, you can see on the vicinity map here, way down on the south end, one of the last parcels before you enter into Rockingham County, at 160 Carpenter Lane.

It's a special use permit request from Winchester Equipment Company, which does businesses Valley Equipment Company, and they are requesting a reduction in parking.

If you recall, just of January this year, we were talking about the site as it was rezoned from B2, so the orange color on the screen, to M1,

which is the brown color to give them the opportunity to operate their business here.

Valley Company, excuse me, Valley Equipment Company sells, rents, and services compact construction and agricultural equipment which is a permitted use in the M1 industrial district.

So they are currently required to provide 51 parking spaces based upon their use and the size of their building and they are hoping to have a reduction down to 28 spaces.

And the long-term plans for this area of the city are in conformance with the use so we are planning for industrial operations that gray color and you can see that that would be in conformance with the comp plan and Then the aerial photograph the site for folks that have been around for a while.

This was Dayton interiors for a long time

So on the image to your right here, so the black square box there is the building.

The green box is showing the parking spaces that they want to provide.

The blue is showing the area where they could provide the additional parking that if you approve their special use permit, they would not put in those spaces, those blue spaces.

And then the red box is just giving an indication of where they might add additional parking to the property.

If they add additional parking or maneuvering space on the parcel, that then kicks in some requirements for landscaping requirements.

Essentially, it's the condition that we're recommending be placed on the special use permit is the regulation that if they added parking to the site beyond what's already there that that requirement kicks in to do those street trees along the front because they're not really sure that they are going to put them in or to add pavement to the space being as we're one of the departments along with Public Utilities and Public Works is promoting and trying to create more tree

Canopy in the city.

We saw it as an opportunity that since there they would have otherwise been paving the site for more parking that we could also capture opportunity to provide more trees So we're making that a condition to the special use permit.

So again a reduction from 51 down to 28 spaces They have to reserve the space that would have been used as parking as open space And noted again that if the parking lot were to expand They have to do

the additional trees anyway.

Nonetheless, staff recommended the condition that's on the screen, which is that trees shall be planted and maintained within the landscape borders adjacent to the public street right away in accordance with the section of the zoning ordinance there at 10330.1 subsection 4 that would otherwise require it.

The image in your packet and that was shown on the screen does not demonstrate accurately the number of trees, but we'll work with the applicant to ensure that they're compliant with any specifications based upon the condition if you add it to the special use permit.

Any questions?

What they can't do, they can't use that space for any other requirement of the zoning ordinance.

It's the way the special use permit is written.

So this special use permit has been around for a number of years and I believe the intent because this has been in there probably since the 70s or 80s.

No, I guess probably not that long, maybe the 90s.

But it's been in there quite some time where the idea I think was that if you weren't going to put in all of your parking and that you you said you didn't need it that let's at least leave it as green space and that you you couldn't start counting it for stormwater management regulations or for any other kinds of things that might be required in the zoning ordinance because if City Council wishes if it becomes like a nuisance and you need to add it back in you can do it For a site like this we don't foresee that being a potential impact but if it were a different location in the city

You have the opportunity to say, no, it's become a problem.

You need to put in your required parking.

There's a special use permit.

Any other questions?

Okay, thank you, Ed.

All right, this item is now open for public hearing.

If anyone wishes to speak, please state your name and address.

Good evening.

My name is John Garber.

I'm principal engineer of Lineage Architects.

The work that was up on the screen is mine.

We're under contract to Shockey and then to the owner for services.

I have really nothing to add except one very small item in the spirit of transparency.

My narrative said we wouldn't be upgrading any of the utilities.

We are going to upsize the domestic water service that came in after the narrative had been prepared.

I would also like to take this opportunity to publicly thank staff, community development, fire marshals office and public works.

The owner gave us some very significant schedule constraints and staff was prompt and very clear helping me work through this process.

This is the first time I've ever requested this particular special use permit in the city and really appreciate what they've done.

Any questions?

Thank you.

Anyone else?

One moment please.

Thank you.

Council?

Madam Mayor, I move that we approve a request from Winchester Equipment Company for a special use permit

Thank you.

Thank you.

Oh, with the condition.

Well, as presented by staff, kind of inclusive.

that is located between 291 and 295 Franklin Street.

This alley also leads to or ends I should say at the property identified as 294 Campbell Street.

So again, vicinity map here showing approximately where it is in the city close to downtown here.

The zoning map on the right-hand side of the screen shows that this is today a dead-end alley.

In fact, one of the alleys that really you wouldn't even know exists.

And I'd be curious to even know if folks have walked back through there because they can't go anywhere.

It just looks like the backyards of people's homes.

And as I'll show you, this undeveloped alley used to connect T intersection with the extension of Ash Tree Lane that was closed some time ago, I believe in the 90s.

But in this particular case, the applicant is hoping to close it.

And as I'll discuss here in a moment, they already own the underlying property as this is just an easement of public access as one of those opportunities.

to sort of release that easement and then have the underside full control.

Long term plans for this area of the city, again in one of these neighborhoods, an older neighborhood, different densities, different housing types, designated as neighborhood residential, so to continue that type of residential development, and then you're picking up some low density as you begin to go up the hill of Franklin Street, so that's low density residential plan for the remainder of Franklin Street, sections of Ott Street, and an aerial photograph showing this area.

So I wanted to take the opportunity to, since we haven't talked about alleys in quite some time, and actually the next time you see me at a future meeting here coming up, we'll be talking again about an entirely separate alley closing, very different from this one.

But alleys seem to be rather confusing and complicated at times.

There are three different types of alleys that we have in the city.

So I'm going to go through them just to sort of bring you up to speed and remind you of how they work in the city.

So there are three different kinds.

The first is those or are those that were established pre 1888.

And in these cases, they are easy.

So there's a lot of text on the screen.

I'm going to make it very casual here.

These are those these properties that it's just an easement of access.

So the people who are adjacent to what we call the alley are the actual owners of the property.

but it's just a public access easement across that space.

So even though when you look at our GIS maps it looks like there's an alley, it's squared off and it looks like it's a public alley, that property line is likely right down the middle of that alley and it's just a public access easement.

So anything dedicated pre-1888, that's the type of alley it is.

Then you move into the early subdivision act time period which was this time period between 1888 and 1928 when

When an alley was dedicated, this is the odd one to me, when the alley was dedicated it became, it remained in the ownership of the person that dedicated, or their heirs and assigns.

And we have these all across the city, in fact this will be one that we'll be talking about in the future, where

It's not really known who the owner is, but the city is more or less the keeper of the public access to allow people to move through that space, whether pedestrian or vehicular or however they can maneuver through that space.

The third type of alley is during, it's post 1928, so anything that was dedicated post 1928, so June 17th, 1928 to be exact,

is essentially an alley owned by the city.

It's property that the city owns.

It's no longer just an easement.

It's fee simple owned by the city, okay?

Any questions about that?

Can you say that again about the third one?

So the third one is really kind of in more modern times, so what most people maybe think of when they think of an alley that's owned by the city.

It's not owned, like if you and I live next to each other and there's an alley that runs between us, the city, if it was dedicated, if the person who dedicated it was sometime in the 60s or 70s or whatever, they dedicated it to the city as an organization, the city government owns it and that allows for public use of it.

So it's not owned by you, it's not owned by me, it's owned by the city.

So one and two are easements per se.

The third is, I guess it's probably just terminology we're using.

So the public can maneuver through that space for access, to move between the spaces.

And the third one, the more modern times, that land is owned fee simple by the city.

Well, if it's improved, we maintain it.

It gets even more complicated.

So, if the city went in and paved it, if the city went in and graveled it for some reason, and there are a few of them in the city,

that are publicly owned, publicly maintained by the city.

Most of them are probably downtown.

There are alleys all across the city, predominantly more in our older dedicated areas of the city where they'll ask for, they being the property owners, will ask for permission to make a curb cut or put in their own driveway and use the public space.

And they'll get a public access permit from Public Works.

Public Works will go out and see if there's any particular reason why they couldn't.

Some type of infrastructure will be in the way or some type of complication.

They then grant the permission to whoever rules the requester, and they can go in, they can pave it, they can gravel it, but they have to recognize that when they make those improvements, the city does not come back out and regravel it or fix a pothole because the city didn't improve it in the first place.

An example of a recent one that this happened, so the homes that Habitat for Humanity built along Virginia Avenue, they utilized an alley in the back so they could access the rear, and they did that.

They requested a public access permit.

They actually paved that space to be able to get back to those homes.

We can go down a rabbit hole with these alleys.

You sure can.

But again, I just wanted to bring this up, sort of continued education for all of us to remind ourselves of these three types of alleys.

To make it even more complicated, this one is even a little bit different.

So this was originally dedicated, this alley was originally dedicated in 1901, and then in 1907, the owners vacated it, the two adjacent owners vacated it, but then reestablished an easement

over top of it for the public access, five feet on one side of the property, five on the other.

So you have a situation where they vacated the alley but then reestablished an access easement in 1907.

Why they did that, I couldn't tell you.

Excuse me, presumably at that time,

The Ash Tree Lane was a continuous alley and not closed yet, right?

That is correct.

When was that closed?

So, what the red dashed line there shows is where Ash Tree Lane used to extend to Ott Street.

And I was actually looking at my notes.

I thought it was 1990.

Yes, 1990 is when the alley was closed on Ash Tree Lane.

I don't know the answer to that because I don't know when Ash Tree Lane was actually dedicated.

So it was not improved and whoever requested in the 90s to have it closed they did it in a way that then the city basically extended the backyards of those three parcels.

So anyway this particular alley that we're talking about this evening is essentially a dead end at this point and leads to nowhere except to 294 staff evaluated as we did all alley requests there are no utilities in the space the city doesn't use it for anything we don't use it for any

any services that we provide and we supported the request to close the alley but we had a condition that if you so wish to add to that is that given that the alley does still provide access to three properties the individual who the applicant is this evening is the person is one side of the alley

The alley still does give access to their neighbor and their neighbor on Campbell Street, and we believe that's important.

As you've heard me say now a couple of times when we talk about alleys, we believe it's a good idea to maintain public access for alleys.

It's a good service.

It's a good opportunity to provide interconnectivity through neighborhoods.

It doesn't have to be on streets.

So we really do appreciate having public access.

We also understand or try to be pragmatic in these situations when this is a dead end.

It goes nowhere, provides access to only three properties.

And so what we're suggesting is that a private shared access agreement be established over that space so that the three owners of the property can continue to have it, but the public can't just walk back through there.

So we would probably work with the city attorney after the applicant does a plot of the area to physically determine exactly where the alley is because these are these are any approximations that we know in our maps and that when we release the public access that we would then have conversations with the applicant.

I've worked with Mr. Brown and we would

We can't really determine whether this private agreement would transfer to the new property owners, can we?

Answer that for me, please.

There's precedent for the Virginia Supreme Court that says if you have access to one of these alleys and it's closed by the locality, you still have your right of access.

It may be closed to the public, but if you use it to access your property, you can continue to do so.

But isn't it currently owned by

So it's a driveway for 295.

Sandra Quigg, I'm the resident at 295 Franklin along with my husband John McGehee.

I did want to pass out just some pictures.

Adam has some great ones, but I just think it helps.

So closure for us, we use the alleyway as access to our backyard.

We do not park in that space because we honor our neighbor who also needs access to their backyard.

So it is not officially a driveway for us.

This closure would clarify uncertainty and of access between that two foot wide alleyway between us and It does provide access to the three properties.

Although really only the two properties on Franklin Street utilize it on a regular basis we have talked to our neighbor at 295 Franklin and we have talked to our neighbor at 294 Campbell and

I thought he was going to be here tonight, but he is not.

So we have all agreed on a mutual access easement, which we have already drawn that up.

I didn't realize, I don't know the process, but we had engaged an attorney because this got more complicated than we originally thought it was going to be.

And both parties have reviewed that and agreed on

The mutual access easement.

So this goes into somebody's backyard.

And as you can see, there's a tree that was planted prior to, it was like 50 years ago.

So you couldn't drive back there anyway.

I guess not.

These alleys are hard.

So you're saying that you use it for?

It's the only way we can access our backyard.

We only have one access point and that is it.

Our neighbor next to us has an access point on both sides, but not through the back.

And then as you mentioned, 294 Campbell can access getting permission from his next door neighbor, the Ash Tree Lane extension.

Yes, and because it was built in the time that Adam mentioned category number two there is There was initially some confusion where lawyers were looking you could say it's one way or the other but basically both properties own a

The property with a public easement overlaid on top.

Did I explain that right?

So again, it's a little confusing and it's not like we want to keep people from walking through it.

It really is just to clarify where one yard ends and the next yard begins.

Yes ma'am 294 Franklin agrees with sorry 294 Campbell agrees with it as does 291 Franklin.

We have been working with the city on this.

Staffs talked to the other two.

Except another private property.

So I guess if this was passed, it would still be conditional on the agreement being signed, right?

Well, I think the city first has to

relinquish the property.

That is the first step.

The city has to relinquish the property.

Then we have our agreement which we had a lawyer draw up between the three parties in a draft state ready to engage if the city relinquishes the property.

Quickly, Quentin Callahan, 236 Franklin Street, here in my private citizen capacity.

I am not the lawyer Sandra refers to.

So before I moved to 236 Franklin, I lived at 294 Franklin Street, which is directly across the street from this property.

One moment please.

Allie would like pickleball.

Thank you.

I will close public hearing on this side.

Yeah, there was much back and forth.

Well, I guess we have to do a movement first.

Yeah, motion.

Discussion?

There was much back and forth in Planning Commission as you must have seen in the notes

where they made two motions and nobody seconded it.

And we thought about it and made a motion again and did it.

And the key thing was that since the Ash Tree Lane continuation had already been closed, it's an alley to nowhere and in all purposes a private driveway.

And I'm just looking on the map here and there is in fact another

Allie that does go through to Ash Tree Lane, which is what this would have been if Ash Tree Lane weren't closed in this block.

So the connectivity argument doesn't really hold anymore since there's nothing to connect to.

But Vice Chair Finnegan voted against it just in his saying we would just be compounding the mistake of closing Ash Tree Lane as an alley.

and just as a proponent of the connectivity in general.

But in this particular case, since looking at it case by case, it makes sense to close it.

I read through all of that and I question about the connectivity too because we're trying to be a more walkable city.

But one, it's not like it's in an area where there are other alleys that it's connecting to.

It's connecting to a backyard.

And so I think that if there was

Ground work already set up and they were from one alley to the other and you could cut through and end up over yonder.

It would seem like it would be worth us denying, but I don't think leaving this alley open is going to make us a more connected city.

It's just an alley to nowhere, like you said.

This is an area where we have grids where folks can get where they need to.

If you look, you just go two houses over and you can go the same direction.

I don't think Astrid Lane, I'm pretty sure Astrid Lane actually never went through that street.

You go up Astrid Lane, you're going east, you take a right to connect to Campbell.

I think it's always been that way that you can drive your car there, but I don't think

An amendment to section, proposed amendment to section 6-5-4 stormwater utility fee, which raises the city's stormwater utility fee from $6 per year to $8 per year.

And this was included in the budget that council approved.

Yeah, thank you.

I should have done a quick introduction.

Mr. Brown always takes these code sections for us, but 6F, G, and H are simply codifying in ordinances the changes to fees and utility costs adopted in the FY26 budget.

Yes.

That's correct.

Any questions?

No.

Okay.

I will open this item up for public hearing.

If anyone wishes to speak, please state your name and address.

You'll have five minutes.

Seeing none in person.

Thank you.

This item is now closed.

Madam Mayor, I move that we approve the ordinance amendment to section 6-5-4

I'll second that.

Any more discussion?

I will say I looked up you know because this is changing the water fees I looked up cities across Virginia and you know we continue to still have with this increase

I mean, it's already allocated in the budget

Well actually the stormwater utility fee increase next year is in anticipation of several larger capital projects in the next two to three years.

So it's not building a reserve, it's slowly increasing the fee to accommodate future capital costs that we already have estimates for.

Any more discussion?

Councilmember Dent?

Aye.

Councilmember Robinson?

Aye.

Mayor Reed?

All right.

Yes, ma'am.

Next, all you have before you consider a resolution as required by section 6-2-39 of the city code.

That section requires council to set rates and fees regarding solid waste collection by resolution.

And again, this was part of the budget, ma'am.

All right, if there's no questions, I'll open this item up for public hearing if anyone

Wishes to speak.

Please state your name and address.

You'll have five minutes.

Seeing none in person.

I read there are no callers.

This item is now closed.

Madam Mayor, I move that we

adopt a resolution for section 6-2-39 rates and charges related to reduction of solid waste management fees, refuse collection fees for residents and commercial, business, institutional, industrial, and other non-residential users and eliminating the refuse collection fee to the solid waste management fee as presented by the city attorney.

Second?

Like reducing.

Excuse me, what was that last part about eliminating the refuse collection fee to the dollar?

That's in the adopting the resolution.

Where does that come in?

Let me see here.

The last little bit.

Neither our finance director or public works director are here this evening.

I didn't anticipate those kinds of questions.

Do we have?

The resolution states it correctly.

Okay, are we good?

Yeah.

Councilmember Dent?

Aye.

Councilmember Robinson?

Aye.

Aye.

Mayor Reed?

Aye.

All right, China Brown, 6H.

And finally, this is a proposed ordinance amendment to city code section 7-4-1, subsections A and B, which would increase water rates, let's see, by 23 cents per 1,000 gallons.

And then for sewer, by 16 cents per 1,000 gallons.

and then there's also a proposed amendment to section 7-1-16 which is about deposits.

Right now the public utility under the code public utilities will give basically a 50% break on the required deposit to get service if the customer signs up for automatic withdrawal if you will.

And public utilities would like to change that and eliminate that discount for several different reasons.

They're working hard towards unifying all the deposits.

They're working on treating owners and renters the same.

And also, frankly, it's an administrative headache.

It takes many hours of work for each account that they give that discount to because of the way the computer system is set up.

And frankly, it was something designed to encourage people to use that service.

But I think under the law of unintended consequences,

when folks only pay one half of the deposit, and then if they fail to pay their bill, there's not enough in the deposit to cover the bill, and then those individuals get hit with late fees and interest, and then they have to pay a full deposit.

So it really sets them back even more.

So for all those reasons, they would like to make the deposit uniform.

Maybe this was invoked when that was a relatively new way to pay your bills automatically instead of just mailing a check.

But now that just about everybody does that, it doesn't make sense to give that discount.

Probably.

Anyone else?

Okay, I will open this item up for public hearing.

If anyone wishes to speak, please state your name and address.

You'll have five minutes.

Mayor Reed, there are no callers.

Thank you.

This item is now closed.

Same amount, deposit, prerequisite to utility service as presented by, um, Attorney Brown, State Attorney.

I'll second that.

Any more discussion?

Councilmember Dent?

Aye.

Councilmember Robinson?

Aye.

Vice Mayor Fleming?

Aye.

Aye.

All right, we got through our public hearings.

Okay, now we're ready for regular items.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I think I know most of you.

I feel like I'm with friends.

The exhibit is called New Town Before Urban Renewal.

Late last year I was interested in the vibrant life in Newtown before urban renewal and I went to Mayor Reed and she counseled me

who to talk with.

I went and talked with them and collected so many stories and their stories led me on to other people.

There's a great collection by JMU.

There's a lot of online stuff.

And my job, I just thought, was to collect all the things that made sense to try to display what life was like there.

This is the first slide or first panel.

There are 20 of them.

This one

We call it the iconic photo of the diver.

This was taken by Mr. Curry, who's still alive, and we know who the diver is.

He lives in Pittsburgh.

And it depicted, this was, the young man was diving into the public pool in the northeast neighborhood.

I never knew there was a pool there.

That would be,

And you know this guy here, too.

This is Bird, right?

Charlie Bird.

Charlie Bird, yeah.

I have to say that Monica helped me with the captions.

All of these come with captions, so I don't know if they are in the PowerPoint you have, but this is what

Any questions?

So that's kind of the end of them there.

So let me talk about the one in the left hand

Yes, the left-hand corner.

There was a very, very important building in the northeast neighborhood, and it was called the Colonnade.

I was able to find pictures of everything I wanted to put in this exhibit except the colonnade.

Nobody has a picture of the colonnade, so this wonderful,

man, Emmett Lee, sat with me for hours and hours to describe the building, what was in the building, the color of the building.

And then I would draw it up and take it to him and he'd say, nah, not quite right.

And we went back and forth and back and forth.

I enjoyed his company so much that it was a fun thing to do.

So anyway, that's the colonnade with a directory of everything that was in the building.

The one next to it on the right is the famous Rockingham Turkey, which was at the north and south ends of 11.

The turkey was designed by a 10-year-old resident of the Northeast neighborhood.

Now, how he had the guts to enter a contest to design that I just think is phenomenal.

Can I say something about the bronze turkey statue?

What we've noticed is that very little is known or is ever said about the fellow that drew the picture and won the contest.

And so we went out to take new photos and we noticed that there was inscribed on the plaque all these people who helped come up with the plaque.

Everyone but his name.

is listed on that bronze turkey statue.

So we really want to push to have his name added to that so he can have some recognition.

There's a small article in the DNR archives that lists his name, but after that, nothing.

He just kind of fades into the background.

So it's very important, the work that Barbara does, because it highlights that lost history.

So we're very appreciative of her hard work.

So from left to right on this one,

is the Dallard Newman House and then a recognition of the importance of the Newtown Cemetery.

The one next to it is the Blue Circle Club which was a wonderful meeting spot for everyone and you can see all the people depicted in front there.

Then we have the boys basketball team

I think some of your relatives were on that, right?

And yours.

Then the next one's a compilation of Lucy Sims, W. N. P. Harris, who was a very famous educator, and Doc Dickerson, who was a wonderful doctor, general doctor in the area.

Any questions?

The top one, it depicts Howard Curry caddying golf for Joe Funkhouser.

And that's how young boys in the Northeast neighborhood made money.

And Howard Curry told me that one day he caddied for three rounds of golf and he was real proud of himself.

There were various ways to make a living, and three of those are depicted in the top right.

Chefs selling records and barbershops.

The one on the bottom left is Blakey's Barbershop and Smart Craft Upholstery, which is still there.

And then the next way, there were various ways to get to school.

Black kids from the county had to come into Harrisonburg to go to Lucy Sims.

There were no buses, so how do you get to school if there are no cars to take you?

Sarah Sampson told me this fabulous story about kids in McGackie'sville where the train would slow down and the kids would jump on and then the train would slow down when it got to Harrisonburg and they'd jump off to go to school.

I just think that is so marvelous.

And then they'd hitchhike home.

In one of Doris Allen's books, who happens to be your aunt, right, she talks about when, I guess it really snowed here back in the day.

And the daddies would build, would dig tunnels for the kids to go on tunnels to school.

So anyway, that's that.

My granddaddy.

And the one on the left is the Ebony Players.

They did a lot of plays and their Home Ec Department made their costumes.

The one on the right down there is depicting May Day celebrations.

We have one surviving member of the Bundy's Boys Band.

Really?

Yeah, one of, no actually we've got two.

John T. Smith and LeRae and Tolliver, Ruth Tolliver.

My great-grandfather and my grand- you know I'm going to talk about the Bundy's Boys Band.

My great-grandfather and my grandfather started that band.

They were such a part of life.

That last slide that you have, I don't think people realize the amount of time that folks in the African-American community spent in the arts.

and also George's Barbie Shop was in the Colonnade at one time.

But the Colonnade hosted, you know, a piano soloist.

They had comedy there.

They had music there constantly.

So it was a huge part of the African American community.

And of course the Bundy Boys Band was in there.

We do.

So I was working in color, obviously, and I didn't know what color the uniform should be.

I called up Dale McAllister, who's a friend and neighbor.

He wrote the Lucy Sims book and said, Dale, can you find out what color the uniforms were?

And a couple hours later, he comes back and he says, well, they were blue and white because they were hand-me-downs from the white high school.

All the athletic stuff.

The one on the top left is the girls' choir, church choir.

Again, church was so important in this neighborhood.

It still is, by the way.

And then, Mayor Reed, do you recognize the bottom left?

That's the Green Book House.

That's the Green Book House.

And my little sort of

I read somewhere that he played here.

And then lastly the diver Any questions oh my request is that My request is that I be authorized to have a

Thank you, Barbara.

Are there any questions?

Me and Monica can talk about this all day.

Probably four to five months.

It wasn't continuous because I had to interrupt to do my Christmas stuff.

So four to five real working months.

But it didn't feel onerous.

It was fun.

The research was

I just loved it.

If anybody, well you know Emmett, you know Emmett.

When we first talked about Mr. Emmett and the colonnade, I went over, he's across the street from my mother's home, and so I went over and I said, tell me about the colonnade, because I was doing an oral interview, and so he started to describe the colonnade and I'm trying to sketch out a picture and he goes,

No, no, no.

Just wait a minute.

So he gets up.

He said, just watch me.

And he walks.

He goes, now this is where you walk down.

Then you go around the back.

And then I sketch it again.

And he say, oh, you just don't get it, girl.

And so he was just, I mean, a hoot and a holler describing what happened on each floor of the colonnade.

And I was just so touched that, I mean, to hear from the mouth of someone who experienced it.

He talked about his father.

taking him to lodge meetings up on the third floor, on the second floor.

It's American Legion.

American Legion, I guess.

And so, and then also he talked about my family being with him and them playing ball in the back.

And I'm telling you, you just... And don't forget Jenny's Chicken Shack.

I tell you what, I am so, so happy that you took the time and that this was of such interest to you that you followed through.

I had a lot of help, a lot of help.

The thing that I appreciate about

Barbara did is and I remember our first initial meeting She was very respectful.

Yes You know, I am I am a white person and I wanted I wanted to tell this history But how do I go about it and she didn't do it on her own?

She came and we we had a meeting in my office and I was like you got to go talk to these people but just to care that you showed and

and the respect that you showed is I knew whatever the project, because I know your work anyway, but I knew whatever the project, the end result was going to be, was going to be out of this love for our history told by you.

And, you know, it's, for me, I appreciate people who want to continue to tell our history.

No, I mean I just appreciate it because people need to understand that you were very careful with this and you wanted to do it the right way.

You didn't want to disrespect anything and so I think that needs to be said because I know that that's from your heart and so I appreciate

Everything that you do.

on a walking area so that they're accessible.

You know, if they're in a building, only a fraction of people get to see it.

Community Connector Program.

There's an event July 12th, and Andrea will have three of these out there with pictures of all of the slides to try to give that also some more.

tell the story of the community so I think it's perfect to have them there so that people can can see because if you never go into a place where you don't know that area of town exists you just assume or you don't know what those folks do like I don't know that they had that over I didn't know that they had a pool and this really tells the world that we were living and it really talks about the resilience of the community too we were living we were displaced and we're living still and I think that this is this is

This is very important to what we're trying to do through that community connectors program.

Let's make it work.

Thank you all.

I really appreciate it.

It was a labor of love and continues to be.

So if anybody has another panel I should do, please let me know.

Well, fantastic project.

And you guys have said really everything needs to be said.

Maybe you can do the Harrisonburg Aces there too.

And it's so fun to see that real history and then those real people here to know who these are here.

I look at the basketball one and doodles are on there.

For folks I know and Mr. Burgess probably is one of those in that picture as well.

So we don't need a motion.

Madam Mayor, I move that we approve the display of Newtown Before Urban Renewal mosaics in the City Hall lobby for the month of August as presented by artist Barbara Campbell.

and I will second it.

Thank you.

Alright, so we're going to do a roll call vote.

Councilmember Dent?

Aye.

Councilmember Robinson?

Aye.

Vice Mayor Fleming?

Aye.

Thank you all very much for your time and your encouragement and your nice words.

Okay, so we're going to go into item 7B, but before we go into this, I need to read a disclosure because it affects, it's about my job.

So this is considering adopting a resolution approving the assurance of bonds by the Harrisonburg

Economic Development Authority for the benefit of Eastern Mennonite University and that's where I work.

So I'm going to read the statement of Disqualification The Virginia State and Local Government Conflict of Interest Act requires that I make disclosure to be recorded in the city records in any matter in which I prohibited by law from participating therefore I make the following disclosure I

The matter involved is item 7B on tonight's agenda, considers approving the resolution approving the issuance of bonds by the Harrisonburg Economic Development Authority for the benefit of Eastern Mennonite University.

My personal interest affected by this transaction is that I am an employee of Eastern Mennonite University.

I have firmly stated that I will not vote or participate in any matter in this matter.

So, saying that, I am going to turn it over to the Vice Mayor.

Pass it down, pass it down.

Alright.

Well, I guess, Mr. Brown, if you want to just review the resolution and all the details of this.

Yes, Council has before it a resolution of the City Council of the City of Harrisonburg, Virginia regarding the approval of issuance of bonds by the Economic Development Authority of the City of Harrisonburg, Virginia for the benefit of Eastern Mennonite University.

EMU approached the Harrisonburg EDA

with the request to issue these bonds.

And these bonds will be revenue bonds under the Industrial Development and Revenue Bond Act, which is set forth in the Code of Virginia.

And the bonds are also very highly regulated by the Internal Revenue Code.

And the nature of these bonds, just so folks understand, under Virginia law and under federal tax law, an economic development authority or

Industrial Development Authority, they're sometimes called, can issue bonds for the benefit of governmental entities, for manufacturers, private manufacturers, and then for private nonprofit entities such as hospitals, nursing facilities, and in this case for private colleges and universities.

And that's what's happening here.

The benefit of these bonds is that the income

which is received based on the interest generated by the bond so the bond holder receives the interest that's income but under the tax code that is tax exempt either partially or wholly therefore the bond holder will accept a little bit less interest because they don't have to pay tax on it and the entity in this case DMU will have to pay a little bit less in interest

So I'm not going to read the resolution, but Eastern Mennonite University is going to use the proceeds of the bonds, and it says up to $30 million.

It probably won't be that much, but it's up to that.

And it'll be for capital improvements to the Eastern Mennonite University campus here in Harrisonburg, including the construction of a new 6,000 square foot academic building.

It will be refinancing several borrowings that EMU has undertaken over the years.

They're kind of rolling up some of their debt.

And the rest of the resolution just indicates that the EDA approved these today at noon at a meeting and under state law and federal law.

the governing body which has jurisdiction over the authority issuing the bonds has to approve the issuance of those bonds.

One critical piece of information I want everyone to understand is this does not constitute debt of the city or of the EDA.

There is no financial liability on the part of the city or the EDA.

If something would happen that there was a default

that EMU did not pay the bonds.

The bondholder could only look to EMU, not to the city or the EDA.

And so with that, council has the resolution before you.

Well, they're consolidating several right now.

that were done incidentally with Bridgewater, Broadway, and another entity into one.

Some of these are fairly old actually.

They're pulling together into one.

And again, it won't count against what we have and what we can bar for the city.

Sentara did one of these a few years ago.

They did.

As I was scrolling through one thing that jumped out at me was direct pay on page two under the whereases one two three four number five

Virginia Small Business Financing Authority Taxable Qualified Energy Conservation Bond Direct Pay, Virginia Saves.

I don't know.

I don't know.

This was one of the previous finances they did back in 2016 that they're in effect rolling up a bunch of those finances.

Yeah, and this says that originally financed the renovation, construction, and so on.

for energy efficiency improvements and related infrastructure.

This would have been before the IRS.

So this is referring to a different program with the state, with Virginia, the one

that we'd used an IRS program through the Treasury actually was adopted later than this.

Well yeah, this is nice to know about if it's still available.

Keep that good stuff hidden.

Yeah, really.

But you knew about it apparently.

Well, I can't call you bad mayor.

Second.

Okay, any other discussion?

Councilmember Dent?

Aye.

Councilmember Robinson?

Aye.

Vice Mayor Fleming?

Aye.

Mayor Reed?

This is an agenda item asking city council to authorize the city manager to sign an easement, a utility easement for VDOT.

Kind of a strange situation.

There's a very small parcel over on Reservoir Street that for several years we knew that VDOT wanted to use for a stormwater control facility.

and in fact the city entered into a BMP agreement with VDOT where VDOT would engineer it and then we would take it over and maintain it and that's in connection with the I-81 widening project and so again the parcel is small, can't really be developed and so it was perfect for the stormwater facility.

There are some utilities on the lot and towards the front

And those have to be relocated slightly to accommodate the stormwater facility.

And we got a call late last week from VDOT that they had forgotten to ask us for an easement if they had to actually get it and relocate utilities.

They need an easement to do that work.

And so they asked us to put this on the agenda.

I was happy to do so under state law.

For a transportation project, if it's for a utility relocation, we don't have to have a public hearing if we're granting something like this to VDOT.

So we went ahead and put it on the agenda.

And again, this parcel was always meant to be used for the stormwater facility manager.

Mr. Hartman and I, probably tomorrow or the next day, will have to flesh out a few details with VDOT as to exactly where the relocation will be.

but they are up against a time crunch.

So this is the last council voting on this, to do the storm water.

We have granted VDOT several easements in connection with the I-81 widening project for a variety of things, including storm water.

This particular lot, we didn't have to have an easement.

We had just a B&B agreement between the city and VDOT because we were going to retain ownership.

And at the end of the day, they weren't going to have any interest in the property.

But with the easement relocations, they will need to have a utility relocation.

And these aren't city utilities, and they're not, correct?

And VDOT has been working extensively

It's just this fell through the cracks We are getting a lot of storm water thanks to mr. Hartman work done on behalf of V dot I mean, it's really significant.

Second that.

Any more discussion?

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Okay, there you go.

Thank you Madam Mayor.

What you have before you is a couple of supplemental appropriations and one reallocation.

The first 8A

City Council has a supplemental appropriation coming from the city schools to appropriate $748,000 of state funding coming to the schools.

This represents the state bonus money to staff members.

It's a $1,000 bonus, I believe, right?

That's correct.

Thank you.

$1,000 each.

I guess to the folks they designate as the recipients, I don't think it's every, I believe there's a subsection of all their staff, but I believe for the ones they've directed it to, it'll be $1,000 each.

Correct?

Motion?

Mm-hmm.

I move that we approve the supplemental appropriation for the Harrisonburg City School Board

as presented by City Manager Banks.

Councilmember Dent.

Aye.

Councilmember Robinson.

Aye.

Vice Mayor Fleming.

Aye.

Aye.

Thank you Madam Mayor.

8B, this one's a little bit more complex and I'm going to try and resist going down the rabbit hole especially without my finance director here this evening to save me.

The supplemental appropriation in front of you this evening is to recognize and account for two new lease agreements that the city is entering.

This has been a bit of a change brought about by the Government Accounting Standards Board several years ago that requires local governments and organizations to more clearly account for financial liabilities in the form of leases.

What's before you this evening is a lease for golf carts at Heritage Oaks Golf

Yeah, golf course.

And then also a lease entering into for, oh forgive me.

The navigation center.

The navigation center access to Chantelle's dark fiber for an internet connection to that new facility.

That's correct.

The one lease for the golf carts is roughly $245,000 over the next five years.

So approximately just shy of $50,000 a year for five years.

I knew you were going to ask that, Councilwoman.

Those renew with Chantelle, I believe.

Yeah, he doesn't stipulate the term of the lease with Chantelle.

All public facilities use the dark fiber that's provided by Chantelle.

Okay, any other questions?

Second.

This is $205,000 being moved from investment earnings into the General Capital Projects Fund for Kids Castle.

So 8C and 9A, and 9A we'll get to here in a minute, is a reallocation

is Mr. Propp's attempt to find the additional funding that Mr. Mancini mentioned at the last council meeting so that we did not have to continue to cut the scope of the project of constructing Kids Castle.

Well, for this one, I think the gap originally was around $800,000.

I move that we approve the supplemental appropriation for the general capital projects fund as presented by city manager.

I'll second that.

Councilmember Dent.

Aye.

Councilmember Robinson.

Aye.

Vice Mayor Fleming.

Aye.

And then finally, Madam Mayor, City Council, before you is a reallocation.

9A is to reallocate funds within the General Capital Projects Fund.

So this would be closing off a former capital project, which was the city's portion for the jail camera system upgrade at Harrisonburg Rockingham Jail in our downtown.

There was approximately $113,000 left in that project.

That project is now completed and we have confirmed that.

And so what Mr. Probst is proposing is to reallocate those funds from the jail camera system project over to the Kids Castle project.

Right, it is.

Second.

Any discussion?

Roll call please, Pam.

Sorry, it took so long to get up here.

So, we meet again.

You know, I was told by Pam that I could bring some pictures in.

Which took me a good little while.

I got two really good ones that kind of prove the point that I'm talking about as far as restraints on these wheelchairs as far as public transit.

You know, the city and public transit really done kind of got themselves in a real jam here.

You know, uh, Pam was wondering about, you know, size, about, you know, the public seeing them.

Of course, there ain't a whole lot of public here to see them, but maybe TV3 can zoom in on this and, you know, actually report some real news.

Um, if you can see, uh, right here at the top,

and yellow and three languages.

Warning, use of this securement system in a manner inconsistent with these instructions may result in personal injury or death.

Read instructions and operating manual for restraint system before using.

Do not transport occupant while tensioner is in release mode.

and let milk go across the shoulder and cuffs.

Now, I mean, most people that have never even attempted to hook a wheelchair up before can pretty much figure this out.

I mean, you know, you got pictures.

That is what got me kicked off the buses because I wanted my wheelchair restrained properly.

Research on just a couple things real quick.

I'm sure y'all have heard of ANSI before.

A-N-S-I, which is, you know, American National Safety Institute.

Okay, and all this is from ANSI, which the book is ICCA117.1-2009.

First print was January 2011.

Second print was January 2013.

Okay.

And, well of course, you know, ANSI, you know, they just make the rules.

They don't really enforce them.

You know, they got an other little watchdog that does that for them.

You know, it's OSHA.

Okay, surface.

April 5.2.1.

Must stop boarding and lighting areas shall have a firm stable surface.

Don't believe that's grass.

Uh, 805.2.2 dimensions Must stop boarding and lighting areas shall have a 96 inch minimum clear length measured perpendicular to the curb or vehicle roadway edge and a 60 inch minimum clear width

This one's good too.

Connection 85.2.4.

Bus stop boarding and lighting areas shall be connected to streets, sidewalks, or pedestrian paths by an accessible route.

Complain with section 402.

You know, I mean, I just, you know, I don't get it.

Yeah, it's got the components right here, and I mean these.

These are all such simple fixes.

You know what I mean?

Literally, like the bus stops that are in the grass.

Just like they said right there.

You could just have a landing and a ramp.

You know?

I've been in construction my whole life, okay?

I've done the math on the concrete.

One load of concrete, nine yards, and if you figure, you know, a five by five, which this is actually dimensions a little bit bigger, but I was just figuring, you know, two joints of sidewalk, you know, a landy ramp of joint, and a ramp, you know, five foot and five foot.

But anyway, one concrete truck.

and then you would have access just you know a little plane of hammering but of course this is you know their dimensions are a little bit bigger um yeah one minute Mr. Sheets um but you know i mean what i don't get is you know it's right there and it's right there and why i mean i've got

Like I said, it took me a while to go through the pictures to find the ones I wanted.

It cost me a little bit of money to do this, but I think it was well worth it.

You have to get them big enough so everybody can see.

But I just, I don't understand it.

I mean, it's part of their job and it's right there.

Every time they flip the seat up, it's right there in their face.

Why did Michael Parks address it when I first brought the concern to him?

If by the mere force of numbers a majority should deprive

It might in a moral point of view justify revolution, certainly would if such a right were a vital one.

This country with its institutions belongs to the people who inhabit it.

Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it.

Vice Mayor, I mean Councilwoman Dent Several things of meetings and such I've gone to over the past couple of weeks First was a listening session by the EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers on refining the definition of waters of the U.S.

which

It turns out traditionally meant the navigable waters, the ocean, streams, rivers.

And it's been expanded to include tributaries and wetlands as long as they're adjacent to, you know, so it gets into the muddy waters, so to speak.

So they're trying to define it more precisely.

because the reason it matters is because those are the waters that the Clean Water Act regulates.

So, and that was all learning for me.

And I also chimed in with our recent water emergency that we have streams and tributaries that are normally pristine mountain water but with the,

turbulence from, or turbidity they call it, basically mud and silt from the rainstorms.

We had that to deal with.

So anyway, just people geeking out about water.

That was fine.

And then I had the EENR, the National League of Cities Energy and Environment and Natural Resources conference call.

where we mostly talked about the logistics for the leadership meeting in mid-July, I think it is, in Ohio where we'll talk some about the policies that will be presented at the summit in the fall.

Then I went to an interesting mini-conference in D.C.

run by Canary Media, which is an environmental journalism nonprofit.

And they had all sorts of great speakers and panels from elected officials to journalists.

One of the most impressive was a panel of journalists from the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Time Magazine, where the moderator from Canary Media,

said to the audience, you may be exhausted trying to keep up with the news.

The people on stage are the most exhausted trying to drink from the fire hose of everything that's happening so fast.

And the New York Times journalist, for instance, said that from the beginning of this administration, they got the impression of shock and awe, just so much happening at once and so much of it.

Questionable, I'll put it that way.

So anyway, that was good learning, and I met up some people that I had known before with a guy who used to be with the Department of Energy and is no longer and now has a green bank, for instance.

So a lot of people trying to do good work in climate and trying to find the ways.

And last but not least, I just got back yesterday from my Harvard reunion, which was a whole different realm, and I'm wearing this button that says,

Speaking Veritas to power.

Veritas is Harvard's motto means truth.

So a lot of real support for Harvard and its lawsuits to maintain its academic freedom and I felt good to be there supporting that and of course to meet with friends.

There was one great workshop group where it was about democracy if we can save it.

and we went around the room introducing ourselves and somebody said, let's hear from the one person in the room about 30 people who was actually elected.

So I got to talk about that.

So that was both a lot of fun and really affirming in some of the good work we're doing.

Councilwoman?

I don't have a lot.

Just wanted to also say that,

The Complete Streets program just make sure you save the date July 12th from 3 to 7 p.m.

We'll be having the Mason Street redesign and you can find out more information on that on the city's website.

This weekend Saturday June 14th at 10 a.m.

we're having the program Shenandoah Valley Black Heritage Project called Doctor's Orders Black Heritage

and Native Plant Walk.

We're going to be working with herbalist Ruby Daniels, owner of Creasy Jane's Herbal Remedies, to learn about medicinal plants used within the African American community.

We're going to be exploring Zenda, a black heritage site, and we're doing this with the Shenandoah Valley Conservancy.

Went to graduation this past weekend.

My grandson graduated from Rocktown High School, Jayden.

Mayor Reed shook his hand as he walked across the stage.

So I'm just very happy and overjoyed that we made it.

Vice Mayor?

Two weeks ago I joined Mayor Reed at the Virginia Transit Association Conference.

presiding over there for the last time as president of ETA, so I'll let you talk about that.

One of the presentations there that was from the regional Department of Transportation persons covering Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and also the chief lobbyist for APTA, the American Public Transit Association.

The message from them of the things that they're seeing

Cut in the budget the transportation seems to not have gotten the cuts At this point while staff have been cut And you may not be able to call staff to find out about your funding The funding is there somewhere and seems to exist on the transportation side so that's good news on that end of it because that's a big part of

The federal funding we get goes directly to transportation here.

I was in last week a call with NLC which was looking at federally what was happening, what had happened in the House bill and what was coming forward to the Senate.

what in essence it either needed to be protected what we need to speak to our senators about and I mean there are a number of things that you know will have direct impact on us that were cut from the house version of their appropriation bill and you know so a couple is within housing economic development CDBG you know has been with the house eliminated that

the home program which is assistance to homeowners the house removed that as well as homeless assistance grants and EDA funding for local governments so that's not in the house appropriation I think there's hope that through lobbying through NLC members are going to the Senate and saying

We need to protect these things, put these things back in.

So that's some significant ones for us.

One of the victories we had was preserving tax-exempt municipal bonds.

Kind of hard to imagine.

Capital improvement here without being able to use those bonds.

And the state and local tax, the salt increase that the House put in, we'll see if the Senate preserves that.

This might actually be flipped a little bit.

The Senate may be less likely to support that increase the House put in, but that's something important for us.

On the water side, some of the protections that cities are looking to around PFAS contamination, for example, liability.

I think that's in jeopardy of, in essence, not having protection.

Hopefully the Senate will step back in and clear the way for that.

As Councilwoman Dent mentioned, we've mentioned the direct payer, what they actually technically call the elective pay, seems to be on the chopping block on the House version.

That's something we use to pay for the buses, the electric buses here.

So we got 200 grand for each electric bus and that's something on the chopping block from the House side.

I think there is a number of grants from the Inflation Reduction Act that the House is not looking to continue funding.

That could be a problem on sustainability projects here.

Obviously the FEMA

concern for cities who need to make use of FEMA, which you never know if you're going to be one of those cities.

The House cut a good deal of money out of that.

So that's kind of on the federal side.

I think as we have opportunities as a council to talk to our states or U.S.

senators, which I think tend to be fairly supportive of this, but also in the minority when it comes to vote.

but it's important that we pass those messages on to them that the things we'd like to preserve here.

And then I had a few meetings over the last two weeks and I have a few more tomorrow and next week with our Southern Cities Economic Initiative.

So Pierce is leading that for us with Brian and so we meet

Can you repeat the name of that again?

An initiative, SCEI, so

We're one of the cities that was awarded the planning grant, so we'll take that up through October.

Again, Pearson and Brian Schuller are leading that together.

We've gotten really favorable feedback.

This is a program with the Atlanta Federal Reserve and then a number of really significant foundations are behind this.

Tomorrow we'll be meeting with the program officer from the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

So I'll just be the three of us and then explaining our program.

But they've been very impressed with the work that Brian and Pierce have done.

As a matter of fact, in one of our last meetings, they had asked us about some of the things that they suggested that cities have.

And Pierce said, can we show you what we have?

And the person who was overseeing this, he said, oh, maybe you should be presenting that to the rest of the cities as an example.

So I think for much of this, there are things that we have in place already.

In October, there'll be a decision about funding this over the next couple of years, two-year funding cycle, of which we'd still also be eligible to get additional funding from those foundations who are giving the initial seed funding, the Kellogg Foundation, the Casey Foundation, the Woods Johnson Foundation, which are Kresge Foundation, all pretty significant.

So I think this could be really,

kind of exciting and quite a boost to entrepreneurship and small business development here in the city on matching what those folks need to take the next step to be a small business owner to help existing folks expand their business here so that's that project and then actually next week I'll

We'll be up in Arlington.

So there's a government tech conference that's happening.

NLC is one of the sponsors for this.

So it's municipalities really from all over the country who are using technology in all sorts of ways.

Certainly AI discussions will be there, but all sorts of other things.

Check discussions will be there, so I'll be part of a group and I'll see you at that conference.

It'll be at the Amazon headquarters.

It'll be interesting to go in there and check that out and see what, you know, there's so much coming down the path so quickly to municipalities.

all which come with dollars attached to them.

So kind of how we can best inform and the city manager and staff can be best informed about what things we want to incorporate here, what things we want to invest into.

It's going to be challenging because not only do they come with costs, but they come with upgrade costs and maintenance costs.

So I want to make sure we can kind of stay on top of that.

Excuse me, PS.

Also at our EENR call, we talked about NLC of the things that we want to protect, the things we want to challenge.

So I immediately wrote to Senators Kane and Warner with my bullet list of please protect these things, the tax exemption from municipal bonds.

Turns out that's safe.

The IRA tax credits, drinking water state revolving funds, the EEC energy and energy efficiency and conservation block grant,

I hope we can fund the Farmers Market Solar and the RAISE grant.

I hope that's protected.

That's all.

Not much from me.

I attended Rocktown High School graduation, so that was their inaugural graduation.

I think they had 200 students that graduated, so that was

Good to be up there for them.

Harrisonburg High School graduated as well that morning.

Rocktown graduated at seven that evening.

I attended the VTA conference.

That was my last conference as president.

So it was a good conference.

Yeah, I'm going to miss being president of that.

We had good speakers.

Thank you, appreciate that.

I also went to, I'm a part of the Hunts Institute Fellowship and along with some elected officials around the state, we met in Roanoke

Last week talking about higher ed, well actually we focused on K through 12 and kind of went through the budget, Trump's budget and how it's going to affect our school systems.

But most importantly, and y'all know me, how it's going to affect our after school programs and summer programs because 21st century grants is what a lot of our

after school programs receive and that's been eliminated through his budget.

So if that goes through, then our local programs, Boys and Girls Club, On the Road, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Second Home will be in some serious trouble.

I did a proclamation for the Buck Festival.

The Bach Festival is actually connected to Easter Mennonite, but they're now going to be their own 501C3.

So they're, the festival's all this week, and it's all classical music, but it's led by David Berry.

I'm not sure if everyone knows David Berry, but he's the director of the Bach Festival.

So they're celebrating 33 years.

Their concert was at Asbury Church,

and the rest of them is going to be at Lehman.

So I did a proclamation for them.

I hope my sissy is looking, watching.

My sister Joy, happy birthday.

This is your birthday present.

I hope you're watching.

Too bad.

I gave her a Facebook post.

That's all she needed.

And then Sunday is Juneteenth celebration at Pell Fire that Chris Jones and I host.

And then on June 19th is NAACP, they'll have their celebration at Bridgewater Oakdale Park.

Tom, do you know Tom?

Thank you Madam Mayor.

I just wanted to publicly thank Courtney Doberstein who is an important member of our executive leadership team who has resigned her position and she's she's moving on and has put together a great team up there.

Thank you for saving the city some money.

Alright, we are going into closed session.

I prefer to motion to move the Harrisonburg City Council to go into closed session as authorized by the Virginia Freedom of Information Act.

So moved.

Thank you.

It is there.

There's no discussion.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

All right.

Let's go to closed session.

I don't really want to go.