Board of Supervisors Meeting   4/13/2021

I'd like to call the order of the April 13, 2021 meeting of the Nelson County Board of Supervisors.

Please stand for a moment of silence.

Our first order of business is public comment.

A reminder, you have about three minutes to tell us why you're here and what's on your mind.

And when you come forward, please give us your name and your address before you start.

Good afternoon.

My name is John Asberget.

I reside at 135 Tyma Lane in Norwood, Virginia.

It's an honor this afternoon just to stand before you as the newly appointed executive director for the Nelson Heritage Center.

I've been appointed by the Millennium Group, and I know that you are well aware of the wonderful work that they have already been doing in the community.

Just wanted to take a few moments

to highlight a couple of things and then ask for your continued support as I acclimate myself in this new role in partnering with you as the Board of Supervisors to continue to do great things in the county.

Over the last 15 years, the Millennium Group has been active in establishing a number of programs at the Nelson Heritage Center, which sits right on 29, including recreational programs for youth and adults who represent diverse communities from across the county.

their computer classes, tutoring, and training workshops for youth and adults.

And in 2013, the Millennium Group partnered with the Nelson Heritage Historical Society to create the Nelson County Oral History Project, which is a wonderful project that records the life stories of citizens over 80 years old here in the county.

That's just a brief

Snippet of what the Heritage Center stands for, what the Heritage Center has been doing over the past several decades, and what the Millennium Group means to the county.

I ask for your continued support, as I said, as I acclimate myself in this position.

I just want to give you just a little bit about myself as we learn more about each other and we get to know each other.

I have long followed the work of the Millennium Group and admired their determination and persistence for access and opportunity for all citizens in Nelson County.

My first calling is to teach, and over the last 20 years, I have been blessed to use this gift in a multitude of venues.

Each job I believe that I've had, each assignment and each task have prepared me for the opportunity to serve this community, one that I love so much, and the citizens

who have birthed and given me purpose.

I believe that I now have the skills and the motivation to partner with the Millennium Group in expanding their mission of promoting education to preserving the culture and history of all citizens and to providing social and cultural experiences for all community.

I am a proud product of a historically black college or university and I am a strong proponent of equitable access.

As a parent and educator, my life's mission has been to ensure the least restrictive environment for our most vulnerable populations to excel.

I believe that my experiences over the past 20 years in education and in policy and in nonprofits have afforded me the encounters and the connections

to take the Millennium Group as well as the Nelson Heritage Center to the next level.

So I would ask that you join us, as I said, in partnering over the next several weeks as I roll out a plan that will encompass the next 100 days in partnership with the board of the Millennium Group to present Building for Tomorrow by investing in today as we set our priorities and we focus on what the next

and everyone.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And we wish you the best of luck.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

My name is Listeria Johnson, Shipman, Virginia.

I'm following up with your math there, just very briefly to do one thing.

I don't know that she mentioned it, but I know that you, most of you know, Callie Nunnery.

She's the one who, one of the very few people in the beginning that started out with what I just said, and this is her niece.

And she's done fantastic things before she came here.

She's been here about eight years and now she's taken this position, which we're all excited for.

Also, at some point, if you all feel free, come over and look at the gym.

The gym is doing wonderful.

It's looking really good, the way it's progressing.

So we are very optimistic at this particular time that things are going on well.

And I am hoping that you all recognize this as a major effort by the community throughout Nelson County to have this site

So we got a lot of good things going on over there and my request to you is to please give us support when we approach you about various things.

We're not doing this in our bubble.

We're doing it for the community.

So I'm thanking you in advance to each of you as we know you in the community to help us work this together.

The second thing I see on the agenda that I want to thank you for is your positive, I'm assuming, is positive endorsement of the letters of FERC.

You know the battle that we won the pipeline, and you know what we're looking at right now.

So I'm hoping, I haven't seen the letter, but I'm hoping that you are supporting the request to FERC to give the right-of-way back to the effective manner.

Thank you.

Anyone else like to speak?

Yeah.

Great.

So I would just like to pull R2021-21 from the consent agenda, and we'd vote on that individually.

OK. Is there any objection to that?

What was the last number?

21.

Then the consent agenda consists of three resolutions, R. 2021, 18 through 20.

I'm looking for a motion.

I'd like a motion.

Mr. Chairman, I have reviewed all three, and just to emphasize, I also have no issues with the letter to FERC.

It was appropriate.

OK. Any discussion?

I'd just like to mention that I did find a typo in the letter.

There's no other comment?

That happens to those right away.

If they take them back, do they get their money back?

Or how does that work?

Yeah.

The short answer to that is we don't know.

There's no obligation for Dominion to restore those easements to the landowners.

So the letter requests that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission create

A situation where the people who sold those easements under the threat of eminent domain be able to regain the full use of their properties.

Yeah, that was my comment that does that mean that they get the money back?

There's no set way to make that work.

If there is a scenario by which this could happen, then the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission would have to lay that out because Dominion has not come forth with a plan.

Okay.

We have a motion and a second.

Any more discussion?

Mr. Barton?

Yes.

Mr. Harvey?

Yes.

Mr. Parr?

Yes.

Mr. Rutherford?

Yes.

Yes.

He's not coming.

Yeah, why don't we just let them come on up so they can look at that.

Thank you.

So we have four of the dispatcher and communications staff here.

Now I'll introduce them individually.

Derek Kidd, who's the senior dispatcher.

Elizabeth Libby Ashbig, who's also the senior dispatcher.

And we have Raven Rhodes, who's classified as a communications officer.

And lastly, Mackenzie Vine,

Yeah, I mean, for the board, you know, dispatch or communications for the county, public safety communications is radically evolved just over the time.

I think here, Mr. Harvey can probably speak to this a lot better than me.

You know, it takes an outstanding person to be a communications officer.

It's become a much more highly technical field.

criminal checks that we run in dispatch.

It requires a lot of effort and work to maintain and to do a good job.

As I said, we just had an audit from the state police on that.

And Libby can speak to this if she wants to come up.

I think we've got the highest rating and outstanding rating we've ever received.

I just wanted to mention again the VCENT audit was very well, one of the best scores that the county has ever gotten.

We've also improved our dispatch center with a new computer-aided dispatching computer, and we're getting ready to do EMD.

We're coming along very well.

Mr. Chairman, I have the opportunity to read the motion.

Great.

Yes, and without further ado, of course,

in history, from some of my constituency, thanking y'all for a very tough circumstance, and you guys being applicants on the other side of the line.

Of course, you are the unsung hero, and we often don't get to see a lot.

So we appreciate you.

Your efforts are definitely seen, but I guess we don't see you too much.

But with that being said, Mr. Chairman, I move that we pass Resolution R 2021-21,

Nelson County Board of Supervisors National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week from April 11th through 17th of 2021.

Whereas emergencies can occur at any time that require law enforcement, fire, or emergency medical services.

And whereas when an emergency occurs, the prompt response of law enforcement, firefighters,

Ann Paramedics is critical to the protection of life and the preservation of property and whereas the safety of our first responders is dependent upon the quality and accuracy of information obtained from citizens who telephone into the Nelson County Emergency Communications Center and whereas public safety telecommunicators are the first and most

with Emergency Services, and whereas public safety telecommunicators are the single vital link for our deputies and firefighters by monitoring their activities by radio, providing them information, and ensuring their safety, and whereas each dispatcher has exhibited compassion, understanding, and professionalism during the performance of their job in the past year.

Now, therefore be it resolved that the Nelson County Board of Supervisors

declares the week of April 11th through 17th, 2021 as National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week in Nelson County in honor of the men and women whose diligence and professionalism keep our county and citizens safe.

Second.

Okay, we've got a motion and a second.

Being aware of where this dispatch center has come from, it's come a long, long way.

Back in the time when it was downstairs and little tiny room and professionalism has really come to fruition.

I mean, it's so good to listen to them and just hear.

I guess that's the best training you can have is listen to the different dispatchers.

I mean, it's very touching to see how good we've got the dispatchers.

I mean, if you think it's something simple, it ain't.

It used to be you picked the phone up, took the call, and you hit the button, the pager, whoever you needed, and talked to them moving on the radio.

But now with all the sophisticated stuff, plus taking on the

decent stuff and you know it's we got a first class just that summer and we got first class people i really appreciate it thank you okay um moving on to uh our VDOT issues uh thank you all for being here um

Just, I know we've got a couple things here.

Just to bring you up to speed a little bit, you know, our state forces are out and about, trying to accomplish some good work.

Right now we are working on Hilltop Road down here, trying to do that fire replacement right in here next to Shipman.

That's been a little bit of a challenge, but we're hoping to have it completed in the next couple of weeks, weather permitting.

There are a lot of other things going on in Nelson County.

We use our contractors.

could make a litter pickup on all primary and certain supplementary roads.

I don't know if they've completed it yet or not, but they should be getting close.

And that investment, since we do not have, and I haven't been able to get inmate gangs up here to help pick up litter, we made a decision to

that had, it was, they got so unsightly that we would use that contractor for a pickup.

And they're picking it up and I just, with your information, that is an investment of $10,690 each time we get that contractor to pick the loader up in Nelson County on his designated routes.

And in addition to that, I know our state forces

They have been picking up some litter too.

They have been cleaning up some areas that needed it.

I know we, I've been seeing a lot of limbs that have been cut, cutting limbs along the visual highway and getting up some debris from the ice storm.

We are patching in advance of our pavement schedules.

And we are filling potholes.

Maybe you probably know where some that we have a field, but we're still filling potholes.

And we got one real rustic project that is counting on the construction, not in full speed, getting a high peak growth.

We should be getting that all within the next couple of weeks as far as our unpaid growth.

So hope that

I hope that comes on through and the weather holds up where we can get on and get that real hard surface.

Who's responsible for 250 as far as cutting trees and clearing back?

They need to come up and just do a clean swipe all the way up on the west side.

But it's trees, I mean everywhere they just go up and cut them off right at the edge of the road and I mean it's just everywhere.

And when they see a tree that's leaning three quarters of the way, why don't we remove that tree instead of waiting until it falls?

Well, I mean, our trimming operations have changed.

We have to somewhat, we can't put the power line cut on like we have done in the past.

They want the canopy.

Our guidelines

It requires us to do the canopy look rather than the utility cut, so to speak.

That doesn't make sense.

Why do you want to build a canopy over the road in solution when it snows?

Would normally have sunshine to help you?

Yeah, I wasn't...

I'm just playing.

This is a...

You know the ash tree blight, ash water.

I see so many dead ashes hanging over the roads.

Are you preempting any problem with it?

Yes, our roadside manager, they are actively removing those trees where they are a hazard or threat to the roadway.

I don't know how far along they've gotten, but there's a special initiative to dump those trees and get them removed.

I don't remember all the details, but I remember him talking.

That's Bill Lewis as our Roadside Manager at Wentzburg.

So I know we had a lot of discussion a while back about Reed's Gap and all that.

And I haven't been over there, haven't heard anything.

So no news is good news, I assume.

We have not gotten our environmental clearance on that yet.

That's the only reason that hasn't happened.

The wedges we were going to do up on top of the mountain.

My question is about signage.

Again, I haven't written over there since all this happened.

Where are our signs?

There's one additional sign, I think.

I remember that sign layout, right?

There's one additional sign before you get to the top of the mountain.

Maybe in there around, it was two on 151 and it was one going up 664.

On the woods on Augusta County, there was two or three down, you know, on the lower part.

And then there's one right at the bottom of the mountain, too.

Yeah.

I was just curious.

Is anything going on on the Cottrells, on Lovesville Road, behind Dollar Jones?

the pipe that we talked about on that driveway.

Do you know anything, Connie and I were talking about the program that's available for price.

That's the one you've been trying to talk about.

Yes.

Kind of hadn't really worked on that yet.

Mr. Harvard, I talked about that the other day.

You know, with the new drainage item in the six-year plan and our, something in our budget, we should be able to address that.

Okay.

Whenever we get a lot of water, right there is where it kicks out into Lowesville Road, then it starts going from there.

That little drainage carries a lot more water than you realize.

Last but not least, I was contacted by the Chief of Piney River Fire Department with the request that VDOT look at Firehouse Road.

Right now, the road has such a crown in it, the way it's set along the sides, that the trucks, even when they need to go south on 151, they're going to Lowesville Road, down to Dollar General, and down 151, rather than taking Firehouse Road direct because of the condition of the road.

Yes, we, right now, we could do some, we could use, the ideal thing to do is just go down and work on those edges.

I don't think we got to,

I certainly don't think we can pave the entire road, but we should be able to take one of our little pavers and make a pull down both sides of the road and get something a little bit better, a whole lot better as far as to get your payments.

As far as doing it with maintenance funds, I really need to wait until after the end of this physical year.

Wish list?

Especially with the width of that road and the way it's crowned and you get up to the top of that hill, if somebody's coming the other way, it's not very good to meet a fire truck right now.

No, Billy Thompson owns right there at the sawmill, that last little bit right there on the edge.

Yeah, that sawmill, man, they just

I do not have anything.

I do appreciate what you did in Lovingston sweeping up the rocks for us.

So I'm wondering what the protocol is for requesting a traffic study, a traffic count.

On 151 there are projects before the planning commission and the board

very soon that have potential of increasing the traffic along the 151 corridor.

But the difference between what's north of Route 6 and what's south of Route 6 could be significant because you're familiar with the problem of traffic on real busy scenario on 151.

So Mr. Reed, you talk about something other than our yearly

We count primary every year.

They usually run about a year behind.

The published 2019 counts just came out, so it would have the most recent count information, but it wouldn't be, I don't know, at some point in time, they did a 24, 48-hour count when they put the tubes down.

Now, whether it captured

All that traffic on 151 doing the right weekend or not, or a weekend, I don't know.

Do you see the need for something greater, a greater, more specific traffic then that?

Because it will break it down from, it should break it down from the intersection of 6 River Road,

And that might be a good thing, because if the raw data was taken in 2019, it would have been pre-COVID.

Because the counts in 20, I wouldn't, as far as being a regular count, I think they would probably be low.

because of the reduced travel.

COVID has increased traffic more than it's cut traffic.

because these people that want to get out of the house or they're going to these different businesses over there and... Well, you know, it's just an explosion right now.

They need to do a special count where they come in and do some weekends.

Yeah.

But you can request some weekend counts that

And these other businesses through there, I was talking to the lady that runs the ski shop up there at 664.

And they had a tremendous year that they couldn't find any help, but you know, that was great.

And it's because people want to get out of the house and go do something.

So, as Mr. Harvey suggested, is that something that's possible?

Yes, yes.

We want to get some weekend camps up there on both sides of River Road.

I think most information still reads and shows you that the biggest traffic movement through there is the factory.

Right.

going north and south, and it's a cut-through.

I talked about that last week, you know, Route 6, and you assured me that the police are stopping over oversized trucks.

Yes, sir.

Sometimes they have such permits to go to certain businesses

I'll tell you what, no question, some of the local truckers do that.

They're supposed to be only allowed at the firehouse one day a month.

The other thing I'm curious about, this is wild.

You know, my daughter lives in Charlottesville, so I've got Charlottesville.

They have a new turnoff on 64 where they bring the traffic across 29 to go in.

And I've heard it from you, too.

The trucks are really reluctant to go north.

There's 64 because they can't cross 29.

You know what I'm talking about?

If they're going north.

If they're going north and they want to go west on 64, especially during rush hour, they can't get across the road.

They can't get across 29.

29 southbound traffic.

It's a problem right there.

Well, since they have a

A light there anyway.

Why couldn't they have a light there to enable those trucks to get across the highway?

They did have to do something now, but that's actually

It's a tough place to come in.

That's just a temporary light while they redo that intersection.

That's not going to be a permanent stoplight on Route 29 there.

Well, the problem is you've got stuff on the interstate.

Something we talked about time and again is the railroad crossing in Tyre River where trucks get stuck.

And I went up there the other day to see what that sign, and there is a sign that says no trucks come down there.

Once they get down the hill there, it's trouble.

It's way too late.

And they have a sign, but the way it is set up, it's right near a field, the fence for the field is right there.

And you really don't see it.

I can see why certain truckers miss that sign.

If you could find a place to put that sign or maybe enlarge that sign, maybe that would deal with that problem.

It's a sign over there.

as soon as they come off them.

Yeah, well, both, both ways, you know.

And we, we can take a look at it, but I don't know that I'll get anything else out of our traffic engineers, because I mean, they, they, they reviewed it, but just other than telling them that, you know, it better still happen, you know, if trucks are still going down there and, you know, do we need to increase our, our size of our signs or,

Well, once you turn in either end, you really got to go somewhere where you think you can turn around because it's a terrible place.

You can't back back out in Route 60 or 29.

From the 29 side, you've had it.

Yeah.

Maurya used to get all the trucks in there in her driveway.

It ain't no getting around.

I don't know what the answer is.

The answer to it is redo it.

But the cost would be, yeah.

Right.

OK. OK. Onward.

Onward.

The next item is the smart scale.

As many of you may know, that project is being considered to be withdrawn from being constructed at this time.

And what we found out prior to when we did our 8-step sign improvement project right there and put in the dynamic flashing lights

We have studied that intersection again and there's been over a 50% reduction in crashes at that intersection since we put those dynamic flashing lights up and our study indicated that those dynamic flashers are doing more as far as reducing crashes

then the proposed R-cut improvements would do that that project would not have a impact on the crash data.

And that's the whole point in doing a safety project is to reduce crashes.

And basically what our study indicated was that

going further with this R-cut project wasn't going to yield any results for the amount of money we were going to spend.

So that project is being considered

to be withdrawn.

Mr. Carter is, I think, Steve, you got a letter from our district planner talking about it and a copy of a, and a letter that's basically asking for the board's concurrence in withdrawing that project from a smart scale project.

And there was one other thing

Another item that came out of the new study was that due to the steep grade and the amount of time it would take those trucks to turn a car.

A car would be

Carl and Pete would have called up with them and we felt like the study showed that the rear end collisions would go up at that location because of that steep grade.

So for those reasons, VDOT would like to withdraw that project from being constructed and basically we need the board's and the county's concurrence.

The question was asked, where would that funding go to?

That funding that was given for that project would be returned to Lynchburg District grant monies.

And that's money, construction money that is exclusive to the Lynchburg District.

It's not in the statewide pot for competition.

And that money could be put on the 29653 project at Oak Ridge to advance that.

So it's not like this money is going to go back into another locality.

That money could stay here in Nelson County and be applied to that project.

In the future, we would still want to continue to monitor that intersection down there, 6th and River Road.

In case we, the traffic data or crash data changed, we would still want to monitor that and if necessary, you know, consider an alternate project there instead of the one that we have proposed, so the county to put in for

So that's kind of what we like to do.

This has been discussed with our CTV board member and I'm pretty sure he's on board with it.

But CTV, this is going to happen fairly quickly as we're approaching

preparing a new statewide six-year plan.

So to answer your question, when do we need that letter back with you all's recommendation or agreement to withdraw that project?

We would need it pretty quick.

Need it pretty quick.

Any questions?

Whatever happened to the other end

I thought that was already in that Smart Trail thing, six and one fifty-one at the fire station.

Someone told me it's not on the plan, man.

I don't think that made the cut.

That would have been, that wasn't selected.

That was round four.

That was round four submission.

It has already been accepted.

I don't know.

It did score high numbers.

That intersection and 840 and 151 were both made that cut a couple years ago and now, you know, they've readjusted them and

6 and 151, that was a roundabout wasn't it?

That was a roundabout.

I think isn't that like all of our smart scale plans?

Pretty much.

Pretty much all of our smart scale plans aren't going to happen.

I said, it sounds like most all of the smart skills that we had endorsed in years past aren't going to happen.

Is that correct?

No, I mean, this section 29 archive, I mean, it was selected, it scored well enough to be included.

I don't know of any

No, I understand, but yeah.

Well, that's the one at Avon.

Mr. Harvey, I'll follow up on those.

I will guarantee you in the last three or four years that they were selected.

But I'm thinking they were around, they were around four projects.

So we just took

We just, round five is coming up.

Section 151 definitely needs to be a hit of 840.

Okay.

I agree with that.

to include comment about the county retaining that funding.

If the board agrees, as Mr. Harvey pointed out, we could emphasize the 6 and 151 intersection.

Mr. Youngblood suggested the Oak Ridge Road improvement.

So either one of those two are projects that have been applied for but not funded today.

So I definitely think the board should authorize us if you

The key is if six of the 150 owners or even if they're not

approved projects.

Yes.

Yes.

Steve, would you like me to

Would that be better?

We need it soon.

The other thing is they said it won't even fit.

The R-Cuff?

The R-Cuff?

I just don't understand that anyone actually designed that.

I mean, there's courage in tracking traders to do a U-turn and 29 in front of shavies.

I just can't believe that's a design someone came up with.

So yes, we completely support doing away with that problem.

As long as we get to keep the money.

And I don't have a problem

doing away with that project if we can put a little pin in what happens with money until we hear back from you.

If you need approval from us to do away with the archive project.

Well, what I would like to do is get that information back to you all quickly.

And I'm talking about tomorrow.

and you all disseminated and Steve, find out what the options are.

I mean, find out if the 29 Oak Ridge Road, is that the only project that is eligible for that?

Because that's a good question.

That's a very good question because that's, you know, just what Mr. Harms said.

The other question is, can we vote to do away with our project today pending use of the funds after we hear back from you?

If I may, I'll just be cynical and tell the board that it's probably just a polite request from VDOT to do this.

So Mr. Carter, you can draft that letter after you get the information from us.

Yes.

Okay.

Do we need to make a decision tonight about dropping the ARCA?

That's probably up to you all.

I think we might as well drop it and then put your fight up forward.

The Elk Ridge is an approved project.

It's an approved project.

It's important to discuss it.

We'll check our records, confirm with VDOT, but we can write the letter, let the board see it, and then confirm, does the money go towards Oak Ridge or can it be used otherwise?

And let you know that as well.

OK, just consensus or a vote.

If I may, as Mr. Brown said, the transportation board is either in process or getting ready to conduct

and some of the previous meetings.

And Nelson County, we pretty much exhausted our whole list that we've been working off of for the last few years.

This list that you have before you is just a list.

It's just a list of unpaid roads that could be considered

and Project.

Some of these roads have come through requests from the board.

Ball Mountain, right 643 Worker Wheel, Honeysuckle, and Cow Hall.

Those are recent requests that I think y'all have brought to me over the last year.

There are some routes on here that I put on here.

Route 814 Campbell's Mount, we have one section left up there to pay before we get part surface that entire road all the way to the parkway.

That is a very, that would be a very good improvement.

We have a section of Cedar Creek 654 we've been

Progressing our way through there.

We've paved over two miles through previous years.

That is one that we would like to complete.

Jacks Hill, around 666.

We had an initial project on that, but that was completed a couple of years ago.

We still have about eight tenths of a mile to complete.

Honey Lodge Road.

I put that road on there because that is the section of Honey Lodge that picks up at the current end of the hard surface.

That takes it down to the intersection of Adile.

They did Adile last year.

It's kind of closing the loop.

You know, just it kind of makes sense to do that.

Jennings Creek was a request from, I don't know if they came from the board of it, but we got that directly from

Citizen, Benson Entrance on Buffalo Station, Route 606, Gullleysville, there's a section over there that we, there's a section over there that had major drainage issues that we had to hard surface to get the drainage in order.

That would be a good road to tie all that together.

And, Fork Mountain,

you know the that is the last that is the last plan in the current six-year plan we did all i think we've got all you know i'm wrong right mountain doesn't look right we've got a mile of that

We got a model of that.

I thought it was Fork Mountain.

I don't know man.

Do we have a Fork?

I don't even know.

Yeah, we've got a Fork Mountain.

Right here.

And then, I'd like to refresh that in my mind out here.

I don't know.

Fork Mountain.

Then of course, Colorado.

That's been a recent request.

I put Berry Hill on there, Berry Hill Road on there.

That road is starting to see a lot of development overall from the eight-hour end.

There was a lot of tracks of land where farmland had been changed on the ship and stuff about it.

It's a very, very, very nice, you know, very nice lot of houses being built in there.

But we don't want to encourage it.

Fix the road.

The East District will take their allocation.

How did the Ball Mountain get in there?

We've got to do a special count on that.

prior to going in the plan.

Absolutely.

You made that up.

Well, I'm just saying it's paved partially if I'm not mistaken.

Well, if any at all.

No, it's not paved at all.

And there are about four or five houses that are down that road now and they've been

Normally what we'll do, we'll take a, we'll request a new count on that road.

I've heard that Cedar Creek Road is expressed in the past as a priority.

Cedar Creek, it's a Cedar Creek project in the current six-year plan that does not complete it all the way.

Well, the next project that we do, we get past the last houses except for the one right at the end at Phoenix.

I guess that's Phoenix, yeah.

But, you know, I'm sort of open, you know, it's

The reason people want to complete it is you look down there in Norwood, where they're going toward Lynchburg, it's much shorter.

It's a road.

It's not a lane or anything.

These roads where we've been working on them for a few years, one of the really drawbacks in taking several years to build an unpaid road that's three or four miles long is you get a project done, you do a section of it, and it seems like it's 10, 15 years before you get back to doing the rest of it.

And that has been a concern from

It's a concern for some of the past board members and it's a concern for some of the people who live on the road because they would, you stop just short of my house.

Well, we had stopped somewhere as far as project limits.

So I guess I would encourage us to finish the roads that we have been trying to complete.

I certainly think they should be a high priority to finish what we started.

But as far as the rest of them, I'm open.

Davis Creek Road, I know when we did that last section of Prairie Lane, we overestimated the disowns of, what is it?

Davis Creek cost, I don't see that cost of $200,000.

I see that cost about half of that because really all we got to do is surface street it.

What is the public hearing?

I said we present it as is.

If we make it justice we can make it.

Yes, when we do the public hearing, I'm going to present a draft of the six-year plan, and it'll be prepared and updated according to what was in the existing plan, and it'll be updated according to how we prioritize this list because when we update the six-year plan,

It's going to pull some of these projects off this list right here.

It's going to pull some of those projects, especially in the fifth and sixth year of the plan.

I mean, the first two or three years are probably pretty much in place.

You know, those projects have worked their way up from this unpaid road list to go into our six year construction plan.

And generally, you know, unless there's something

Something has changed you.

Most boards don't change those unless they have a very compelling reason.

Because, you know, citizens requested those projects and they worked their way through the plan.

So, you know, you can certainly change the project, any project.

So, you got to be careful with that.

This Gullinsville Road, I thought they had, that road can't be much over that distance.

Is that off of Adar?

She didn't want to improve?

We had to deal with a drainage issue down there that was being

causing damage to a person's property.

And the only way that I could resolve that on corrective was to pay a section of that road.

But there's a probably, there's probably three or four tenths of a mile from eight out to where that pavement starts that's unpaid.

And somebody asked me, why didn't you pay it all the way to eight of us?

I can't do it.

and Dylan Smith.

I can't support that.

Yeah.

She just jumped up and down.

That's your project to deal with.

I don't have any problem with the priorities the way they are.

Yeah, it's been... What about in 15 years that people have been asking for roads?

Which ones?

Well, I only get that.

As far as, you know, I said I didn't list these in any priority because they're just a little less.

That needs to be finished.

Jack's Hill needs to be finished.

Those two, those two needs to be finished.

Whether you want to finish Cedar Creek or not, that's dialed up to you all.

And ones that are still being, are kind of piecemealed.

You haven't met in the middle yet.

We haven't met in the middle yet.

So that would mean Campbell's Mountain, Jacks Hill, and Cedar Creek.

Cedar Creek.

If you notice on here, there's none of them in the north district either.

Well, it's because you've got all yours done.

Thirty-two years.

Now, looking at the purple wheel and how they suck the line, one of them's

They're at low cost.

Well, I think that would make sense with if you do ball mountain and they're right next to each other.

You want to put those three requests as four, five, and six?

I think that's fine.

That hunting lodge right there, I don't know much about it, but I mean that's going to take just about two projects for what that's going to take.

And that connects up with?

That would connect it with the section of Adow that we just.

You mean Ariel.

Ariel.

No, Adow.

Yeah.

Ariel.

That one closed the loop.

That one closed that loop.

Yeah, we need to do that.

And you know, Skip, at some point, and I know we've shared this road a little bit, what's that road off of Brown's Cove that goes to the top of Eagle Mountain?

You know, that connects, what is that?

No, not Deer Run.

It's the gravel road that goes from

to the top of Eagle Mountain.

It's something like that.

That needs to get paid because that cross over is used a lot, especially by people coming from Shipman going down to toward Wojciello Way.

Do you know what I'm talking about?

Yeah, it's Eagle Mountain.

That would be great to do a study on that.

It's extremely high traffic.

All right, so if you're taking Brown's Cove,

and you're about to end it.

It's half your district.

We split it now.

Brown's Cove, you get, it's right, you know where Deer Run is off 56, so take a left on Deer Run.

And then it meets Brown's Cove, which heads towards, like, my way.

That little area that's a crossover, that needs to be done.

I mean, that's, one, it's treacherous in bad weather.

Two, it's a confused a lot, like a lot.

It saves probably several minutes.

Yeah.

It's Eagle Mountain.

No, it's not that.

No.

This is Kunhala Eagle Mountain.

Yeah, 56, yeah.

What is it?

We're up to number, we're up to six.

We've got Reynolds Mountain 1, Jacks Hill 2, Cedar Creek 3, Ball Mountain 4, Whipple Wheel 5, Honeysuckle 6.

So how do y'all want to do the rest of them?

Not only is it a mess on the 56 end, but then it's a drainage issue that's keeping people from getting home when I get water.

Let's keep Davis Creek up there too.

Yeah.

Does that have Humphreys?

That's your district, Humphreys.

Are you going to go to Davis Creek next?

Yes.

That'll be it?

Oh, Davis Creek.

I wasn't going to say anything.

Why is David getting all the rest?

Are we pioneering?

Yeah, I think we'll just stop there and see what happens.

The rest of them can just slip.

Throw them in there somewhere.

We're going to spend some more money?

Well, just to give you a rough idea, we get between $500,000 and $650,000.

Well, let's work these out.

And I'll just, the ones that are below number eight, I mean we could, I'll just keep them on the list and not prioritize that way to keep them in front of everybody.

And if we need to, if we need to do something, we can revisit those.

I know in the last year in 19, we've got,

It should be year five of the plan that we're going to prepare.

We did not allocate any of that money.

So we've got about two and a half years of the last six year plan, the latter years, that that money is not going to apply to any projects.

And everything that was in the plan was fully funded.

So we're going to just list up pretty quick.

And that's good.

That's what we want.

That's good.

Robert, I think in past years y'all have done a color-coded map of them.

So can you do that again?

I'll be glad to.

Okay, Mr. Brown, you got what you need from us?

Pardon?

You got what you need from us?

Yes, sir.

Okay.

Yes, sir.

Well, thank y'all and, you know, we had a lot to do.

Yeah, we're grateful.

We really just skipped last year.

So, a little more to it, but thank y'all very much.

Okay, thank you.

Mr. Chairman, I recommend that we approve Resolution R 2021-25, the authorization for public hearing fiscal year 22, fiscal year 27, secondary six-year road plan and construction priority list.

Second?

Mr. Parr?

Yes.

Mr. Rutherford?

Yes.

Yes.

OK, new and unfinished business, establishment of the 2021 tax rates.

If I could give our report of our meeting yesterday on machine tools techs, pet techs, that way we could address that, that would be great.

Mr. Chairman?

Yes.

Is that okay?

What is it?

Yeah, as soon as the committee, the committee we met yesterday.

For us to meet with, to talk about machine tools techs.

I just wanted to give you what we learned.

We learned a lot.

All right, so one thing that we obviously, and I'll read the pet packs for reports, but one thing that we learned about the machine and tools tax is on our revenue side it shows, historically it would show like 56, 60 some thousand dollars, it turns out

The machine and tools tax money is a good, a large portion of it is being collected in the personal property section.

Right.

Yeah.

What shows in our report is machinery and tools is there's more to it than that.

Our report just shows about $70,000 of revenue.

There is machinery and tools that's included in personal property.

And so that's about another

So it's a lot more than we thought.

Yeah, and I think that was something that staff also learned, and I think one thing that would be healthy moving forward is that we can kind of see that and get the whole story of what machine and tools tax is.

So we learned a lot.

I don't think we need to address anything on machine and tools tax, especially since what we learned

So it's not changing the accounting it's just one thing I ask Candice if there's a way that we can just break it out just so we know in our heads that because we don't need to see machine toolery as just $69,000 because that's though true but also inaccurate

You know, explanation of what we're actually collecting.

There's a lot of trucks that we collect that are being, that revenue goes into personal property, even though they're taxed at the machine and tools tax rate.

So there's some of those things I think Candice, she can figure out a strategy for the next fiscal year, how we can see that separated.

That way, I mean, it's good for us to know that.

I know that people are being taxed at this rate, but it's showing up in here and we don't get to see it.

So, Candy, are you going to work on that for us?

So every year the board is charged with setting the tax rates for the current calendar year.

If you are proposing no change in the tax rates, a public hearing is not required.

The proposed rates for 2021 remain the same as the current rates for 2020.

For real property tax, it's $0.72 per $100 of assessed value.

For changeable personal property, it's $3.45 per $100 of value.

The machinery and tools tax is $1.25 per $100 of assessed value.

And the mobile home tax is also $0.72 per $100 of assessed value.

You ready for a question?

I am.

Sharon, I move that we establish the 2021 tax rates as they were, essentially they're not increasing and they're not going down.

Keeping them flat.

Keeping taxes flat for 2021 tax rates.

So our 2021-22.

That's my motion.

Yes.

Second.

Mr. Barton?

Yes.

Yes.

Mr. Parr?

Yes.

Mr. Reed?

Yes.

All right, the board is also annually charged with setting the percentage by which the personal property tax relief that we received from the state is distributed based on the qualifying vehicles.

And we are proposing that this year the percentage be reduced from 39% to 38% via Resolution 2021-23.

This will distribute approximately 1.6 million or 98% of the $1,708,030 in tax relief that we do receive from the state.

No, this change does not require public hearing.

You got a motion?

Yeah, I just want to make sure I understand.

So what's the change is going from 39 to 38?

Correct.

Yes.

And that's a percentage that the Commissioner of Revenue will input into the system and the system automatically distributes that tax relief based on

I don't see any issues with this.

Does anybody have issues with this?

Okay, I guess I'll make the motion.

Mr.

Chair, I move that we approve R 2021-23.

I'll second.

Staff has identified some changes since our last budget work session.

On the expenditure side, two items were identified that are proposed to be included that reduce the recurring contingency established at the last budget work session.

$4,400 for the Sheriff's Department Portrait Grant expenditures.

This grant revenue was included on the revenue side, but not in the Sheriff's budget on the expenditure side.

So we're adding that back in.

$11,136 for the annual subscription costs for cloud-based Microsoft Exchange backup and archiving.

And this is related to the migration of Microsoft Office to the Microsoft Office 365.

And this is to enhance the county's email security.

Additionally, the Commissioner of Revenues Office has provided the real property and personal property valuations through February 2021, which has resulted in increases to the estimates that were included in the introduced budget.

These changes will increase their current contingency as follows.

$25,641 will be added to the FY22 real estate taxes.

And that's primarily due to a reduction in the amount of land use tax relief following the re-application period.

The new total for real estate tax revenue is $18,023,192.

And then we have an increase of $303,023 in estimated FY22 personal property taxes.

This thing is primarily due to the increase in NADA values of used vehicles utilized in establishing the annual tax level.

The new total, including mobile homes and also including business personal property like machinery and large trucks is $6,204,101.

So these changes, in addition to the previous changes,

results in an adjusted recurring contingency of $613,713.

And our new total general fund budget is $42,090,576.

So that's what our public hearing notice will reflect.

Yeah, I've talked about a question about

the land use tax relief.

It appears so.

Not everybody that was in land use for the past six years reapplied.

Some of these could be these larger tracts that are being bought and developed.

The county ordinance requires these applications to be made 60 days prior to December 31st or January 1.

And the ordinance allows another 60 days

Right, I'm concerned about the ones who just forget and all of a sudden get stuck with alarm.

We can probably get that information from the Commissioner.

I can't imagine that anybody that's in land use, who has been in land use, forgot to reapply.

I mean, that's something that, you know, for people who are in land use, it's part of their business.

I'm sure maybe somebody forgot but I can't imagine there's very many.

No, if you're in, you get an application, then you have to resubmit that and then they review it to see if you will remain.

And just for information's sake, the land use discount amounts to about $3,553,320.

Any other questions for Ms. McGarry?

We don't need to act on that, but we'll need a motion for a public hearing on the recreation ordinance.

No, if you're okay with it, we'll go ahead and advertise the budget public hearing, you know, including all these changes and the new general fund budget of $42,900,000.

What precipitated this consideration of amending the county code to authorize the establishment of recreation fees is, as I reported, I think last month or maybe a couple months ago, the county has been receiving requests specifically writing out for use of the tunnel for various purposes.

We've received requests from a firm in upstate New York to film

of Rock Video at the tunnel.

We've received requests from local companies to have tours with their patrons, et cetera.

And we really don't have any means to address those requests.

So we discussed with Mr. Payne what to do, recreation director, myself, and Ms. McGarry.

And the conclusion was Mr. Payne studied the code of Virginia's provision

and what it provides for us.

It authorizes and would amend the county code that was chapter two, article seven, you know, authorize the Parks and Rec Department.

As it says, such department shall, as appropriate, fix, prescribe, and provide for the collection of fees for the use of the four going facilities, which are outlined in the

Brooks paragraph.

So one question I'll go back and address with Mr. Payne.

In the solid waste ordinance, the board is authorized to establish fees by resolution.

So that may be a change we want to make because right now we would likely bring, if this is authorized as drafted, we would likely bring fees that county staff

or if you have a consultation with Mr. Payne, this could be amended and say the board could adopt such fees by resolution, because otherwise you'd have to have a public hearing every time you wanted to change any fees, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

But the impetus for this is to enable Parks and Recreation to

established these for recreational uses in the county, not private entities more or less.

Well, in some cases, it would be the department's own programs.

So this wouldn't be setting a break, so to speak, on just a family who wants to go look at the tunnel.

This is trying to put something in place for those

because it's going to be difficult in maybe moderate respects to have a fee that encompasses everything that may be presented to us.

But hopefully we can come up with a standard set of fees for things that may be more routine, for example.

But as Mr. Rutherford said, in the objective, it's not to charge the public for use of these facilities.

It would be more aimed at business entities or

Well, you'd have to have a public hearing to enact the ordinance, but currently

Yeah, yeah, I'll note it to the board.

I mean, this is an example of one thing we may want to do, which has been discussed, is just using the tunnel project as an example.

We sort of envision or do envision some sort of a structure or a facility up at that trail, maybe boat trails, to capture potential revenues from

shirts, hats, water, things like that.

50,000 times, say five bucks could make a change.

So if you're okay with at least the concept of this, we can bring it back.

Any other questions for Mr. Carter?

So to update the board on some statuses with respect to the COVID-19 virus, per the Blue Ridge Health District's data sets on their website, check that.

The counties had 876 cases of the virus, which is 6% of the county's current population, which is 150,000, 14,904.

That's per 2020.

Of those 876 cases, there have been 39 hospitalizations with 4.5% total cases and 12 fatalities with 1.36% total cases.

With reference to county employees and this is as accurate as we can make it

The 49 county rec, not constitutional officers, employees have either been fully vaccinated or received the first vaccination.

The majority of the 49 is fully vaccinated.

And the ones who got their first are in process with the second.

22 county staff have declined to be vaccinated.

71 direct employees, 69% have been vaccinated, 31% have declined to be vaccinated.

And with regard to constitutional offices and their employees, of the 44 total employees, 31 or 70.45% have been vaccinated and 13 or just under 30% have declined.

Now regarding county operations, total work for county staff was concluded on April 13th.

That decision was based on all county staff were given access and we followed up on this for weeks and weeks to be fully vaccinated.

And from my perspective, there's really no reason now

Last Wednesday, I reached out to Dr. Bonds, the Regional Health Director, and asked her for guidance on reopening county offices.

I received a

the first of next week.

But the board's concurrence, of course, if you have concerns or objections to that.

American Rescue Plan, we're still waiting on the items from the Federal Department of the Treasury.

We have included just that just under $2.9 million that was understood to be allocated to the county and the fiscal 2021-22 budget, and we'll report to the board

Consulting and Engineering Services for the business part of 2021 RFP number one.

As previously reported, we selected the firm of Timmons Inc. from Richmond, which the board endorsed at the previous, the March meeting.

The contract to Timmons was issued on March 26.

It's been signed by both the county and Timmons.

We're waiting on Timmons to give us their scope of service for the initial evaluation

And most recently, budget.

It's mission carried, reported, and the boards are aware.

Public hearing on budget for next year's schedule for the May 4th at 7 and approval at the May 11th regular session.

We also, as the boards are aware, issued RFP 2021 NCO2

a term contract for Architectural and Engineering Services.

The RFP was issued February 17th.

We received seven responses or statements of qualifications from primarily architectural firms who included other consulting firms as part of their team.

The panel which consisted, the Candice panel which consisted of Mr. Rutherford, Mr. Barton, Ms. McGarry, Chuck Miller, myself, shortlisted those seven down to four,

for those who were interviewed and today we got.

The Piney River Ice Water System, Fredericksburg-based Patterson Construction began work yesterday.

The work is scheduled to be completed, I think, prior to May 11th, probably before May 11th.

We're just glad that finding the companies here and refurbishing this significant primary

On the tunnel, we're still working to close out the documentation for the phase three project.

That's pretty close to being finished.

And we are working on the expansion construction that started yesterday, the Eastern parking lot.

Smith Bailey, it's a local company, was the award of contract, $65,110.

issued the contract.

We consulted internally with county staff but also with the contractors.

There were three trees that are in the project area and we decided those trees should be removed in order to provide additional parking spaces.

So right now, the plans call for about 25 parking

And how many that will be.

The site's got to be cleared and that's in process as of yesterday.

That change order was $6,400.

So at present the project cost is $71,510.

installation of the Dropbox, we fast

Really nothing new to update the board about.

Still in the process.

I did speak just in passing with Mr. Haynes, who's one of the principals for Wampanoag.

He's the principal in charge here and he's here regularly.

He's going very well.

I guess what he indicated without any specificity is they don't believe it's going to be a negative reassessment.

So, if I may,

Asking the board another question about how we're handling this COVID-19 situation.

Previously, I think it was in the board's meeting to simply propose with, we have really no attainable CARES Act funding, federal federal CARES Act funding.

So the board agreed to allow employees impacted by the virus

Our thought is no.

Our thought is no.

Right, yeah, yeah.

I've gone back to that administratively, but when we discussed it internally, the recommendation to me was that it seemed to pull the place, but that's what would be my recommendation.

Can we talk about that jointly?

Sure.

Yes, so we had a very lovely meeting with the

Commissioner Brown and the County Treasurer, Ms. McGarry and Mr. Carter all joined us, Mr. Parr and I.

We had a great conversation.

We learned a little bit about the machine tools tax, which was great.

We all learned a substantial amount and maybe some ways to move forward and have to see that.

But more importantly in that is we didn't have a chance to talk about the pep talks and where some of the many struggles are with the treasurer's office and what reality is and

You know, of course, the cost that we often have to bear making us not have any money.

One of the big topics that came up out of our discussion was doing a lifetime tax essentially for this is a hypothetical number for ten dollars.

It's a lifetime tax and you don't have to pay annually to make sure that all the vaccinations have been done to the animal and also has a record for the county.

And we believe, and the treasurer also concurred with this, is that that would probably be a little bit more of an effective mechanism to encourage people to participate in licensing and paying taxes on their pets.

So that's something that I think we could revisit.

If you only have to pay one dog tag for a lifetime rather than getting a tag every single year, I think it will encourage more residents to actually register their dogs and get the dog tag.

Plus, it's less of a financial burden on the residents just doing it one time, 10 bucks, rather than five or seven dollars every year.

And it will also help eventually, once we get through the cycle, lessen the burden.

Right.

Might that be a disincentive to get yearly rabies vaccinations for your dog, for instance?

That's still required.

It's still required?

Yes.

The treasurer's office has nothing to do with requiring vaccination.

Okay.

Yeah.

And there are many counties across the state who do a similar system for the reasons.

So though this may not be something, I mean, this is something that I think we would probably suggest is doing the public hearing, showing the, I guess we'd have to show the spectrum of what it would be.

And one thing to note, the annual dog tag does not apply to tenants.

Correct.

There's a lot of them.

They would still have the same setup that they have now.

If I may, my suggestion to the board is the lifetime tag, and I have no issue with that, but maintaining flexibility in the ordinance by having the annual tag as well as the lifetime tag, it may be considering doubling

the annual tag from $5 to $10.

Right now, revenues annually for annual tags are about $9,000 for a $5 tag.

If you went to $10, let's just say, for example, that wasn't a lifetime tag, that revenue would double to almost $20,000.

The Treasury said yesterday it costs about $10,000 to do the tags.

So you offset your costs and actually have a little excess revenue

It was to eliminate attacks and to eliminate a lot of work that didn't bring in a lot of revenue on the Treasurer's Office.

And now what's rolling into is we're doubling the work for the Treasurer's Office.

So I would not be, if that were the proposal, I would be going against it.

What I would hope that this board would be receptive in potentially doing is instructing Mr. Payne to draft a potential hearing for this.

I guess that would, I guess it could be broad because it has to show the whole range of what it could be, zero to 50, correct?

We can leave that blank and the board can set it at the hearing.

I'd like to go with some thought.

I don't feel strongly one way or the other.

All right.

I'm still in awe of Mr. Parr's miracle of a leash law.

It's an at-large ordinance.

OK, so you got that, Steve?

Absolutely.

And then potentially revisit that in May or so.

TJ PDC, we had a meeting, there's a potential I could be the chairman, we'll find out, trying to see how things would go, but we do have a transition obviously with the absence of Chip, so hopefully in the next 60 to 90 days we may be doing so much more on filling that position.

Beyond that, I'm trying to think of one of the things we had.

The architectural board, I mean, it's getting met on.

It was great.

It was quick and efficient.

I think it was obviously it being unanimous, you know, the relationship with that particular firm was... Yeah, it's amazing.

Unanimous.

What I liked about that firm was the question was they want to be participants in

You know, not just what we told them to do.

Right, right.

So that was great.

I'm trying to think.

When did we say we were going to meet with the school board again?

Yeah.

Did we?

We haven't said, scheduled that.

Yeah, I guess it's time.

Because our budgets are pretty set and stuff now.

Great, there you go, we got that update.

Okay, Mr. Harvey?

We had reservations, social services,

and I've been in conservation with people in the district and talking to various people about taking the job.

I understand, so I get to appoint that person to the social service board or how does that work?

No.

You still have to do the appointment.

Right, okay.

Which district is the vacancy?

Excuse me.

Yeah.

Which district?

South district.

Okay.

Okay.

I'm on the board already.

Well, I know, but that's just too much.

Well, no, I would think that there needs to be a member from the district.

We have to advertise.

Mr. Barton, anything else?

Is this appropriate time to talk about meeting the school board?

Yeah.

Ernie and I met at the school board, two members of the school board, Shannon and Claire, the other day, and it was a really good meeting.

The commitment of those people on the board to education was unquestioned as the commitment of everybody in Nelson County to education is unquestioned.

We talked about the particular opportunity that Nelson County has to have not just a good school, but a superior school and a school that could meet the needs of all its children.

You know, when attitudes towards school often have to do with the attitudes of the parents and have to do with the attitudes of the children,

and Nelson County has a kind of community that could really reinforce that, that the quality of education, which is good, could improve.

Now, there were some interesting things that came up.

For instance, the board members questioned the idea of why projects that had to do with maintenance

are included on capital investment, whether fixing a roof is maintenance.

It's not a capital investment in your school.

It's maintaining what you already have.

The other thing was when we talked about the consolidation of schools and

and I told them that we had proposed spending $50,000 to study consolidation and they were amazed at that because they had really not talked about consolidation yet and we all sat there and thought that we needed as a community to think about consolidation and think about whether

It is a positive thing.

I think it doesn't make that much difference or it's negative that we as a community should discuss that among ourselves.

I think people are underestimating.

I know our nation underestimates the importance of education.

People who are well educated can think for themselves, can make decisions for themselves that are in their best interest.

That doesn't just happen like that.

We need to have a school system where particularly young children feel secure, particularly young children feel that the community supports them.

We have to really work on community involvement.

And before we decide that we need to study consolidation, and mostly what we're talking about is engineering questions and the cost of operation, we should think about whether we really want to consolidate our schools.

And that is not that, you can't hire someone to do that.

You can't say,

We're going to go to UVA and we're going to listen to the experts.

This is something we need to think about as parents and as members of the community and to come and to trust ourselves because that's what we want our children to do.

We want them to think for themselves and we need to think for ourselves and decide whether we want to do this before we leap into a situation where

We're studying it.

What we're studying is what's best for our children.

And that's how we began that discussion was what we want to do is what's best for our children.

If it's best for our children to consolidate, I would favor that, even though I don't think

Skip, I think you missed the whole point there.

That $50,000 has nothing to do with food consolidation.

I know that, and I would support studying the costs that are saved.

Before we do that, we have to decide for ourselves whether we want to consolidate, whether consolidation is a good idea.

It's not, it's a whole study on the whole...

The whole what?

Well first if I may, the proposal that was drafted that I drafted on recommending the board studying the potential to consolidate the two elementary schools was provided to the school division.

and the severe decline in enrollment in the schools.

One school's capacity at present could accommodate both elementary school's enrollments, but not to dispute Mr. Barton, but there is no intent what was proposed to the board and what we recommended to harm the quality of education

Where are you going to ask that question?

My whole thing is how are we going to continue to fund the school system in the rate that we've been going.

We need to think about that.

Hold on just a minute.

We need to know that.

I mean if it goes in there that it's no difference in savings, well no, I don't want to do anything.

Well that's what we should do initially.

Initially decide whether the quality of education will be improved by consolidation.

You need to get the consolidation out of your mind.

How can we afford this?

I would like to note that Mr. Barton has pretty expertly reported on the meeting that we had.

The information that he gave is reflective of the discussion we had, and it goes

You know, general agreement on what Mr. Barton said.

I would like to say, I think what you have to say is relevant.

What you have to say is relevant.

But also think what you have to say is relevant.

I think that

There's a time where we have to depend on ourselves to think and to reason what's best for our children.

Our children, Nelson County, I mean, what is possible is beyond what we think in education.

But the key to that is beginning when these children are young, that they feel comfortable, they learn how to learn.

Your children are going, we're going to do well no matter where they, my children were.

But my children, my child is no better than anyone else.

You know, my child, all our children are capable of thinking for themselves and those should be our goals in education.

Costs, I understand,

But what we're about and what the discussion was about was how do we make it possible for our children to learn?

But Skip, I feel that you had a lot of influence on those other three and your strong feelings that you have that I don't think was just

Flat out discussion of how I think of you.

I think, you know, I sit here and I listen to you because you have enormous experience in this realm and Mr. Parr and you and others.

But I spent my life teaching your children and I know what they're capable of.

And I know that we do not need to say that this is good enough.

It is possible that we can create an educational atmosphere.

I mean, I've had the same discussion with Ms. Eagle, you know?

And Ms. Eagle, you know, I mean, yeah.

Mr. Barton, you're idealistic.

You are.

No.

Things that I'm talking about, treating children with respect, work, it's not some high, high idea.

If you have a community that supports those children, and bigger is not kinder, it's not, it just isn't.

Now, if you, the community decides I'm wrong, I mean, I'm not gonna,

You know, saying, no, I'm not listening to you.

But for you to say this report, this idea is not about consolidation.

Yes, it is.

Because people think we can save money.

And I'm not talking about that.

I didn't articulate it very well, but the study which the board has included in the budget was still subject to approval for next year.

I still envision that whoever the consultant uses as a sub-consultant for education, they certainly would confer

Move everybody over to one school and save a bunch of money.

We don't want, certainly, none of County Staff's perspective is to in any way go backwards with the quality of education in Nelson County.

Okay, we'll see.

Thank you.

I have nothing else to report because that pretty much covered it.

So, appointments?

I guess we gotta appoint that person at this point.

The PVCC board?

Well, we can do that one, but then the, that lady, she can start now, right?

What is that meeting?

Who is it?

Diane Jacobs?

No, thanks.

Oh, I'm sorry.

She's one that's got me down.

Yes.

I don't know her, so whoever knows her.

I'm fine with that person continuing.

I imagine so.

Is he in your district?

No, you know Tom?

You what?

Tom Proulx.

Yes, real fun activity.

Okay.

Second.

Okay.

And he has been very active.

Yeah.

It's been a good thing for him too.

When Dr. Friedman writes a letter about somebody I usually listen to, his comments about Mr.

Crew, excellent.

Mr. Farb?

Mr. Farb?

Yes.

Mr. Rutherford?

Yes.

Mr. Harvey?

Yes.

Yes.

Are we not done yet?

No, we're not done.

Does anybody have correspondence or directives?

No.

Are we in a hurry?

What time is our meeting?

I mean, I want to bring something up.

So I just, this has been kind of bugging me, but I wanted to bring something up.

So back in, I don't know, November, December,

We were allocated $1.2 million of COVID money that we specifically allocated for internet access in four areas of the county for AEP customers, right?

We said, well, let's give this money to Firefly.

At the time we allocated the money, there was a, I guess it was in the deadline, there was a deadline, December 31st, and I get that.

That was our deadline for that money.

We turned around and gave that money to Firefly.

I'm concerned, it bothers me that just because our deadline on that money got extended, that Firefly has now set back and those four projects, I don't know what y'all are seeing in the other three, but in mine, the brakes were hit and they went other ways, other areas, doing other projects.

I kind of feel like just because the federal government gave Nelson County an extension on spending that money, we didn't necessarily give Firefly an extension on the money we were giving them.

They didn't get that money directly from the federal government, so that deadline should not necessarily apply to them.

I just wish that there was some way we could remind them that those four projects are still a priority for us, that we allocated that money that we could have used for other projects in Nelson

and requests that they put back a sense of urgency on those four areas of Nelson County and getting that internet out to them.

Because I didn't realize it.

I had a neighbor two doors down from me, send me a message just a day before yesterday saying, when do you think I'm going to get hooked up on a firefly?

And I just could not believe that she wasn't hooked up six weeks ago already.

And I just, and I know they're busy and I know they're working hard, but this project was a priority that they had said it was going to be done a long time ago.

And then the deadline got pushed.

I just wish we could maybe nudge them a little bit and say, hey,

So we, I'll speak to this from the broadband authority, we did make, we did ask staff to outreach and send a, ask for correspondence in regards to all of our projects, because it's not just that money, it's also the soon to be 1.25 million that we've also allocated and there's that money involved with that.

So we have asked to get counsel from them and tell us where they're at and what things look like because that's a frustration not only for you but even in Arrington and Shipman.

I mean there are people who have the fiber laying there right on their telephone

And don't get me wrong, I'm not questioning Firefly's business model and their build outs, and I understand there's all that.

This was a side deal we made with them for this money, specifically for the AEP customers in those four areas.

And I feel like when that deadline passed, when the government moved the deadline, Firefly just went back to other projects.

And I wish that those four projects that we made a deal with them on would be

Has that money been dispersed?

A couple of things, David.

Piney River is an underground.

All these were underground.

Those four projects were underground.

It has nothing to do with polls.

Those initial four that we did, the 1.2 million, those were underground projects.

I don't think it had much to do with that.

I understand what they're saying, but they accepted that money.

They were happy to take it.

And I understand it's a balancing act, and I know there are co-op customers out there who are furious that AP customers are getting it before they might get it.

But we specifically said, we will give you this money if you do this.

to another thing because I don't know if it's necessarily a co-op AEP issue.

I've spoken to some of the folks on the ground there because they were working in the neighborhood and they said they have three issues.

One was January, February did nothing but write.

You didn't see that.

The other one was that they ran into was when it came to the make ready work that AEP was impacted by the ice storms down in Texas.

Actually everybody was and even southern Virginia.

So there was a lot of focus that did change in that time period.

Matt, that's not necessarily fiber related.

That was more so make ready related.

So I'm sure some of that plays in there.

But, you know, like I said, our whole intention was to get that correspondence because we have the same prescription.

Oh, yeah, of course.

I made another note.

Yeah, I did.

This is a, you know, as for that,

I think it's a January meeting and update, and we did provide that.

Perfect.

Great.

OK.

Thank you, David.

Now I'm done.

Thank you.

OK.

I'm good.

Can we have a motion to continue to our evening session?

Chair.

Just one more thing, if I may.

If you go back to the RFP on architectural services, you have the reputation as architectural partners.

I'd like to ask the board to authorize us to enter in a contract with that company.

Yeah, that's good.

Well, you know, I should have made the motion.

But the way the contract will work is it's a base agreement and then the board will approve every project that's presented.

One of the things that happened, and interesting,

The other thing I thought was really interesting is I asked one of the previous groups what they thought about rural populations.

Mr. Chairman, I move that we approve architectural partners

excuse me, RFP 2020-21-NC02, term contract for Architectural Engineering Services.

Second.

Second, after you.

Yes, sir.

Thank you.

Mr. Barton?

Yes.

Mr. Harvey?

Yes.

Mr. Parr?

Yes.

Mr. Rector?

Mr. Reed?

Yes.

Thank you.

Mr. Rutherford?

Yes.

Yeah.

It's 7, right?

Yeah, it's 7.

What?

What?

I said 7.

We're going to take 6.

We'd like to reconvene our meeting, our evening session.

Thank you.

Now the evening session of the

April 13th, the board is providing the meeting.

And we will start with general public comments, which does not include comments for which the public hearings are occurring tonight.

So if anyone has any public comments, we'll open that public comment period.

And please step forward if you have something you'd like to tell or to.

It is staff's recommendation that we defer this application until the next meeting.

We request you go ahead and move forward with the public hearing as it's been advertised and scheduled.

And then, as stated, defer the application.

Thank you, Ms. Bishop.

We will proceed with the public hearing on special use permit number 253 for dash 1 dash 58.

Okay, I'm sorry.

Well, we'd like to know what the new information is.

Okay.

Well, we have concerns on our road.

For one thing, they're talking about 20 parking spaces is what's allowed, what's required.

One per every 200 square foot of assembly use.

That's 20 cars.

Or they can put the other 55 to 100 cars that will be coming in if they allow 300 people for events.

Are they going to park them in the field or are they going to park them on Chapel Hollow Road?

That's an issue.

I question whether anybody's done a hydrology study because we're putting another assembly use, and you can call it a farm use or an assembly use, but it's still 300 people that will be using water resources on that road.

The school had to drill 13 wells, I believe, to get their sprinkler system and enough water to serve the school.

So if this place

uses the water resources.

What happens to the houses that are on each road that have wells?

If their wells go dry, do the county provide water to their houses now?

That's going to be a problem.

And if you allow this, you're looking at it for a businessman that came in from another county and not looking at it for the residents who live there and do live there and do their, you know, this is an agricultural area.

And this use is not agricultural.

It's a

It's a party event.

And they can call it what they want, but that's what it is, is bringing 300 people into a small area.

And we'll use the resources.

So unless we require somebody to do something with water study and with parking, there are going to be problems.

Thank you.

Anyone else like to speak on this issue?

There I will close the public hearing and just make note that the board is not yet privy to that additional information yet.

It will be published in the next agenda packet for if it does come up for consideration at the next meeting.

And you'll have another opportunity to comment based on that information at that time.

We won't have another public hearing for it, but you may speak to that additional information.

Okay.

Okay.

Thank you.

Okay.

We don't have to take action tonight.

All right, so that means that's not doing anything.

We don't care.

All right, that's just what we do.

The second public hearing this evening is on preferred zoning ordinance update.

I will just read over the memo really quickly.

In a continued effort to update and revise the zoning ordinance for clarification, functionality, and overall benefits to the county, which is seeming to be more and more important these days, staff will periodically bring forward proposed amendments for consideration.

Public hearing process is required for any proposed change to the ordinance.

This is a set of three different ordinances.

They can be considered separately, if you'd like, or all together.

The first one is removing artist community as a use from the zoning ordinance altogether and removing the associated definitions.

This was a use that was added into the ordinance a few years back and specifically for somebody and it never came to fruition.

Somebody applied for it and went to the Planning Commission and the Planning Commission decided this isn't really a use that fits in our ordinance for Nelson County so they decided they wanted to see that removed from the ordinance.

The second one is updating the definition of a restaurant to remove the language regarding required floor areas for dancing.

The provision is that I believe only an eighth of the floor area can be reserved for dancing, so we'll take that out and make it a little more modernized.

And the third ordinance is adding restaurant as a bar ride accessory used in the N1 Limited Industrial District.

And this was a request for Blue Mountain Barrel House.

We looked into it and realized that restaurants allowed

also in the M2 district and B1 and B2, so it just is more cohesive to also have it as an option in the M1 district.

At their meeting on March 24th, the Planning Commission voted unanimously to recommend approval of all three of the updates.

A facility that provides resident artists with artist community residencies in a rural setting.

An artist community includes art studios, exhibition and presentation space, and temporary lodging accommodations for resident artists.

So all the uses that are listed there can be approved by other means that give a little more oversight to it.

I can see the idea of having an artist community.

I'm sympathetic for that, but it's not you.

I guess.

Right.