Board of Supervisors Meeting   4/11/2023

First, we're going to do a moment of silence if we all please rise.

All right, moving into the public comment section of this agenda.

We have a couple of people who have signed up.

If you've not signed up, you are more than welcome to speak after those who have.

You have three minutes to speak as an individual.

Please state your name and address for the record.

Mr. Reed will also be our timekeeper.

If you are speaking on behalf of a group, please specify the group.

Only one member of a individual group is allowed to speak for five minutes.

Good afternoon gentlemen.

My name is Wisteria Johnson, Shipman, Virginia.

I'm addressing what I've said to be a new law governing livestock management in Nelson County.

And I understand that there has been situations where animals have been getting out of their confines and causing harm, where there has been no restitution.

That's my discussion.

So I agree that there is a need for love.

However, I'm asking that you carefully choose the language in this law that will punish the willful negligence

or the habitual offender as opposed to the many livestock owners that you have here in the county.

Thinking about being created or is being created, I ask that you will carefully choose the language that will still support your citizen, your livestock corner, that tries to do what they need, what they do responsibly when their animals get out and punish those that are individual offenders.

That's my only request.

Thank you.

Gentlemen, I'm William Piercey, 608 Fortune's Cove in Lovingston.

First off, thank you for the opportunity to speak with you.

I appreciate your service.

I know your time is much more valuable than the compensation that you get from other awards hopefully will be made up in other ways.

I was recently at an electoral board meeting

I found that there was a suggestion or proposition, I don't know if it's coming to a budget session or not, for an additional personnel in the registrar's office.

I'd like to advocate in favor of that, if it's not already too late.

That would just be my suggestion.

I know that I registralled because of the additional loans that the pandemic so forth has put on the board that she wouldn't be asking for in any way necessary.

So I'd like to have a key to that.

Another thing, second to electoral, and that is that Nelson County might suggest to the state,

And then we established some sort of a quotient so that we have a level playing field to measure what is the cost of a vote by precinct.

We put in all the resources by the number of people that vote in that precinct.

Then we could come up with a number of apples to apples across the state that would say, you know, how is Nelson County doing compared to the rest of them?

Just for consideration that I don't know whether VDOT representative will be here this afternoon or not is that we determine who it is that is a consultant or a software consultant.

So we could at least get a public disclosure of how this- 30 seconds.

I got one minute.

30 seconds.

I got to do more things here.

All right.

Well, they continuously approve it.

These are real nice, but you can't see them on

Really where we're starting at this year is with Jacks Hill, Cedar Creek, Ball Mountain, Honeysuckle, and Cal Hollow.

We should get those roads constructed this year.

So you see, when we prioritize and add projects off the real rescue priority list to come into the plan, we've got

We've got part of the FY 25 allocation as well as the FY 26, 27, 28, and 29 allocations to program into what is the formal six-year plan.

And if you look at your numbers, if you look at the allocations across the top, you'll see that in FY 24, the county will receive

$628,098 designated unpaid road money.

You see it goes up to, in 25, it goes up to 671.

But if you notice in the third year plan, FY26, our dollars dropped considerably.

They dropped down to 454,996 and remained pretty close to that throughout the rest of the plan.

And that is because, and this is good news, they're saying, you know, well, my allocations dropped.

That's bad news.

No, it's good news.

It's good news because when they recalculate the mileage of unpaid roads in a county, that's how you get your funding allocations for unpaid roads.

Because the board and VDOT, we've been so proactive and successful in building these roads with state forces and building them as inexpensive

I'd say there's still not a lot, but I mean, that number was reduced because of- Do you have a list of unpaid roads?

Not a complete list.

Yeah, I would.

I know, I would say just, and I hate to guess, it was about eight, about 90 miles of unpaid roads a few years ago, and we've done an awful lot since then.

We've been getting four, five, six miles a year.

I would say we're down in the, maybe in the 40s, 40s.

When I first moved here in 1980, half the roads in Nelson County weren't taken.

I will come up with that number and I wish I had it here today.

We keep a tab of that, I just don't have it with me.

Yeah, send it to the board.

But that's kind of where we're at with the plan.

We need to finish the plan.

This is just a rough, incomplete draft that I handed out.

So what I would like the board to do is to prioritize some of those routes right there where we can at least get another couple of years program into the six year plan.

Honey Lodge, and I'll just go down, Honey Lodge, that is a section of road that if you pave that, that will tie in, that will pave Honey Lodge down to Ariel, Ariel Drive, which we hard serviced a couple of years ago.

That will tie that loop in.

That'd be good.

Guinness Creek, that's a little cut-through road that'll bear off 151 to 56.

That road's important.

Buffalo Station, that road is a fairly long, unpaid road.

It's got a lot of steep hills and grades.

As far as lead out is concerned, it would be good if we could get that paid.

It would decrease our maintenance costs.

I think that's one that came from the board, if I'm not mistaken.

That came from the board, from the request of our citizen.

Berry Hill, you all know that.

That really has seen quite a bit of development in recent years.

We're selling off some old farm land.

That would be a little bit with the car garage high.

Wheeler's Cove, that just came up.

The road is five or six miles long, but we got a request through the board to do a section of that.

If we do 1.5 miles of that, that will take care of where most of the houses are.

Most of the houses are.

Pretty densely flooded.

No, I'm saying to the residents of Wheeler's Cove, Dutch Creek, that was done on purpose to stop right there.

No further after that.

There were some folks in there, so.

and we've already taken Dutch Creek off.

I am not familiar with walk around.

Did that come up before this number?

Where is that?

I don't know.

Oh yes, that is the last section.

I don't know.

Thank you for reminding me.

That is the last section of unpaid road in Ruhalla, rather than Ruhalla Lane.

You know, we did those last two sections on the rural rustic a couple years ago.

This is

This is, if we do this section right here, that will complete paint all the roads down Ruhalla.

And then, of course, there's a section of Greenfield, Greenfield Road, 721, we, I think a section was done on the, on the Ty River Inn probably 10 or 12 years ago.

We did a half a mile section on the Norwood Road Inn four or five years ago.

And that is what is left in the middle to Ky Baby.

And I don't know where that came from.

I have.

I was going to have one.

I'm sorry.

Get back there.

I know the reason Bellisville Lane is on, I had a kind of a trying way to answer that.

A few years ago, we had some serious drainage issues on there.

and we had to replace a culvert.

And to make that, finish solving that drainage issue and the erosion, we wanted VDOT, we wanted to pave a section of Gulliesville.

And it's still there.

From what I understand, I don't forget the gentleman's name, but it was the first house.

Well, it was a house, maybe they stuck it up there, a house on the right.

We had a lot of water coming off the road going onto that property and carrying silk and gravel and rock.

That was the main reason that was on there at the hard surface.

That section of the road.

Now part of the village doesn't have a whole lot going on with it past that.

So it would not necessarily mean we need to do it all.

But we can do anything.

Well, I've heard from more than one person, more than one opinion on it.

So I should go back and it's been about two years since I did that.

So I should go back and check with them and see how things are going these days.

Well, I know there was a problem that we had worked on a couple of times and they came up

Small Flash Flooding, he reached out to a state delegate, which got it all our attention.

We went over there and did some serious culking repairs.

We replaced the main culking under the road, as well as stabilizing ditches going up there.

Still, the gravel surface, because of the steepness of the grave, it all puts a stone in his yard when we have a heavy, heavy, minor flood event.

I don't know if it's too much trouble to go back and get that gentleman's name and then I can check back.

So one road I'd like to explore, and I had mentioned this in the past, and recently I've had some folks complain about interactions on this road because of a width issue, but also when it's inclement weather as well, it is Eagle Mountain Drive 648.

It's used as a cut through from Brown's Cove over to 56.

If I'm not mistaken, it has a pretty high drive count too because it is used as a quicker pathway to get to the top of the mountain for 56.

Eagle Drive?

Eagle Mountain Drive.

It breaks off of Browning's Cove and then connects off of Koonhala Lane.

And I think

If you hadn't driven on it, you'd have no reason to.

Very top of 56 on Eagle Mountain.

There's that dirt road right there.

That's different.

That's where I'm from.

Yeah, it depends on which direction.

All right, if you could just put that

So today all we gotta do is send this to public hearing.

Or is this the public hearing?

And I'll say if we could look at maybe putting 648, the one I just mentioned, on the slot where Dutch Creek was.

There is no priority on those roads.

That's really what I need for you all to do.

Does this make most strategic sense for VDOT?

Like going from one road to the next road.

Do you all have a strategy that makes sense?

Why does it not make much of a difference?

For example, if you're at Wheeler's Cove, you know, and the Dutch Creek situation was happening, which it's not, it would have made sense to do both of those back to back.

Huntin' Lodge, you know, that one's a big project in and of itself, so you can justify it being on its own.

Berry Hill and Fort Mountain, I don't know.

Yeah.

All right, Buffalo Station.

So what I would suggest, move Gulliesville to Fort Mountain Spot.

So Berry Hill and Gulliesville are in the same spot, side by side, because you're going to be spitting distance from those two roads anyway.

Where's Buffalo Station?

Now I feel it.

All right, Buffalo Station.

That's in Gladstone.

Doesn't that make sense for you, Ernie?

Well, it does.

None of those.

I think the first three make most sense because they're independently in the middle of their own places, right?

But Gulliesville and Berry Hill strategically would make sense, so.

Yeah.

Move Fork Mountain and Gullleysville so that your top three makes sense to make sense to me because they're all three in different areas and to themselves.

All right.

So Gullleysville and Berry Hill, I think those are fine where they would then be.

Right, Ernie?

Yeah.

For the time being.

For the time being, that can change, but we're getting a good priority.

So it would be Hunt and Lodge, Genny's Creek, Buffalo Station, Fork Mountain, Gulliesville, Berry Hill, Wheeler's Cove, Dutch Creek has been nixed, Walkaround Lane, and Greenfield.

I think that makes the most sense currently.

All right, so Hunt and Lodge, Jenny's Creek, Buffalo Station, Fork Mountain, Gulliesville, Berry Hill, Wheeler's Cove, Walkaround, and Greenfield.

Now, let me ask you this.

Is that something you may want to move up?

I would imagine so.

I think when the board sees that traffic count, I mean, it's high.

I mean, there's no one from the south and the east that hasn't used it quite often, so.

All right, so get it on the list.

Well, I'll tell you what I'll do.

So we'll have a good idea.

I think it's a great idea.

All right.

Is that all you needed from this board?

That's all I needed.

All right.

Is the board OK with that list as I just said it from the public hearing?

You got Greenfield on there.

Is there two Greenfields?

This is Greenfield Drive, and then you got Greenfield that takes off.

Well, he's going to give us a list of them.

We'll send that over to you and you can pick one or two.

Does that sound all right?

All right, guys, this looks good, sounds good.

And Mr. Parr will probably, yeah, we'll shoot him an email too.

All right.

Perfect.

Got a motion to be a second?

Yeah.

I have a second.

Any further discussion?

Yes.

Alright.

Thank you, sir.

Take care.

Have a good one.

You too.

Alright, moving on to the Opioid Abatement Authority Fund application, Shannon Wright.

Good.

How are you?

As the board is aware, the state as Opioid Abatement Authority has funds available for competitive

Applications.

As reported to the board previously, the county has been talking with Region 10 about a multi-jurisdictional application.

The application period ends May the 5th, and Region 10 is here to discuss that application with you via presentation, and then we'd like the board to consider adoption of Resolution R-2023-24.

I'm authorizing our participation in the multi-terrastictional application.

Good afternoon.

I'm Shannon Wright, the Senior Director of Developmental Disability and Rural Services for Region 10 Community Services Board.

Thank you for the opportunity to talk with you today about the opioid abatement funding and an opportunity for Region 10 to partner to expand, Region 10 Nelson County to partner to expand

and the residents.

So first, a little context for the problem.

The opioid epidemic that we are currently experiencing today built in three waves over time.

It began in the 90s with the natural synthetic opioids and methadone being prescribed, resulting in an increase in opioid-related deaths with the prescribing of new opioid OxyContin.

The rise in heroin deaths then began in 2010

due to the heroin market expanding to attract users who were addicted to pain medication.

Then in 2013, the rise of synthetic opioid deaths were significant, particularly fentanyl manufactured illicitly.

From 2019 to 2020, opioid related deaths increased by 38%.

Prescription opioid deaths rose by 17% and synthetic opioid deaths increased by 56%.

Pharmaceutical companies hold some responsibility for the opioid epidemic because they were over-prescribed for a variety of reasons without safety mechanisms in place.

Manufacturers failed to learn about the risks of addiction in promoting the product or on the packaging, and OxyContin was fraudulently described as less addictive than the older opioids.

We're started in 2016 and 2017 as a collection of cases from the Appalachian region,

grew to over 3,000 cases in both state and federal courts.

In 2017, a federal judiciary consolidated all these litigation into a multi-district litigation.

The resulting civil process has been described as the most complex tort case in U.S. history.

Litigation was initiated against both the prescription opioid manufacturers and all the organizations in the supply distribution chain.

After three years, a settlement was reached.

In Virginia, only the state and direct subdivisions, meaning cities and counties, can directly participate in the settlements.

This means only organizations that are parties to the settlement can receive distributions and grants.

Cities and counties and state agencies can partner with various organizations to provide services, but they must adhere to procurement laws and oversee the work.

For Virginia, the opioid abatement authority was developed as an independent body, the purpose of which is to abate and remediate the opioid epidemic and the Commonwealth through financial support from the fund in the form of grants, donations, and assistance to treat, prevent, and reduce opioid use disorder and misuse of opioids in the Commonwealth.

Compensation occurs through an application process.

The funds that have already been distributed to localities and additionally funds

that the Opioid Abatement Authority will retain to distribute to agencies through an application process submitted by local city and county governments.

We're told that those distributions will continue through 2038.

Now let's look at some Nelson County specific data related to opioids.

So what we see here is between 2018 and February 2023, Nelson County's calls to EMS related incidents grew to 175 by fiscal year 22, the highest rate in five years.

The FY 23 data is incomplete as it just goes through February.

Now looking at emergency department visits related to overdose.

For Nelson County, the rate of overdose from all drugs is the highest in the region in 2022 and exceeds the numbers across Virginia.

The rate of opioid overdose follows the same trend as the highest in the region and the highest in the state numbers.

However, for opioid-related deaths, Nelson County is the lowest in catchment and lower

and the county already in place to address opioid deaths.

We're looking at services provided by Region 10 currently to Nelson County.

Region 10 served 598 Nelson County citizens in the last fiscal year, which represents 7% of the total number that Region 10 served across our entire attachment area.

406 of those were adults,

and 192 were children under the age of 18.

In Nelson County, 55% of all adults served have a substance use disorder in their diagnosis and 6% of children have a substance use disorder in their diagnosis.

Region 10 has an established record of effective services where people are satisfied with the experience.

88% of individuals who received outpatient counseling in FY22

reported they were satisfied or very satisfied with their services.

96% of individuals who received case management from the Nelson Counseling Center reported a positive change or no change in their employment status.

And 87% of individuals who received substance use treatment reported no arrests in fiscal year 22.

Region 10 also provides emergency response to anyone experiencing a psychiatric emergency who may need inpatient psychiatric hospitalization.

Region 10 averages nine emergency evaluations in Nelson County a month, with a low of three in a month and a high of 13.

It is of note that the average number of these emergency services responses that includes law enforcement, otherwise known as an ECO, is three a month.

Of those ECOs averaging three a month, 67% become TDOs, or temporary detention orders, meaning someone goes to a hospital.

So only ECOs are in that statistic.

So this is a look at how the opioid abatement funds are being distributed in the state of Virginia as established in the settlement agreements.

As I said earlier, the opioid abatement authority was established by the General Assembly in 2021 as an independent entity to abate and remediate the opioid epidemic in the Commonwealth through financial support.

Financial assistance offered through the opioid abatement

Authority consists of settlement funds paid to Virginia by the prescription opioid manufacturers and companies in the distribution network.

Three national level opioid settlements have been approved by the Virginia state courts as of January 19, 2023, resulting in payments to Virginia.

These payments and distribution of these funds is governed by the specific agreements with the settling companies, a statewide MOU, and the statute establishing the opioid abatement fund and the opioid abatement authority.

And this pie chart breaks down how those funds are allocated for the state.

You'll see 30% are direct distributions to cities and counties.

Those are paid directly to those localities through the settlement administrator without flowing through the opioid abatement authority.

Another 15% are direct

Distributions to the Commonwealth, those are funds that are appropriated by the Governor and the General Assembly.

The remaining 55% are distributions to the Opioid Abatement Authority, which then you'll see to the right the further breakdown of those funds.

15% are distributions to localities, cities, and counties.

Distributions, another 35% is distributions for cooperative projects involving multiple cities or counties.

And this is the

Another 15% directly to state agencies and then 35% of those funds are unrestricted and cover the administrative costs of the opioid abatement authority.

So there's of course a number of funding requirements through the opioid abatement authority and considering potential awards

The board is directed by statute to prioritize programs and organizations with an established record of success, programs in communities with high incidence of opioid use disorder or opioid death rate relative to population, programs in historically economically disadvantaged communities,

and applications that include a monetary match from or on behalf of the applicant with higher priority given to effort with larger matching amount.

In addition, the funds must treat, prevent or reduce opioid use disorder or the misuse of opioids, otherwise they may lead the opioid epidemic.

Restrictions include, they must be conducted or managed by any agency of the Commonwealth or participating locality and they shall not be used

and they have to be new or expanded programs and no indirect costs are allowed.

So Region 10, Albemarle County has agreed to submit a cooperative application and to serve as fiscal agent for accessing the opioid abatement authority funds and expanding services across the Region 10 fiscal, Region 10 catchment areas.

Let's talk about the proposed service expansion that would benefit Nelson County.

So there are three primary parts and programs.

First is crisis response to provide an appropriate level of assessment and support to people experiencing a psychiatric emergency while diverting from involuntary inpatient hospitalization where appropriate.

And this would be a new program, a 23 hour bed program.

They're designed to allow for a period of up to 23 hours during which assessment and stabilization

Services can be provided in a less acute level of care.

These are generally indicated in situations where a person appears at risk for harm to self or others, but does not clearly require admission to a patient setting.

A good example of this is folks with substance use disorders who might be under the influence and exhibiting those behaviors, but over time, another disposition would be reached.

This level of care allows for an opportunity for reassessment and gathering additional data and would decrease overall hospitalizations and improve community connections to resources and supports.

So that's the first.

The second being the CTAC expansion.

That is our crisis intervention team assessment center that provides people in crisis and environment outside of the criminal justice or hospital system for proper intervention, assessment and care.

This program accepts transfers of emergency custody orders based on capacity and appropriate referral parameters.

The emergency assessment for psychiatric hospitalization and law enforcement transferred custody for people who are under an emergency custody order in need of an assessment for inpatient psychiatric hospitalization.

This would decrease the reliance on law enforcement, divert from hospitalization and incarceration for people experiencing psychiatric emergency, and increase connection to services and supports.

Law enforcement would need to work across jurisdictional lines for transfer of custody and how cooperative coverage would work.

And the last piece being community outreach.

The goal

Here is to provide a support for responding to people in the community at the right time, in the right setting, with behavioral health expertise to support, engage, and link to appropriate longer-term services.

Initially, this program would work out of our Blue Ridge Center in Charlottesville, but with funding and staff, there would be an identified outreach team for each locality.

The community response would be to local incidents, episodic

who are not functioning well in the community, and Outreach to Consumers who would benefit from a high-touch team to engage in services.

And this would lead to increased connection to ongoing services and support folks staying in the community.

So the costs associated with the first two initiatives that I spoke about, CTAC expansion and our crisis response in 23-hour bed, that this is total cost for Region 10's whole catchment area in Madison, Nelson County,

would be $1,063,661.

The community outreach team has an additional cost of $300,300 with a total cost of $1.36 million.

All funding requests would supplant, only expand, existing program.

And while there are no monetary match requirements, the opioid abatement authority does give preference to the locality.

So that's expected outcomes.

So the first two things I spoke about, the CTAC and expansion of our crisis services to the 23-hour bed would be incorporated into our continuum of comprehensive system of care.

These three components represent the true crisis service elements when delivered with fidelity to the crisis service best practice guidelines.

We anticipate that based on timing, capacity, clinical presentation with cross-jurisdictional agreements between law enforcement entities, region 10 could divert to CTAC all of the Nelson County emergency assessments under ECO that meet clinical criteria.

A 23-hour bed would divert primarily, as I said earlier, people who are under the influence and in crisis, but who with support and time could be connected to services and stay in the community rather than going to an inpatient psychiatric hospital.

We believe that any crisis response in which a person can be diverted from inpatient hospitalization with a 23 hour intervention will be served in this program.

These two services are offered in combination because they are part of our core of crisis services best practice model, which includes our crisis call centers, mobile crisis teams,

for facilities including our CTAC and our required elements for the best practice continuum crisis response.

Community outreach program is not a service per se, but a connection to services for people in neighborhoods who would benefit from support.

We expect to be able to respond to 75% of the calls received for a response to a citizen or neighborhood in distress with a community outreach team.

BOU and abatement authority has predetermined outcomes that we will report on through the grant period if approved for funding.

and next steps.

So the first application period is underway with some tight timelines approaching.

Here are the steps forward.

By April 15th, we will establish and distribute frequently asked questions.

By the week of the 17th, there will be a stakeholder meeting.

By the 25th, the cooperative project agreement signatures would be procured and establish those initial cross-jurisdictional agreements.

By May 2nd, we would have the application ready for locality review before submission on May 5th.

With initial approval for one year, with four additional automatic annual approvals, within 30 days of funding, we would have the NOUs established and signed.

The request of Nelson County is, do you support the need for the proposed expansion and development

desire to describe programs.

If so, will Nelson County sign a cooperative agreement to be included in the proposal that Albemarle County submits to fund the program?

Will you support cross-jurisdictional transfer of custody for the CTAC?

All right, does anybody have any questions?

Yeah, let's start with that.

and T.O.L.

Well, it's really, yeah, and some of the, all the national and state cases were combined into this one big multi-jurisdictional

No, because at this point, well, a couple things.

I don't know how many other pending cases there are.

This represents just the re-settlements so far between the Commonwealth and the manufacturers.

And then in addition, there will be distributions through the opioid

Well, there's there's money that's separately coming to Nelson County and I can I can certainly get back to you with that exact amount but that's actually not the money that we're asking for because this is money that's sitting in the with the opioid abatement authority and that fund

So that we know localities draw those down until we apply and are granted those funds.

But Nelson County additionally is getting funds directly.

How much is Nelson supposed to come up with?

I don't know when off the top of my head.

I believe this year Nelson County is receiving about $48,000 in direct opioid abatement funds.

And in next year's budget for FY24, I believe we have about $9,000 in the budget.

Right.

And that's not the money.

Our direct funding from the

Opioid Abatement Authority is separate from these funds that are being requested through a grant process for the multi-jurisdictional application.

It's from the same settlements, but it's different pots of money.

To me, the numbers that I see, that would have to be significant, right?

48,000.

It's taken me a while, like hearing this information many times, to have it even begin to sink in.

So there's really a couple things.

So some of these, these are the, that $48,000 is this blue part of the pie graph.

That's money that came directly to Nelson from the authority.

That doesn't, or excuse me, that doesn't even pass through the authority.

That's money that no localities draw down until they apply through this grant process.

Is that what we're doing?

Yeah, first you'd consider being a co-applicant along with the other localities that Region 10 serves and Albemarle County would be the lead applicant and also the fiscal agent.

So the total grant for the entire partnership would be $1.3,000.

Okay.

There's not enough money on this.

It's allowed.

Okay.

So even though we have a great need,

That doesn't mean that the grant would be accepted unless, you know, it would be better if we offer a match.

Right.

Sorry, I was just going to add my understanding from our Zoom meeting conversations on this process is we were not going to be asked for a monetary local match.

There was going to be some in-kind matching that would be involved.

However, using our direct allocation of opioid payment funds would be a permissible use of those funds to go towards a match should you decide to do that.

Yeah, that was my other question is can we

But it also could go back into this grant.

And Region 10 provides services for drug court as well in terms of facilitating.

OK, so maybe it seems more complex to me than it really is, but yeah.

Yes.

So one of the major hurdles was one of the county agreeing to be the fiscal agent.

So without having agreed to that, we definitely know we're going to submit a proposal and we'll complete the

Right, I would move that we adopt Resolution R-2023-24, Nelson County Board of Supervisors authorization to participate in Region 10 Community

We have a motion to have a second.

Second from Mr. Harvey.

Any further discussion?

Hearing none, all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any objections or abstentions?

Hearing none, passes unanimously.

Thank you so much and we really appreciate you.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

I'm delighted to be here again, but I want you to think of me wearing a different hat right now.

I know most of the time you see me in the library and you think of me as being there.

Some of you think of me as being at Ty River in teaching, and some of you may even go back far enough to think of me at Ryan as a teacher.

But now I want you to forget all of that and think of me as an individual that is standing here talking to you from Groh Nelson Library.

I don't want you to think about any of those other things because I wanted to talk about Dolly Parton's Imagination Library and I'm here because of my love for children and my love for reading and knowing that those two have to go together.

And so let's take a look at Ms. Starley's Imagination Library.

Before we look at those two, I want you to think about these statistics about early literacy.

That if you read to your child

Starting at birth, they will have over a million words in their vocabulary by the time they reach grade five, at five years of age.

If you read just one picture book per day to a child, they will get 78,000 words per year in their vocabulary.

And if you read with your child 20 minutes each day, it will not only build vocabulary, but it will build all the free reading skills that they need to develop to be successful in school.

So,

In 1995, Dolly Parton launched her imagination library in Sevier County, Tennessee, where John fought for her father.

And this is what she wrote about him.

Before my daddy passed away, he told me the imagination library was probably the most wonderful thing I've ever done.

I can tell you how much that meant to me because I created it as a tribute to him.

He was the smartest man I've ever known, but in my heart, his inability to read probably kept him fulfilling all of his dreams.

The Dolly then became determined that there would be a way to help children fall in love with books and in turn become readers.

So since 1995, this program has spread all across the United States, as well as Canada, Great Britain, Australia, and the Republic of Ireland.

So here's how the program works.

Any child from birth to age five can enroll in the program as long as there's a program within their zip code here.

Once enrolled, a free book is mailed to them every month.

The first book every child gets is The Linge and the Good, and the very last book they get when they age out, imagine aging out of something, but the last book they get is Lookout Kindergarten, Here I Come.

Now since 1995, and this was done in January of 2023, almost 200 million books have been given to children, but recently I looked and it's over 200 million now.

So if a child enrolls at birth, they will receive 60 books before they age out at age five.

The books will be a mixture of classic and contemporary fiction and non-fiction.

They'll be selected as age-appropriate.

In other words, infants will get more books.

Older children will get longer books.

And they will include such themes as nursery rhymes, safety, diversity, and pay for school.

Now, Dolly covers all the cost of the books.

She has publishing companies that publish these books for her and she pays for all of the books.

But someone needs to fund the mailing cost and the organization of the program locally.

By doing this, a program will become an affiliate.

So in order to become an affiliate, you have to have a 5013C organization that needs to agree to be the financial agent.

You have to have a group that's going to handle all the signups and all the paperwork.

We've got an organization that will do kickoffs and reading events.

And then you need a funding source to be able to pay for that $2.20 per child per month for the mailing cost.

So here's where we are in the process.

And you know, this is something I have wanted for so long for this year.

But here's where we are.

United Way of Charlottesville has agreed to be our financial agent.

They are a 5013C.

which means that they'll get, we send all their donations to them and they'll write all the checks to Dolly, they get all of the invoices and they take care of all of that.

And the cost for our children, we're gonna look at the center column where it says 40 to 60% because according to the Dollywood Foundation, most look-outees get somewhere around 60% of the children they're supposed to be in this program.

So we're looking at $5,677.

If we were to look at that matrix, we need to take a couple of things into consideration.

The first thing we need to think about is we have 667 children that are in this county under the age of five.

So this would reach about 400 of them.

We need to think about the fact that a legislature will pay half of that amount.

And they paid up front.

So that means a little over $2,000 is what it actually will cost us locally.

And they don't require that we pay the money up front and then get it back.

The state pays that as soon as the children register, as soon as they get the first book, they pay the dollar and ten cents.

And then we pay the next dollar and ten cents.

They passed that about two years ago in order to make it more affordable for all localities.

So then,

As far as kickoffs and events, I just so happened to know the branch manager at Nelson Memorial Library, and they decided that they'll do all the kick-off programs and all the events that we need.

From Nelson Library, we'll take care of all of the fundraising that we need to do, any of those extra things that we need to do to kind of be our middleman.

So, I've also been talking to lots of affiliates, organizations that might be able to help

and Esna Worton Club is willing to help us, the Masonic Lodge is willing to help us, as is, and I've just found out Friday, United Way is willing to pitch in as well.

So we already have some funding there ready to go.

Okay, so my request to you is I would like to ask you, if you would the first year, we'll call it July 1, do $2,000 toward getting our seed money going so that if we were to have 100% of the children

We have plenty of funding for it.

And then for each year after that, to give us $1,000 to run the program.

With that in mind, this program can and will have a tremendous impact on the preschool population of the county.

That's before they even get to school.

Having children increase their vocabulary, understand the mechanics of reading a book, retain comprehension through read aloud to their parents,

and all of us in so many ways.

Thank you.

Awesome.

What questions do we have for Ms. Huffler?

Skip?

I just want to say that two of my grandchildren were very disappointed last week.

Anyway, no questions.

So you were just saying you're requesting the $2,000 maybe as of July 1st?

Yes.

No.

It's considered a separate request.

It's not

We have a motion.

Do we have a second?

Second from Mr. Harvey.

Any discussion?

We love it.

Let's do a vote real quick.

All those in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Thank you.

Something non-recurring.

Yeah, I think that would make most sense.

Thank you.

All right.

Before we get into the next round, do you all want to go have a restroom break or do you want to keep going?

Mr. Parr, who wants a restroom break?

We'll take a quick five minute break.

I shouldn't have made this up.

All right, so today we have two resolutions, two resolutions for proposed ordinance amendments, one for the zoning ordinance and one for the subdivision ordinance, both relating to family divisions of land.

So the first, separate resolutions.

So the first one is our proposed zoning ordinance amendment

which would increase the minimum required lot area for family subdivision lots in A1 agriculture and R1 residential zoning districts from one acre to two acres.

And this was recommended by the Planning Commission to come to the Board of Supervisors three to two at their March meeting.

Mr. Reed, do you have any commentary before we authorize public?

Um don't have anything to add on this.

I do have some on the second resolution.

Alright, well, let's go ahead and get this one.

It's in the public hearing.

Move Resolution R. 2023-25, Nelson County Board of Supervisors Authorization for Public Hearing to amend the Code of Nelson County, Appendix A, Zoning Article IV, Cultural District A1, and Article V, Residential District R1.

Do we have a second?

Mr. Harvey, can you second it?

Mr. Harvey seconds it.

And just to clarify, this does not deal with trusts.

This is just what allows

All right, let's do a vote.

Can I ask one question?

It's my understanding that by allowing one acre minimum lot sizes, that's effectively creating a nonconforming lot because our minimum lot size regularly is already two acres.

So after the five year period where it's prohibited from being transferred inside the family, it just becomes another lot like any other in Nelson County.

We're having a public hearing and we can change it after that if we so choose.

What he's saying is if someone subdivides it and doesn't make it within that 15 years, they need to generate cash for themselves because an emergency came up.

Can they sell?

Is that what you're saying Mr. Harvey?

But what if, is there any ability for them to sell within that 15 year period?

Yes, the Planning Commission may reduce the period of years prescribed when changed circumstances require.

So then they go to BZA.

Yes.

So to answer your question, not without other mechanisms.

But they could.

Kind of.

It's within.

Probably would be able

I think the only thing that I would probably agree with Mr. Harvey on is it's not that simple.

Let's say you need to sell your land because of Hospitalville or whatever that reality of life is.

From the point of a planning commission to a BZA, that could be quarterly or as needed.

But if it's an emergency situation, the planning commission would probably take that into consideration.

We're just sending this to a public hearing anyway.

We ain't deciding today.

No one has yet.

You want to?

All right, we have a motion.

Do we have a second?

Second from Mr. Harvey.

Any further discussion?

Hearing none, we'll do a roll call vote.

Yes.

All right, thank you.

Moving on to Resolution R-2023-27, Personal Property Tax Relief.

Yes.

All right.

Okay, June 13th, not May.

Let's get the resolution ready for the screening.

As the board knows, this is an annual

Responsibility in conjunction with setting the tax rates.

The board's charge was setting the personal property tax relief percentage by which the 1.7 million the county receives from the state will be distributed to taxpayers based on the state code, 58.1-3524.

This resolution is the same every year other than the percentage specified, which will

proposing to remain at 39%.

This will, as of today's personal property tax edit book, will distribute $1,585,147 of the $1,708,030 in the state PPTRA that we received.

So this will leave about $123,000

for changes in the upcoming fiscal year.

All right.

Any questions for Candy?

If there are none, can we get a motion to approve Resolution R 2023-26?

All right, we have a motion to have a second.

Second to Mr. Hardy.

Any further discussion?

Mr. Harvey?

Yes.

Mr. Harvey?

Yes.

Yes.

We've got reports.

First reporting on the status of the comprehensive plan.

The last of our four scheduled joint work sessions of the work supervisors and planning commission will be held May 17th at a time to be announced.

This will entail review of draft chapter containing land use and transportation.

The focus group work session on these topics will be held on April 13th from 2 to 4 p.m.

Our county website redesign is moving along.

We're at stage two of the nelsoncounty-va.gov website development.

The full site framework is set up with completed content organization and finalized site hierarchy and navigation.

Well, almost finalized site hierarchy and navigation.

All content from the current site is being cleaned and formatted into the new page templates.

Edits have begun on HTML and CSS for all imported content and testing is being done.

The timeline for a demonstration to get the board's feedback is being developed currently.

Our current website continues to be limited in functionality.

I believe you all received a memo from Ms. Kelly

detailing some of the formatting of the new website and she would like to get the board's feedback by Monday the 17th at noon if possible.

The Nelson 151 corridor study, I think Mr. Reed mentioned that earlier that two public engagement sessions will be held within the study area and our first was rescheduled from April 7th, I believe, to April 18th at the Rockfish Valley Community Center from 4 to 6 p.m.

An update on the Amherst County Solar Project that staff reported on last month.

On March 16th, the Amherst County Planning Commission held a public hearing on the special exception request by Piney River Solar LLC for a utility scale project on property in Amherst County that joins the Virginia Blue Ridge Railway Trail.

Their Planning Commission unanimously recommended denial of this request and a five to zero vote due to viewshed and environmental concerns.

Consideration of this special exception now goes to the Amherst Board of Supervisors on May 16th at 7 p.m.

The new office building, which PMA is working on, has provided us a timeline for tenants for the geotech work at the Cowanville site.

The drilling is scheduled for April 21st, which take approximately three to four days.

Within seven to 10 days after that, tenants should have some preliminary boring logs.

and then the full report would follow.

So based on this, we estimate drilling work to be done by 4-25 and preliminary board logs done by around May 5th.

Hopefully this report will be finalized and provided to county staff of the board in late May or early June, but it's yet to be determined.

On the FY24 budget, the board and staff have conducted budget work sessions on March 28th, April, March 31st, April 3rd, and I forgot, April 4th, with other days to be set at today's regular meeting.

Real estate, personal property, mobile home, and machinery and tool tax rates will remain the same as set in 2022.

The board and school board have scheduled a joint meeting on April 20th from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. just prior to the school board's regular meeting.

The board is being asked today to authorize public hearing on the budget to be advertised and held on the regular May 9th Board of Supervisors meeting at 7 p.m., which you all did authorize earlier in the meeting under the consent agenda.

Let's see, the county attorney has drafted proposed ordinance amendments for tax relief as discussed in our budget work sessions.

These would provide for real property tax relief for the surviving spouse of any U.S. Armed Forces member killed in action and any veteran who has a 100% service-connected permanent and total disability.

These provisions have been enabled by state code, however, were not provided for in our local

Local Ordinances.

Staff wants the board to authorize a public hearing on these ordinances at the May regular meeting for potential public hearings in June.

As far as the Gladstone Depot TAP grant, we finally got a meeting scheduled with county staff, VDOT staff, Mr. Barton and Mr. Rutherford and the Friends of Gladstone Depot.

This will be on April 18th at 10 a.m. to discuss the project and the draft TAP agreement.

The TAP agreement will then be presented for consideration by the full board at a subsequent meeting.

The county has been selected by the Office of Intermodal Planning and Investment to receive a GAP technical assistance grant for a Nellysford small area development plan.

Planning activities include looking at connectivity of non-motorized networks and facilities, preservation of natural areas, mixed-use neighborhoods,

including mixed housing types with affordable housing to meet the projected family income distribution and future residential growth.

Next step is working with OIPI staff to develop a detailed scope of services at which time the dollar amount of up to $100,000 of assistance will be determined.

Another grant award to report on is the Safe Streets and Roads for All Grant Award.

In September of 2022, the Board authorized a letter of support for a regional grant application submitted by the TJPEC on behalf of this number of jurisdictions, and this was to the U.S. Department of Transportation.

TJPBC was notified that it was selected to receive a grant for the development of a comprehensive safety action plan, which will establish prioritized projects and strategies for each locality to effectively reduce roadway fatalities and serious injuries through consideration of policies and procedures, public education, and infrastructure investment.

The next step is development of the scope of work by TJPBC with input from member localities.

Then the establishment of a regional stakeholders group made up of jurisdictional representatives for project oversight.

And then the development of each jurisdiction's goals and targets to be adopted by each of the governing bodies.

There's a local match based on a per capita basis of up to 30,000.

And this is to be determined for each locality still.

In terms of short-term rentals, there's no change from the March report.

No change from the March Report on the Regional Library Agreement Review, and no change from the March Report on Renaissance Ridge Housing Development.

Any questions for Candy at this time?

I don't know if this is appropriate, Tom.

How much of the County is signed up for the Firefly now?

Oh man, we just heard a number.

It's like 50%.

We can find out.

You haven't?

I do not.

Oh, good.

Right.

They did just celebrate their 20,000th connection.

One of the statistics that stuck out to me at the celebration event that Mr. Rutherford and I attended was I believe they said they've laid enough fiber

That was stretched directly from Appomattox County to Anchorage, Alaska.

We can get that info.

They've sent me correspondence, which I'm looking for right now to see if I can find it for you.

But we can get that easy enough.

I have a question.

I can send that out.

Can you elaborate on it at all?

I don't know.

Well, it just recently got awarded, and I think we're just trying to get our bearings on that.

And I think there may be a Zoom meeting scheduled with myself, Dylan, and I think there's a person from OIPI who's designated to our grant.

So we're just getting into it.

Alright, one thing I wanted to point out, I just looked up a report we got from Mr. Barton.

So service is available today at, this is in the second paragraph of the Nelson County update we got in February, at all 9,000 plus locations which have electric meters on Central Virginia Electric in Nelson County.

Of that, there's about 750 of people who have not been hooked up yet.

So that's just the co-op.

It does not give numbers on APCO.

They had indicated in February that they were installing service drops and making final connections in Arrington, Shipman, Findlay Mountain, and Williamstown.

And there are about 100 people there and 800 pre-registered.

So, you know, it sounds like if I were to guess, they're over 50 percent.

Yes, you do.

You got an email.

Alright, any other questions for Candy before we go to board reports?

Okay, board reports.

Skip, keep going.

What are your reports?

Well, um.

Jail board.

I reported on last, you know, we're still working on it.

You know, architectural, you know, we've allocated the money

and that's where it's at.

That's it.

All right, Mr. Harvey, Mr. Reed.

Oh, yes, the service authority.

Report on that in the RSVP.

Here, I got it.

Ernie means to report about if you all want to go to the Schuyler.

It's at the Walt Museum, the Schuyler precinct.

If you want to go, you have until the 12th, so let us know you can go.

That will be on Earth Day, which is what date.

It's the 20th, the 20th at 1 p.m.

So you'll get an email.

So if you want to go let Candice know so she can let Ms. Fitzgerald know.

Sign me up.

All right.

So sign Ernie up.

Thank you for giving me my report.

Anything else to report?

You went to TJPDC.

You were there.

What was new?

Not much.

We have some members in the audience who also attended that.

Like Ernie, I was at PDC, not much to report there.

Housing was a huge topic regionally on what that looks like in the compliments.

One of the big pushes, and I couldn't agree more with them, is as we go forward, let's start talking about solutions more so and trying to get more ideas out there to the rural communities and the urban communities.

But beyond that, it was really well received.

Folks from Nelson County went.

Ernie K. He didn't come skip.

Okay.

But it was wonderful.

So other than that, I don't really can think of anything else I can report other than most of the stuff we were talking about today.

So really happy with how far we've gotten in the budget.

Hopefully we'll be finalizing that soon.

Moving on to appointments if there's nothing else.

I noticed my name on the list and it has a UT next to my name.

Skip?

No.

Mr. Harvey?

Mr. Reed?

No.

I got this really lovely letter for our note.

Thanking our staff for showing the Rappahannock County around the courthouse.

So I'll give this to you guys.

Beyond that, I do not have any correspondence at this time.

Let's go on to directives.

We're going to start on the left side this time.

Ernie, nothing.

Let's get it.

Mr. Harvey.

Where's our attorney?

All right.

Well, we need a fill.

Do we want to take a couple minutes before we go into closed session?

Why not?

Two minute recess.

If you come to speak on any of the permits of those public hearings, there's additional time to talk to those specific items.

If you just came for general public comments, this is your time to speak.

You have three minutes to speak.

Please state your name and address for the record.

If you are speaking on behalf of a group, please specify the group and we will give you five minutes to speak.

Mr. Reed here will be our timekeeper and will let us know when you're getting close to three or five minutes or 30 seconds up to it.

I'm on the home in Shipman that's closer than 75 feet from the center of the road and there's a setback ordinance that's in place and I'm not opposed to that ordinance for new construction but there are a lot of

and a good amount of them are closer than 25 feet from the edge of the road.

And we hear a whole lot about affordable housing and trying to create places for people to live.

But like I said, I'm all in favor of a 75-foot setback for new construction.

But I think where you've got homes that have been there, this home's probably been there for close to 100 years.

And a lot of those homes down through there have been that there should be an exemption from the current ordinance or whatever it is that limits you from, you know,

I think that could create a real hardship.

We'll address it some.

I think we can make a directive.

All right.

Dana, I had you on here a sec.

Dana's over.

2245 Thomas Nelson Highway, Arrington.

I've been a Nelson County resident for about six and a half years now and my property is surrounded by several large parcels of property that there is potential for development.

So periodically I stop into the building and zoning office to see if

One of the properties is owned by someone out of town so I can't really directly communicate with them but recently the last time I was in I was told that they would no longer be able to provide me with that information.

It would have to be reviewed, and they could possibly get back to me in two weeks.

I was just curious why we have gone from a task that was so simple and efficient, five minutes, to something that is just bureaucracy and red tape.

Is there any reason it's public information, it's a public servant communicating with the

So we can't really respond directly to you in this setting because it could create a lot of back and forth.

I understand.

Thanks.

All right.

Anyone else wish to speak in public comments?

Hearing none, we're now going to close the public comment section part of this agenda.

Moving on to Special Use Permit number 867.

Alright, this is a request for a Special Use Permit for a restaurant on properties owned able and agriculture at 72 Saddleback Farm in Afton.

This is at Veritas Winery in the North District.

Property is about 28 acres.

Here representing the application are George and Patricia Hodson.

Resoning 479 from R1 residential to A1 agriculture with a concurrent special use permit for a restaurant was approved by the Board of Supervisors on January 11, 2022.

At the time, an addition had already been constructed to be utilized as a restaurant and required approval of the special use permit to allow public access.

Because the addition was attached to the existing bed and breakfast, there was difficulty determining an efficient and cost-effective method to comply with statewide building code requirements such as firewall separation between the bed and breakfast and the restaurant.

The owners have diligently pursued a path forward and have determined that the most appropriate way to proceed would be to construct an entirely separate facility for the restaurant use.

Because their original special use permit expired after one year, they are required to acquire a new special use permit for the new construction.

Currently, the food is prepared at the winery facility on an adjoining parcel and transported to the farmhouse for service to guests.

So this is the parcel here.

It's Afton Mountain Road, accessed by Saddleback Farm.

VDOT does not have any comments.

And here is where the proposed restaurant structure

As I mentioned, the R1 portion along Afton Mountain Road was rezoned in 2022.

The change has not yet been reflected on our GIS, but we're working on that.

There are no floodplains on the property.

The owners continue to work with the health department regarding subject requirements, and the Office of Drinking Water regulates the public water works well.

If they're going to be disturbing land more than 10,000 square feet, an erosion plan will be required.

All right, any questions for Dylan before we ask the applicant to come up?

We have been diligently working on this process and we've kind of been through a couple of roads and trying to figure out a way to make this most cohesively work with the existing farm, with the existing winery.

As you can see, there's existing structures there.

There's a barn and a gazebo already existing, so the impact on the overall farm will be fairly minimal considering the parking is already there.

The amount of traffic coming to the restaurant will not change dramatically, and with the

We've had actually quite a lot of really positive feedback.

There was an article in the paper this last week that we were in this process and we had a lot of people reaching out to us and saying how excited they were for this.

So our intent is to have a minimal impact and to have the cleanest path forward to have this restaurant operate adjacent to a bed and breakfast.

We've been diligently working.

We've had a great working relationship with the new building inspector, Jeremy,

We're in the process of

Great, any questions for the applicant at this time?

All right well thank you and have a seat and we'll call you back up if we have any questions.

At this time let's go on ahead and open up the public hearing.

I now open the special use permit number 867 restaurant public hearing.

There's no one signed up to speak.

Is there anyone in the audience who wishes to speak?

Hearing none.

of the Special Use Permit number 867 restaurant.

Are there any questions for staff or the applicant?

If there are none, a motion would be great.

All right, let me help you word this.

To approve Special Use Permit number 867,

with the conditions given to us approved by the Planning Commission.

Are there or not?

All right, we have a motion.

Do we have a second?

Second from Mr. Harvey.

Any discussion?

Here, no discussion.

Yes.

Mr. Rutherford?

Yes.

Have a great day.

All right.

Moving on to Ordinance 0-2023-01, Amendments of Chapter 3, Animals.

Candy, Amanda, and company.

We have to remember to continue earlier.

Wait.

OK.

This presentation was not in your packet.

Our apologies.

Good job.

All right, so this public hearing is on proposed amendments to the Code of Nelson County, Chapter 3, Animals.

It is authorized by Resolution 2023-15, adopted March 14, 2021.

So the purpose of the proposed amendments is to remove references to outdated state code sections, update definitions, and remove unnecessary definitions, remove sections that are duplicative of state law,

to implement local fee changes and additions, update penalties for violations to match state law and implement a civil penalty for certain violations, and then to amend Article 5 defense law.

This would amend existing section 3-81, boundaries declared lawful offenses to include domestic

The updated and removed definitions are as follows.

Updated ones are animal, livestock, leasing agency.

Removed definitions include board, pound, state veterinarian, state veterinarian's representative, and treasurer.

Sections removed as duplicative of state law.

These laws remain in effect and continue to be legally enforced.

Section 3-36, dogs or hybrid canines killing, injuring, or chasing livestock or poultry.

This is enforced under state code section 3.2, 6583.

Section 3-37, dangerous or vicious dogs.

This is enforced under state code section 3.26583.

Section 3-39, Confinement and Disposition of Scary Animals is enforced under state code section 3.26546.

And the main reason Mr. Payne recommended that these be removed is simply because the state makes changes to these all the time and there's no

Keeping up with those changes on a local level when we can just enforce these under the state code sections.

We have some proposed fee changes.

The current fees are approximately 20 years old in section 3-40B, the dog adoption fees, which includes sterilization, the December cargo and rabies vaccination.

Our current fee is $70, and the proposed fee is $160.

The basic SPCA fee is $150, and I listed that as basic because they have several different categories for average dog, puppies, and an older dog.

Same with cat adoption fees.

These include sterilization, December rabies vaccinations.

The current fee is $65, and the proposed fee is $90.

The basic SPCA fee is $80 or two for $120.

Section 3-40D, current daily confinement fees for licensed dogs or other companion animals.

Our current fee for that is $5 per day, and the proposed fee would go to $10 per day.

In talking to Mr. Wright, who couldn't be here tonight,

He said that they don't do a lot of adoptions.

They no longer get people that come kind of coming through and checking the shelter to see what animals are for adoption.

He said most of the time when they adopt out animals, it's because a person has brought an animal that they found or has wandered onto their property to the shelter and has said if nobody claims this animal in the whole period, then let us know we'll come adopt the animal.

To propose new fees in Section 3-40D, a dog pickup fee for a licensed dog would be waived and would be $0.

Pickup fees for an unlicensed dog would be $25.

Daily confinement fees for an unlicensed dog would be $20 a day.

And then any companion animal for court-related, rabies-related, and or isolation-related reasons would be $25 per day.

Updated penalties for violations and proposed new civil penalty.

Section 3-71, Unlawful Acts, Criminal Penalties would be updated to reflect the state code section 3.26587.

We propose a new section, 3-72, Civil Penalties for Certain Violations.

This is authorized by state code section 3.26543.

It basically says any violation of a section of this chapter may be punishable by a civil penalty in the amount of $150.

So it's not any type of misdemeanor, it's simply a civil penalty for $150 here.

The imposition of the civil penalty shall not preclude any action for injunctive, declaratory, or other equitable relief.

And then it describes that the money raised due to this section will be placed into the county's general fund.

And any person issued a summons or ticket would be able to prepay that violation.

Proposed amendment to section 3-81, boundaries to declare lawful offenses.

Ordinance 2019-02 was adopted in November of 2019 and amended Chapter 3 to declare boundaries lawful fences, which meant Nelson County went from a fence-out locality to a fence-in locality.

The proposed amendment would include domesticated livestock or poultry and read as follows, the boundary line of each lot or tract in this county is hereby declared a lawful fence to any domesticated livestock or poultry.

Code is new section 3-82, unlawful for livestock to run at large.

And this is authorized by Virginia Code section 55.1, 2820.

When the county became a fenced-in locality and declared property boundaries lawful fences, this enabled local legislations prohibit dogs and livestock from running at large.

Section 3-43, dogs running at large was enacted in November 2020 via ordinance

O.

2020-02 and amended in October 2022 via Ordinance O.

2022-03.

The purpose of the proposed Section 3-82 is not to penalize the conscientious livestock owner whose livestock occasionally get outside of the fences.

Rather, it is to give animal control officers enforcement authority

in cases where livestock are habitually roaming beyond their fences and are negatively impacting the public's health, safety, and welfare and are causing property damage.

The proposed new section 3-82, unlawful for livestock to run at large, provides that it is unlawful for the owner or manager of any domesticated livestock or poultry

to allow willfully or negligently any such animal as to which the boundaries of lots or tracts of land have been constituted a lawful offense to run at large beyond the limits of his own land within the county.

Any owner or manager who allows such animals to run at large shall be deemed to have violated this section, which shall be punishable as a class one

The proposed new section 3-83, Recovery of Costs, is proposed because there are many costs associated with animal control dealing with livestock recovery and confinement.

This proposed section serves to provide the authority to recover those costs and serve as a deterrent to those who willfully or negligently allow the livestock or poultry to run at large.

The proposed section 3-82 provides when domesticated livestock or poultry running at large

are recovered by animal control or law enforcement, then all costs associated with recovery and confinement of such animals shall be the responsibility of the owner or manager.

Such costs shall include but are not limited to the engagement of private citizens to capture the animals, fees for transporting the animals, boarding expenses for confinement by the county or on the property of others, and expenses incurred in connection with sale or other disposition of such animals."

All right.

Just a question I have is, can you send this out to us with a very clear presentation compared to what was sent out?

Sure, I certainly can.

All right, Skip.

And reading the packet that was sent, you know, and I just want to reiterate people who had a public comment on this thing.

There's no intention not to cooperate with the farmers who are

You know, things happen.

Fences break.

Animals are pretty creepy at times.

Right, that's correct.

The people who are suffering from at-large livestock are really, truly suffering.

Like when you come face-to-face with a bull in your front yard, like that's... Now, again, I would look at any other native Nelsonian and they might have a certain way of handling those circumstances, but

I can of course think of this little old lady who called me up and she had one in her yard and she told me to come over and help her get it out of her yard because that was the only option.

I said I might be a little slow getting there and luckily the farmer at that time had gone and taken care of that situation.

This situation was, you know, happened a lot on Davis Creek.

It's happened a lot in Schuyler.

It's happened a lot in a bunch of different places.

Yes.

And you know, at some point, you know, we've made the rule, I get their warnings, but I don't stop.

So and you know, nobody wants to hurt the farmer.

I don't want to see that in no way, shape or form.

And if this comes out and a bad taste of that, we'll do some corrective action real quick.

I don't think anyone disagrees with that.

Yeah, this just gives our animal control officers the ability to have some enforcement mechanism in place.

Well, I would mention to say it's taken a while because when we first started, you remember what those meetings look like.

And to some, a lot of compliments to Mr. Parr, he really helped us get over the edge on the, which one was it?

Dogs.

Like he really helped us get over that edge on that and get everybody in a good wavelength of life.

Let's go to the public hearing if that's all right.

Now open the public hearing for Ordinance 0-20-23-01 Amendment to Chapter 3, Animals.

Ms. Moore?

You have three minutes.

My name is M. L. Moore.

My address is 412 Brown Line Lane, Cameron.

Y'all are probably pretty tired of seeing me.

especially Mr. Barton and Officer Wright.

Nevertheless, here I am again.

I feel like I'm going to reiterate everything that was just said about this.

So I'll kind of condense what I have to say.

I definitely support this ordinance.

The elimination of all that pre-purgative language clarifies

The proposal, as we know, would not negatively impact Nelson County farmers.

However, a few irresponsible owners would no longer be able to go scot-free when they repeatedly ignore the law.

I'm personally talking about four days in the last week.

Large livestock is a nuisance.

They damage properties.

They have great safety concerns.

I think the updated ordinance would cure this behavior.

Animal control would have the recourse to uphold the law, and affected landowners would finally get retrieved.

Thank you.

Any other comments from the public?

Hearing none.

And did we turn the lights out in the back?

I'll make a motion.

Can I make a suggestion?

I'd like to put a start date.

What is this?

The only reason why is I think if you give it one week and animal control gets to call all of those habitual offenders and say on this date I think that would be a good thing or a couple weeks or something like that give them one last chance to take care of their fences again again for the tenth time that's up to you yeah I can be overruled up

Well, what I'm saying is, is they can start making phone calls to all these habitual offenders and say, hey, in one week this takes place.

We can't engage in the public, yes.

You can make it immediate.

I was just spitballing an idea.

Ernie, what do you think?

You can say no.

I think we have a motion.

All right, that's fine.

Someone second his motion then.

I second.

So that would take place as of tonight, so.

All right, I tried.

Make a roll call.

Mr. Harvey.

Yes.

Yes, but I tried for two weeks.

All right.

Any other business before we continue this meeting to a different date?

Okay, hearing none, we need to continue our meeting to what time again?

Eleven.

On the thirteenth, correct?

You haven't talked to him about that date, right?

He was here yesterday.

No, he wasn't.

on the day before.

Yeah.

Is there anything you need to talk about while I do that?

Oh yeah, we'd have to still show up again.

Didn't we say we were going to do that last time?

We didn't have to.

All right, hold on.

Scrambled for a minute.

It's a rough one.

He has interviews for DSS all that day, he says.

That's right.

Budget.

All right.

Monday the 17th.

Can you do Monday the 17th?

Is that tough?

I think this one will.

Yes.

Okay.

I mean, I'm texting 18th.

What time on the 18th y'all suggesting?

One.

Yeah, that would make sense.

All right.

It's real time.

I don't get no sorts of phone calls.

So all right, he just volunteered.

I don't want to make him do that, though.

Let's see.

I don't want to make him skip this.

Let's do Monday.

He's texting me back right now.

I'm going to make him skip that meeting.

It's a DSS meeting.

Can we do it earlier?

Earlier or later?

Monday, the 18th which is Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday

We'll be meeting in this building anyway, and we'll just tell them to make it sooner.

Yeah, I have a hard time making a 12 o'clock meeting, but I can make one for sure.

Let's just do one.

18th, one, two, three.

Alright, he's fine with that.

Alright, someone continue this meeting to the 18th, one to three.

So moved.

Well, you already had, that's why you made your second again.

You second it Skip?

All right, any further discussion?

Hearing none, let's do a vote by acclamation.