is it up
certification in close section pursuant
to subsection 2.2-3712
d of the code of virginia 1960 as
amended
each member of the board of supervisors
upon roll call certifies that to the
best of their knowledge only public
business matters
lawfully exempted from the open meeting
requirements under the virginia freedom
of information act
and only such public
business matters that were identified in
the motions
by which the closed meeting was convened
were heard discussed or considered in
the meeting by the board of supervisors
any member of the board sufficers who
believes that there was a departure from
the requirements
shall stay so prior to the vote
indicating the substance of the
departure that in his or her judgment
has taken place
are there any supervisors that believe
there was a departure
seeing none if you agree that the
matters heard discussed or considered
during the closed meeting were pursuant
only to the motions by which the closed
meeting was convened please signify by
saying yeah or yes tim lovelace yes
luanne wallace yes
carl ray yes
david yes
steve brady yes rebecca die yes
ma'am you have approval to turn the
regular session thank you
all right this
at this time we'll
at this time we'll have our invocation
and remain standing for the pledge
please
let us pray father god lord we love you
we thank you we praise you today father
father we thank you for the rain that
you've given us and we thank you for
allowing us to be together on during
this holidays holiday time father father
we ask you to help us remember those
lives that were lost at pearl harbor
especially tomorrow father with it being
the anniversary we ask you to
forgive us for where we fail you each
and every day father lord we do not
deserve the grace that you have given us
but we gladly accept it anyway father be
with us during this time help us make
decisions that
you want us to make father for it's in
your name i pray amen
to the flag of the united states of
america and to the republic for which it
stands one nation under god indivisible
with liberty and justice for all
let's get on track
first up
okay approval the gym okay pardon
we need that we need to change
um
well you've got the public hearing on
mine
so
okay
first thing we have is our public
hearing that is with the cumberland
plateau planning district debbie milton
pardon we need to
we
well we need to excuse me debbie we need
to add something to our agenda if you
don't care please
steve will you please make an amendment
and to add
the uh resignation that we got today for
mr kirby meadows and
we'll put it at the right before
citizens comment
that's all of their appointments and
board okay
i'll make that motion that we insert
that at that point and approve the
agenda at that point thank you all right
do we have a second to amend the agenda
and
add that
second thank you tim any further
discussion
all right all those in favor
great thank you okay air first is with
miss debbie milton with discussing the
belfast water line extension phase three
a dhcd grant
good evening you all um
we were awarded that grant by um the
department of housing and community
development um we're in the process of
getting under contract uh that's why i'm
here i
i have the documents here that need to
be approved
but
the total award for the grant was 640
thousand dollars
and the total project cost will be 799
950
uh to hook up 54
homes
in the project area um
once we get under contract um
and these forms are signed i will submit
those to dhcd they will at that time
send the contract for lonzo to sign
we'll return it
and then we can start construction so i
don't expect that to take very long
depends on the weather this time of year
of course how it goes but
um
i'm not sure if they put it in your
house agenda but it's a um
administrative agreement between
the county and the covering plateau for
us to manage the grant
also you have an agreement between
the county and the psa the psa will
construct the project and they will also
operate maintain the project so there's
one
and um
we've been blessed this year in russell
county the daint sewer project's been
funded and also
i've just applied for the tiller trailer
park and i expect that to be funded so a
lot of these documents have to be redone
per grant some of them we can use again
so not always will you have to sign
these but some i will be coming back as
we get in under contract with each grant
there is also a certification of
signatures that's just
allowing the the bank account to be set
up where the money comes
and then an anti-displacement
uh plan in case anyone has to be
moved from their home for any reason but
i don't see that happening we also have
to do a non-discrimination policy have
it signed and it has to be posted at the
county offices
and then we have an employment plan
plan here to be signed all that says is
to the best of our ability
that if harvey hires anyone he'll try to
do it
from the workforce in russell county if
he can if someone's looking for a job
he's going to try to do that and that's
what i
have and some of it's for the chairman
to sign some it's for lonzo to sign so
um anybody have any questions i'll be
glad to answer them if i can
that's all i have thank you it's nice to
get
money for a project that's well needed
and this is in the belfast area
all right any other further comments
all right the next thing we
motion yeah close our public hearing
there's no other comments any comments
from the
all public
yep we'll have a motion to uh and chair
i'll make a notion that we
accept approve all of these documents
that debbie's presented and authorized
uh the appropriate county official to
sign those documents whether it be the
county administrator or the chairman
okay i'll say
any further discussion
all those in favor
anyone opposed
all right
um next thing is the new business the
and that is the approval of the minutes
and the only thing that i saw in there
is um
burke r tripp's name is spelled b-e-r-k
not b-u-r-k
so just the change of uh someone's name
it's b-e-r-k
so do we have a motion to accept our
minutes from last meeting
i'll make an emotion uh with the changes
you've noticed just that name spelling
all right do we have a second
second lou
any discussion
all those in favor
anyone opposed
now we have the approval of our
expenditures
we need to pay our bills we have a
motion for that
i'll make that motion all right thank
you carl oh a second second david thank
you any discussion
all those in favor
all right now we have our committee
appointments for board considerations
the first one is the appalachian
juvenile commission it is for a
four-year term
and previously that was
our
county administrative secretary vicki
port so was
there this i'll make a motion to
reappoint vicky all right second
all right any discussion
all right all those in favor
so we will reappoint vicki to that
cumberland mountain
community service board that's mr james
mounts and mr david eaton
madam chair i'd like to make the motion
that we are
unless anyone has um any reservations
about
we haven't heard from any of them except
we had a lovely letter uh concerning mr
eaton which i want to bring to
everybody's attention that they said
that he had done an exceptional job and
david when we placed you there we knew
you would
so um i'd like to reappoint james mounts
and david eaton to this board please all
right do we have a second second
tim all those in favor
pose
all right our highway safety commission
is for two years is linda cross that's
the two-year term ends december 31st
madam chair i'd like to nominate linda
cross again for that committee please
all right
second i'll second it david
any further discussion any other names
all those in favor
people inc financial board alicia
mclaughlin it is for a three-year term
the current one does end december 31st
i'll re-nominate alicia okay
steve
all right any discussion all those in
favor
all right our planning commission
and this was to be
mr worst christian and at large position
and he did send us an email if i
understand that he will be out sick
tonight
i'd like to nominate scott mclaughlin
okay
at the request of orris i would nominate
charlie edmonds um
that puts me in kind of a spot there but
i
would have the two
uh because we were doing one per
committee member right
no
so
katie
since there since there is none at large
and then that and david doesn't have one
there are
two spots that can be there
and we need them and we need them so
again the statue statute i looked up was
five to 14 members it's just however the
board wants to limit it so i mean that's
i mean that's up to the board you have
the flexibility to appoint up to 14.
it's just whatever you all want to do
and that would give each one of us
representation
so can let let's um
i get one at a time let's do one at a
time how's that
10 my second davids okay so scott
mclaughlin so all those in favor of mr
mclaughlin
tim no second
times
okay
mr edmonds
what did you say
all right
any discussion any further thoughts on
these two all right
all those in favor are putting mr
edmonds in
okay that feels everyone gives
have representation
the next thing is we do have a
vacancy on the russell county public
service authority
there was a resignation
and so we do have
that and i believe with that when we
consolidated
we gave everyone an equal opportunity to
have a representation and david i
believe this was your
person
who resigned chris died well one thing
before i nominate this person i'd like
to say i really appreciate chris
and what he brought to the authority
with his expertise and i've had a
discussion with him i really hate to see
him come off that board he done an
exceptionally great job but i like to
nominate
steve perkins
all right
any further thoughts all right
give it a second i'll second it okay
tim
or any of the fights
are all those in favor
anyone opposed i can't imagine this
because it's your appointment david
thank you
all right the next thing we received a
letter for and we will need to accept
the resignation of mr kirby mattis and
i'll read it attempt may concern i cover
meadows wish to give notice to the
members of the russell county board of
supervisors that as of tuesday november
16
i do hereby resign as chairman and
member of the russell county planning
commission
this letter will serve as my official
resignation effective immediately
and i did call kirby and speak with him
and he is
he is very very busy he has done an
excellent job i believe he told me that
he was he had been chair for 22 years
on the planning commission but he said
with his job and working for five
different companies he is no longer
having the time
he can to
put to this so at this time we'll uh
ma'am chair i would i would think
everybody has a member on this planning
commission now
so including that large with seven
members i think we should just leave
that one
unfilled
and we're at where we had thought we
were going to try to be
i'll make a motion to accept his
resignation okay thank you steve i'll
second it second all right all those in
favor
all right the next thing is we will open
the floor to our citizens comment period
if you don't care
we thank you dear
uh you'll state your name your address
and your concern we have three minutes
okay we have mr bj king twenty dalton
street cedar bluff the noise ordinance
she will be speaking to it yeah she does
have it and she's got
katie there's three the original a new
and
uh
other thoughts right
okay but we do hope
thank you mr king
next we have mr greg hancock
and i can't read your address sir if you
wanna
this is just a comment period it's not a
time where i'll be answering any
questions
unless you're taking the fifth amendment
which this is not a criminal proceeding
i'm going to ask when i'm going to get
the answer to my question
as to whether the letter ordinance
applies
to
lot 10
in green valley and state subdivision
and number two
when if ever
the county is going to take action on
and i've been asking that for two
years you guys have got my
emails there
this is ridiculous
i came prepared to
do a song and dance but you know what
uh
i
told my
the residents of my subdivision
that we had a way that we could enforce
that ordinance
but
i said
that we ought to wait and see if the
county won't do it
and i promised him i said well it ought
to be easy to get
uh
a
an opinion from the county
but you know what
uh it has not been
uh
my first
email
to you guys not my first contact but my
first
email
was in february 2020
then i had a
ultimately i didn't get anything so i
asked for a
conference call with you and lonzo
i think in september of 2020
and i was promised
the response
legal response
soon thereafter from you it was
telephone conference call with you and
alonzo
well
october came on us
this is 2020.
more than a year ago
you hadn't gotten it done
i hadn't seen anything from you
i don't know why it's so hard to say yes
or no
uh
so i got
uh you and lonzo on the line and alonzo
said you were
busy
so i think
it was said that you would be back with
me in two weeks and have a
written opinion to me
i never got it
uh don't have it today
i've asked for it
i don't understand i don't care who i
get an answer from here
i want to know when i'm going to get an
answer by the way it can be no we're not
going to force it although with the new
ordinance
i don't see
the new ordinance is more streamlined
seems to me it
takes away the
some of the clap trap in the old
ordinance or the original old
ordinance when we first got in this we
had one ordinance then we adopted
another that was identical
as far as i could tell
seven or eight pages
defining solid waste
i have
i have worn myself out trying to get an
answer
i do not understand
why i cannot get an answer
somebody please tell me
the answer
if you don't have the answer now tell me
how soon you're going to get the answer
i don't understand i've never seen
a public body operate like this all
right
i've been a town attorney i've been i
was a town attorney when the town of
lebanon was doing the annexation for
russell county we didn't just
ignore people
so
what's my answer
anybody
i guess alonzo was running my clock back
that's all right
uh
does that mean i'm cancelled
there is a three minute time limit so
yeah
well
i believe i'll do a filibuster i'm gonna
stay here until i get some kind of
answer
now you guys
you guys have pictures i sent it i gave
you a package of
materials that is the property
substantially as it is now
mr hancock i hate to be rude but your
time is up sir and we do need to call
now you listen here
camera camera camera
at what point do you folks get to just
rope-a-dope people
and not give them an answer
i want to know
two years
i've never seen anything like this
do you plan on having
an answer
what do i need to do write the attorney
general and see what
he can do with this
why did you adopt an ordinance if you
didn't know if you were going to enforce
it
are you planning on
discussing this in executive session
next time
well how about that
public body struck down
you've you've seen
all these politicians don't have
anything to say
i'm sorry looks like there's a third
name on the
is it powell
oh
well is there anyone else any other
citizens comment
any other folks that want to talk
yes if you'll state your name and your
address please comment
okay and give me your address sir and
i'll write it down so we can have it for
our record
47 deal street
okay
cedar bluff
cedar bluffs lebanon
okay gotcha
and your topic sir i want to talk to the
ordinance of same as greg did okay i
live in the same subdivision
and i have some issues with things i've
been driving around the county because i
sat on planning commission for 20 years
in michigan
and i have never seen anything that is
done the way it's done around here
i drove out
pioneer avenue yesterday
from the high school to where you hit 19
and i counted 17
junk cars most of them right along the
road
so i wonder why this county doesn't do
something to affect some of this stuff
and try to take care of the trash that's
around here it's rampant everywhere i
don't think i'm the only person that
sees it
i think it's time for the board to
decide what to do with this stuff and
take some action hire somebody to do it
whatever it takes to do it but it needs
to be done
excuse me sir will you spell your last
name for me r o e
l o f
thank you appreciate that
anyone else in citizens comment
yes sir state your name and your ideas
please
and my address is
1433
river mountain road
lebanon virginia
and the is my time started sir
i gotta get back to work
um so
i'm currently dealing with some fencing
problems but it's not really with our
problem with we have a neighbor that's
got some goats and they've been getting
in our hay fields and stuff of that
nature and before just being cordial and
trying to make things right you know
we
i brought my mother came out here and
got the most recent copy of the border
supervisor's fencing ordinance for the
county
and looking through it
it was voted on in 93 the state put out
something in 93 and 94 when i was one
year old
to for the county or for the citizens of
each county to vote on whether they want
to be fencing or fence out
and i mean that's been i'm almost 30 now
and i would like if it could be revoted
on
because
as a citizen and as a livestock owner
i have you know countless dollars
invested in cows and and keeping our hay
fields good so that way i have enough
crop to self-sustain myself
and i believe that you know i believe in
a good fence keeps a good neighbor right
so
if if a person wants to buy land
and have livestock on that property they
should you know have the gall to at
least keep everything in on their side
as well as we have done for the last
15 years i've maintained our fence i've
never had an issue with any of my
neighbors if a cow gets out i leave work
or if it's on a weekend or christmas
time holidays and if the military lets
me i'll leave the military and i can
take care of what i got to take care of
i've been forced to have good bosses but
if the county could if the board of
supervisors would mind to take into a
vote again
for people that was not alive or was one
year old whenever the ordinance was
first established i would greatly
appreciate that and
i think my time is up sir
i think i don't know thank you
but
thank y'all
we appreciate you coming
joseph breeding
all right anyone else any other
public comment
all right saying done we'll close our
public comment time
constitutional officers and reports
all right our county attorney reports
and request
thank you madam chair um lonzo put this
under me it's the vra courthouse
financing resolution i did approve it
but i just want to remind the board that
dennis jones is acting as bond counsel
in this matter we sent this resolution
to him as well this is basically just to
move forward with vra had gotten some
quotes on on bidding out the
bonds for the courthouse
and so they they sent us the information
with the six lowest bidders and they
just wanted us to approve the the
resolution that's attached to the agenda
to move forward with that and then
there'll be some more financing
documents and everything that will have
to get approved and that will go through
dentists later
you need us a motion to approve the
documents that you currently have yes it
was it was prepared by vra the
resolution
ma'am chair i'll make a motion we
approve that resolution all right steve
thank you do we have a second
second david
any further discussion
all right all those in favor
i want to post
all right
the second item on the agenda that i
have um madam chair is regarding the
opioid litigation um there are actually
five documents to approve um the
resolution the two resolutions one which
incorporates the memorandum of
understanding
was attached to the agenda i sent to
lonzo but on friday i received three
more documents
receive those two lonzo
this okay there was there's also a
subdivision settlement participation
form
um a settlement participation form and
also
a subdivision escrow agreement and i'm
i'm asking the board to approve all of
those documents and authorize the chair
and the county administrator to sign any
and all documents in connection there
with so moved
i'll second then all right steve any
further discussion
all right all those in favor
anyone opposing
the next item i have um
is a document that um
that lonzo and i've been working with
tazewell county on it's in connection
with project jonah it's an
inter-jurisdictional agreement and the
purpose of this agreement is because
where this project is going to be
is going to be on both russell county
and tazewell county with the building
inspections and the erosion and
settlement control
to give each other authority to
to act in that jurisdiction for instance
if our building inspector cannot be
there that haswell county would have the
ability to act and vice versa and so
it's it's only in relation to um
project jonah and as far as expenses and
the one provision we did work out is
that that basically we would be
responsible for the procurement any you
know any issues that may come up with
the procurement but as far as you know
any contracts that are entered into as
far as inspection services that will be
controlled by the revenue sharing
agreement that we approved um some time
ago
and actually this oh and i apologize
madam chair this is actually an
ordinance and so it has to be advertised
so you cannot vote on it tonight i'm
bringing it um for your information but
just asking you don't have to have a
public hearing for it but you just asked
to set it on the next agenda to approve
after it's been properly advertised
just tonight is for informational only
and then after they provide us with the
rest of their information we will have
it
just a motion to move forward and
advertise the ordinance to be considered
at the january meeting okay
all right information won't we thank you
katie
all right the next one is um
air
oh you need a motion for that just a
motion to to set it on the next agenda
and to advertise the ordinance to be
considered at the january meeting well
are we ready to do that because i know
they sent their plans and they said they
would not even be ready till march
in that email
and as far as that go this is and this
is no this is not a cost issue this is
just giving each other the authority to
to act as far as the building inspector
so i mean i don't i don't see a harm in
going ahead and passing that now as far
as any contracts or anything on how
expenses are going to be shared that
would be handled later and at that time
but this would just be i mean but
whatever the however the board wants to
proceed it's just something that we
would need in place once those
um and i don't know if there's any i
think
probably because of the time of the year
and the weather things will slow down
significantly but basically what that
agreement allows is for each other to
have authority in each other's county
okay so you need a motion to have the
public notice next month
it just has to before you can enter this
agreement with casual it has to be
advertised because it's an ordinance
that you pass okay all right do we have
a motion for that i'll make a motion
that we authorize the advertisement for
this public notice for a january board
meeting
january 22.
all right
do we have a second second
all those in favor
any opposed
um the last item i have and this was at
the board's direction just to kind of go
back and look into this i know that we
had considered a noise ordinance
about two years ago and that the board i
think made the motion to table that
indefinitely and i know because of some
concerns from some citizens so
what i did and i sent to the board prior
to the meeting so they can
consider
is the ordinance as we had drafted and i
think alonzo had pulled that from
another county and then i made some
changes from um
some some counties that i had i had seen
and then i provided you
the albemarle county um noise ordinance
just because it had more specific
provisions and i know that was a concern
from the board that the way that the
initial one was written that it was too
broad and too vague and so when i
reviewed theirs they were pretty
specific on how they handled that but
as i stated when i provided that
information to the board the noise
ordinance is not a requirement that this
board passed it is something that is is
optional um and i will be happy to do
to do or draft anything that the board
would like i would just need to have
feedback and because this is an
ordinance before
it could be adopted it would have to be
advertised as well
[Music]
all right any board members have
anything that after reading this that
you have any discussion any questions
um
what seems to be everyone's
biggest concerns what after reading all
the exceptions of this
i thought katie wasn't there 13
exceptions
no yeah 13
exceptions to the noise ordinance
in in the original one
yes
time and date
over the weekends
uh during the week day
[Music]
does give the exceptions for football
games parades public festivities
anything like that does anyone have any
thoughts
anyone need to discuss or make
any comment on what katie needs to
do sending us forward with this
i want to tell you i read the album
well i read them all three of them
reading
errors was you know they're duplicate
but the albemarle is more specific
to the issues i
it's
the
the dangerous thing about this is being
too broad and you know weaponizing the
noise ordinance
you know for disputes between neighbors
and friends
i can see a lot of issues coming out of
this
they actually
talk about decibels you know in this
album world
i don't know if any other board members
had a chance to look at it but i would
i prefer it
much over or the one that we have
drafted before
madam chair can we just kind of move
forward with the one we've got is
everybody are we in kind of semi almost
nearly agreement
we can put it to the public please
katie
what is your next recommendation what do
you
what do we need to move forward with
this
i mean
to me to me it's a board decision on
what kind of provisions that you want
legally they're both fine and there's no
i mean a lot of the provision and and
steve said that they were duplicate i'd
taken a couple of provisions out of the
amherst county and they were actually
probably more vague they had a shorter
noise ordinance an idea but sometimes i
look to them because they have you know
they have some rural areas and sometimes
they have some of the same
considerations that we do as opposed to
other places in the commonwealth
um
but
as far as a legal recommendation i think
they're both legal i think it's a
preference on you know the board and the
citizen so i mean i think this just i
will draft whatever the board wants to
be drafted
um
but that's why i knew from you know
lonzo had pulled the original ordinance
and i knew after the comments that
more specific language was wanted and so
once and so i just decided to start
reading other
ordinances and albemarle
i thought was a really good fit as far
as the specificity it was it was similar
in ours it just it covered it covered
more areas actually it was it actually
you know covered more situations than
ours did and then it um also
you know kind of tried to define with
the decibel levels and um
i and i and as far as the the punishment
as far as that goes that was that was
specified so
and the complaints on how that would be
done
so i mean again to me it's a board
decision legally and you can have no
word no noise ordinance you can have the
noise ordinance that was presented or
you can have the album 101 or you could
have or you could have a combination
thereof
since the date it was so long we will
need to have another public hearing on
it katie because of this date
yes it would have to be re-advertised
because um
under the code section for ordinances to
be advertised if it's not
voted on with a certain time you have to
you have to have you have to have the
vote within a certain time of the
advertisement okay well what's the
board's pleasure
i think mr breeding um made the motion
to indefinitely table that so did not
i said i prefer the albemarle no no
before so i'm asking the question of
miss patton
does mr breeding have to be the one to
bring it back off the table he
indefinitely tabled it
i didn't go back and look at my
notes from two years ago i'm just this
is off the top of my head so i'm asking
for parliamentary procedure
madam chair i really don't i don't know
the answer to that i mean typically i
mean i will say when you make a motion
um if you want to go back and change it
if you were on the prevailing side
anybody could make anybody that voted
for it
can make a motion to reconsider it so
so i think anybody that voted in favor
of tabling it could make a motion to
reconsider it um or put it back on the
table i mean i guess the biggest thing i
guess that you know
and and maybe this is not something we
take up in january maybe it's something
you all think about a little bit more is
is is to have sort of sort of an idea of
what's going to be advertised
did did everybody have an opportunity to
read this album yes yeah yeah and i'm
like you i like that one i do too i like
the specifics i mean
in the existing ordinance there's just
there's no way to define
what a disturbance is i mean there's no
it's just a very subjective
you know what
is a disturbance to me may not be a
disturbance to rebecca you know
and another thing that i think needs to
be addressed
in here is there are legal methods now
of hunting at night predator hunting is
becoming more and more popular
i just think that needs to be and not
that that's typically going to be done
where it would bother
someone but
who knows you know
so is it the board's wishes that we
tell katie to go forward with drafting
and looking at the albemarle
policy
do we put a motion that we're going to
have a public hearing in january
can you modify that
album earl
that'd have to because they have they
they
referenced i think you would have to
modify and we'd look at look at it in
january
or sometime before
an approving in our board meeting and
then have a public hearing
is that what we would do
if that's what you want if you want me
to to work on it because i would have
what i would anticipate doing and i just
want to make sure this is what the board
wants of me is because the problem with
it is they reference other sections of
their code that we don't have
and so i would need to change that but
that would be the only thing i would
change and then the board could say well
this is the the version we want to be
advertised and have a public hearing to
be
adopted
maybe in february is that
what you all think i will make that
motion
all right and i'll second it all right
any further discussion on this
all right all those in favor
aye
anybody opposed
all right katie we'll give you
go ahead with that
all right next thing on the agenda is
the county administrator's reports and
requests
thank you madam
chairman commissioner
yeah
that's under me
yes yes sir
yes
yes look at the the new agenda david
yep
no
thank you ma'am chair thank you mr eden
first on the county ministry reports is
the of course it's that time of year
again
we have a new administration this is the
2022 vaco virginia association and
county's preliminary legislative program
that
that virginia association counties will
be considering in any january
it will
it will can
be considered as far as things as
economic development planning education
energy environment and agriculture
finance and general government health
and human services and transportation
these will be
things that affects the budget of these
various programs and also the
um
also the legislation on each one of the
one of these programs so
i expect with the change administration
there'll be a lot of different laws
so
take a look through that i have put it
in your packet
in the dropbox or the hard copied for
y'all review on the ones that have the
the um
the summaries
take a look at those and
if you got any points or also what we
got to consider also is we will
be tending we right now vaco and vml
due to the new variant strand
is still in limbo they're they're
they're still trying to decide what to
do here so
i'll let y'all know as soon as i know
something that was either definite or no
or or we're going to do this and by zoom
like we did before
or whatever method that we utilize so
next on the account administrator
reports and request of course is
the coming plateau planning district
roadmap to economic resiliency
this uh uh mr brady and mr uh mrs
wallace as i've already seen this this
is a comprehensive
cumberland plateau planning district
helped you know engaged hickory global
in research and analyzing the economic
opportunities and concerns for business
resiliency and recovery of economic
shock
due to the coveted 19 pandemic and these
are recommendations and conducted by
survey asset massing mapping and cluster
analysis within the region
and combine these results into economic
industrial
research
so
it is a very comprehensive report it's
got some good points in it it goes from
everything from economic development
through industrial development through
tourism so it has it has
a lot of good information
next on account administrator reports is
of course the
the
arc the appalachian regional commission
award this was for two hundred nine
thousand nine five hundred ninety
dollars grant to the three river
destination center
the um
this is the appalachian regional
commission what uh was awarded
the uh has awarded two hundred nine
thousand five hundred ninety thousand
dollars to the heart of appalachian
tourism authority for the development of
the three rivers destination center in
saint paul
the project
is provided by arc the grant will
support site preparation
architectural engineering design plans
the plans will focus on the two acre
site development to include land
surveying erosion
and sediment
control designs mechanical electrical
and plumbing designs and development of
the site utilities including water sewer
and relocation of the existing
electrical and phone utilities
this is an fyi that was given to the
heart of appalachian on behalf of
russell county
next on the county ministry reports of
course we mentioned before
this is the
abstracts of votes
for the last election for the governor's
office the lieutenant governor the
attorney general
and the members of the house of
delegates
so
those i do need a motion to approve and
accept those i'll make it let's see
all those in favor
you want to post
and as mentioned before
uh first thing on the county ministry
record request is um
in working with the county attorney the
commonwealth attorney uh
and the sheriff's office i the first
thing on the request is a the russell
county leader officer
i am looking at reallocating
one of our existing
employees in the
the building office
inspections office into
the
new
little control officer
we have designed the forms the programs
we have uh discussed this with the
procedures that will be taken
and the dedicated hours and times that
will be
given to dedicated to doing not just the
administration but also the field
inspection services
so i'm asking for a
motion for approval of the russell
county leader officer before we make
that motion uh i have an ideal i'd like
to run by the board
i had called tim and and carl that serve
on the waste management authority
when i was on the waste management
authority and i took me and tim and carl
all had a great conversation in regards
to them and i'll let them put their
input in
i dealt with a lot of ordinances when i
was on the town council in honaker and
the ordinances ain't worth the paper
toronto unless you have enforcement
and uh the waste management authority
that's all they deal in is garbage and
trash
buckhannon county currently has a waste
person that goes out does inspections
and looks at the circumstance and
situation and stuff and then does the
enforcement
i think for russell county it would save
us a tremendous amount of money since
we're already partnering with dickinson
and buchanan
is to let tim and carl present this
ideal to their board
for all three counties to go in together
and hire one person one vehicle and work
with all authorities in buckhannon
dickinson and russell as an enforcement
agent it would save us a tremendous
amount of money and also they deal in
garbage they work with
most of
you know the recyclables
they have the recyclable day
they work with missy and men timmy
talked about that in regards to
somehow how that is handled as far as
going out and cleaning it up the first
time and then the second time finding
them
you know
to see how we can basically work through
that but i do know the waste
management authority has their own
criteria when it comes to garbage and
that's all they deal in is garbage and i
think it it would fit us well and i know
tim i let tim speak about and carl about
the guy that they have in buchanan
county that has been doing it for years
that has that kind of rapport and
relationship with the citizens
and we had talked about sending them a
certified letter the first time and then
doing immediate enforcement the second
time
it is
any i'm sorry go ahead now um
david we were going to take uh
the lady that's already in the building
inspection office and use her we weren't
going to hire anybody new
i understand discussion well i i know
but we've had a lot of incidents in the
past with police officers getting shot
this is a very sensitive issue
when you go out and do this kind of
enforcement i'm not saying that this
person can't do it or they can but i'd
like to see somebody with some
experience that's already done it and i
know working with the waste management
authority it would split the cost three
ways
between counties and i'm not saying they
want to do it i say i think i think it
could be brought to the board
for a recommendation to hire one person
there's there's i guess quite a bit of
it but there's not enough that each
county
could just keep one person busy doing
that all the time
so you all
you know if you combine three counties
together it would be more feasible to do
it that way and you have somebody that's
already doing it it's been doing it for
years i reckon tim is that not right
i'm not sure how long he's been there
but some time yeah
years
and y'all can elaborate on it because
y'all have discussions with them
consistently you know in meetings with
them i think they would really fit the
bill on how to enforce
this you know and it would give you a
more regional coordinator to do this and
then
talk about and discuss
maybe going out we talked about when i
was on that board going out cleaning it
up the first time second time a fine or
you know and and trying to work if you
can't work with them
you can't work with them but i'll tell
you i served on town council for you we
had ordinances a book that thick of
ordinances and
really they weren't worth the papers
road unless you have some sort of
enforcement mechanism you can take it to
court
or whatever and if it gets thrown out or
whatever it may be it just causes a real
rift between
a lot of people unless you have some
sort of plan in place
to be able to communicate with the
citizens of your county
ma'am chair
i want to interrupt here
um eaton i don't think that's a bad idea
um but on a regional idea
i really want people to work for me in
my county on the county issues
that are pending that i've had since
2016. we just heard some public comments
just a few minutes ago that we couldn't
speak to but i can speak to that now
and um so
i really think that we need to have
someone on the ground in russell county
that
can be held accountable
and be out doing inspection
and taking this and working with the
judge
and
i don't say that your idea is not worthy
but at this time i'm really looking for
help this whole room i think is looking
for help my neighbors are looking for
help we need help today
and i think that's a little broad for us
i think that we need someone in the
county to run to run this these issues
because
how would we get buchanan county cleaned
up and russell county at the same time
it would it just seems like it's just
an awful lot of load so i'm i'm really
wanting to hear about
mr lester's suggestion for the litter
officer out of the building uh
inspector's office
i like your idea don't don't let it go
well i mean it could be a russell county
i mean the waste management authority
could actually hire
um
you know
maybe somebody or multiple two two
people i mean we we finance them a
considerable amount of money you know
and i and i'm sure i agree with you it
needs to be somebody that represents
russell county
but that that's not something that can't
be discussed within your office board i
mean you could have probably i don't
think dickinson county has anybody i'm
not sure
but i know buckhannon county does but
buckhannon county you can lean on that
person to see how they've handled it
over the years with their experience and
and knowledge of what they've been able
to accomplish you know i know it's a
risk to put anybody out there to do
enforcement
and that's a little bit i think the
first thing you need to find out is
buckhannon county women will they will
they agree to them well
yeah yeah and this this is about going
to be a budget thing because we did not
put this person in our budget so we'll
have to re-look at that
readdress that
because currently the person that's with
the building inspection office is ours
already they're here they're in the
county we're already paying them so
those are
more
bullet bullets that we need to address
and my only concern about that
is that
that person is pretty busy right now are
we just going to overload somebody else
instead of just doing the right thing
and hiring somebody out outright
well if you want to do that i'm willing
to do that too well i'm just saying but
money is the issue here and budget
we're down on a budget crunch we're
we're looking at all kinds of things to
take care of this not a bad idea steve
if you want to run that one well
i i just think
sometimes you just have to bite the
bullet and do it whether
you know what i'm saying i mean i just i
just don't think you know overloading
putting another
you know another set of duties on
somebody else you're going to pay for it
somewhere else down the road because
they're not going to well and this
person is this person going to be in
dickinson on monday wrestling tuesday
i'm talking about i'm talking about our
moving adding additional services one of
our employees
you know are we taken away from the job
they're doing now
to cover this new job well and if we're
not
why
okay
maybe i can give a little bit of history
too litter is always a you know a touchy
subject okay
we have
we have looked at different mythologies
to be able to get enforcement like david
said before you can have an origins but
if you don't have the enforcement it
it's not worth the paper it's written on
we
i have been working with
the sheriff's department
we we tried to pull the deputy in there
at part time to give you all some
history what we can do well
when you got two deputies working per
shift in the way that everything is
stretched in today's climate
they don't have the resources
we also
worked with the enforcement law
enforcement community to try to find
someone that was part-time that had
deputy powers
well
what we got to put into this and the
amount of funding you could not get to
that level experience because they can
go out and work somewhere else right now
as in law enforcement either part-time
or full-time at their own area
the
now that this has been mentioned
that in to the building office and this
is not the building inspector himself
but his assistant
it will be bridget that will be doing
this and it'll be
yeah well
and and we did discuss it with them and
put into the program they see
and with it we think they can dedicate
one day for administration one day for
field inspection
so
because it's going to take some time to
go through all these but now that y'all
have mentioned it why not look at both
alternatives now this is what i'm saying
proceed with one right now until you
know what because it's not a major
impact to the finance of the county if
we if we reallocate the existing
resources that we have
second is why not look at the regional
on the big things because i've got some
in here that just needs to be cleaned up
on the mama pops yard but some of them
i've got a mountain that would take
something like the waste management
authority and resources to be able to
pull off
there's no way a litter officer could
take care of it because sometimes it's
just abandoned land
so i it would i'm i'm saying
you know if you want to proceed
let me proceed with my reallocation try
to take care of the mom and pops to
smile and move forward with the waste
management authority position too and i
agree with miss wallace uh in some ways
but i will tell you i want everybody to
be treated the same equally across the
board i don't want this become a
political thing and i don't want
somebody to not get
taken care of because of who they are i
think an outside person looking in
that's been doing it for 20 some years
has a greater impact
of enforcement than it does somebody you
hire internally because i'm afraid that
some people gonna get treated i'm not
saying that's gonna happen but it has
happened in the past that you know these
things get ignored and looked over and
the enforcement mechanism is not a level
playing field
for everybody i just want everybody to
be treated equally and fairly absolutely
why do y'all think about doing both i
mean
can bridgette handle that i mean
you've got you've got the building
inspector's office doing some ens work
you've got them doing the billing
inspectors you got them doing the
dilapidated structures and now we're
going to put them into litter
yes and
and this will be
i have talked with bridget i have talked
you know with mickey but now bridget
says that she can do it with what time
she has and now we've had quite a few
conversations on this
so
if it does not be successful or if it is
not working you've got an alternative to
go to two
now that's the only suggestion that but
then of course it's closer to the point
on a trial basis to see
to see you know but i don't want you
know if somebody comes in he wants to
get a building permit i think that's
yes absolutely
yeah
absolutely and we streamlined some of
those procedures too and that was some
of the questions that we asked we're
going to make sure that all of our
services that we provide doesn't fall
down but again
the calls that we get into our office
some of them can be corrected very
quickly it just with a just to show up
at the front door some of them is going
to take
the
enforcement agent
the sheriff's department the leader
officer
it's going to take all of them standing
that door to get them to move
okay well and this gives us an
opportunity to have her working for a
little fall and then
as we roll into next year the budget
year then we know we're going to have to
plan for somebody regional tim when is
your old's next meeting it's the third
thursday so it'll
if they can collaborate maybe with their
board and then come back to us
and
has the building inspector's office is
this something we're just throwing on
them or is it something that we've had a
discussion with them that's going to
overload them he's already talking
i have talked to him i haven't talked
about it
okay
i'm willing to make a motion that we
allow lonzo
to proceed
in-house
uh on a trial basis
uh for a period of six months
to be re-evaluated at the end of six
months and that's fair and in the in the
interim we asked carl and tim to explore
the long range
possibilities of working with buckhannon
county and dickenson yeah on a regional
consolidated basis is that only
agreeable that it is absolutely perfect
like i said i got mom and pops
and then some of these it's going to
take
the picture y'all each one of y'all has
something in your area that takes more
resources than what we got with county
whatever you ponder
now you're now
thank you
and i'm happy i'm sure carly is as well
to explore that and we'll get all the
whether they're agreeable or not and if
so what all is involved what's right but
then we may look they might doing
something
we're already moving forward all right
any further discussion all right we've
had a motion a second discussion all
those in fact
any opposed all right tim carl i'll
talk that over with you
thank you madam chair and board
next on the count administrator uh
request this is a appropriation again
this is the leader prevention recycling
program grant
so these are the grants that go get some
of these cleanups uh that was that
allocated to russell county for sixteen
thousand two hundred twenty five dollars
this is uh a little grant that is for
the litter prevention and recycling
program activities from july the 1st
2021 to 2022.
uh russell county is 11
and 223 dollars the town of cleveland
gets 13.29
the town of honaker is also 1329
and the town 11 is 2344. i need
appropriation approval for
appropriations for this letter funding
do we have a motion to accept this grant
money i'll make that motion carl second
second lou
any further discussion all right all
those in favor
thank you ma'am chair next is the
russell county fire hydrant purchase
request
this is a bid that came in this is the
lowest bid for court in maine for the
fire hydrants the board of supervisors
has
is working with the russell county
public service authority to either
repair upgrade or replace all fire
hydrants in operational within the
county
with um
as soon as possible so i need approval
for
the core main for the upgrades of the
fire hydrants these are totally
replacement for twenty eight thousand
nine hundred ninety five dollars and
forty cents so
i'll second then discussion please
discussion yep
um
so the psa is not going to pay for
is this a grant
we're moving through or is or is the psa
not going to pay for this no no ma'am
we're we are taking the funding out of
the american rescue under infrastructure
water and sewer we legally can do that
yes ma'am we can
just making sure
all right
any further discussion
all those in favor aye any opposed
of course on to that i also also
included and attached in with uh the
locations and this the current condition
of all the fire hydrants within russell
county we have uh
of course
whether their operation what the current
status is
and they're
sorry about that
and what their condition is and for
replacement
madam chair if i may so we're getting i
see my report and i read my report and i
share my report um
i'm just wondering
have we had an update
so there they found a wrench or whatever
it was that they needed to work on these
things does anybody know no i talked to
harvey
they haven't gotten them yet he said the
february i believe is what he told me
okay so we are out of a ranch we can't
find one nobody can make one
a fabricator can't make these things
um and let um
i have a question we're going into
winter
fires
our houses
how much have we given psa total now on
the uh
fair hybrid repairs board of supervisors
this will be a little bit over fifty
nine thousand dollars okay okay thank
you
yes yes we've given psa
i couldn't remember the exact amount
okay
do you have a diagram or anything of the
wrench that they need to be able to do
this they have specs on it they do
well i mean can you provide that to us
absolutely
i mean i know a guy in bluefield that
probably could make something like that
for us fabricated
okay i appreciate that
next
yeah on the counter manager request is
the vdot notice of intent to discontinue
route 743
which is roller coaster road
excuse me i'm sorry
we gotta move we'll talk to you
afterwards sorry mr king thank you
we appreciate you
again
this is uh the um
sorry about that on route 743 this is
vdot notice of intent to discontinue
route 743 roller coaster road
this is 0.0 tenths of a mile
uh
the virginia department tradition
virginia department of transportation
intends to discontinue a portion of
route 743 roller coaster road from the
secondary system of state highways
from
2.35 miles west of route 650 breezer
branch road to 2.1 miles west of route
650 a distance of 0.20
miles
the road does not provide sufficient
public service to warrant maintenance at
a public expense and it has not been
actively maintained by the department in
over 40 years and of course i got
the vdot chair in the audience
they are going through their inventory
list and cleaning up and this is one of
my speaking this is correct y'all are
discontinuing this part of the route
have i left anything out i'll make that
motion
do we have a second i'll second it
i'm sorry who was that
tim okay
all right any further discussion
all right all those in favor
no one opposing it all right next on
chemistry request is the animal control
administrative assistant we got a
resignation from them i need approval to
rivertize
so
second second carl
all right all those in favor say this
resignation aye anyone opposed
next on the ken administrator request is
the
um for the early pay for the uh russell
county employees for the christmas uh
payroll
i need i need approval for early pay so
move david all right do we have a second
second
lou all right all those in favor
next on the county ministry it reports
is of course the russell county board of
supervisors annual employee turkey
turkey donation that y'all give them
it's a ten dollar gift certificate to
the rosa county employees i need
approval for motion
i was so moving
you can't buy one
[Music]
any other discussion on that anybody
opposing it
conservatives
next
next on the account of administrative
request is um this is a conversation
with the plaintiff russell county
planning commission this is for the
curtis sarri's property an easement
concerning it
i have talked with the planning
commission attorney and they want it a
motion by the board to move it back to
the planning commission for further
review
due to the easement and the surrounding
adjacent properties
we have a motion and
carl with the second any discussion
all those in favor aye
anyone opposed man-made concludes county
ministry reports and requests
all right thank you
all right at this time we'll have any
board discussions or reminders
tim
uh
just a reminder falanzo i think we need
to set a cold road meeting sometime soon
it's fine
i do want to say that i think that we
really need to work hard on our
ordinance for our litter
i'm pleasantly surprised tonight and
pleased that we're seemingly have moved
forward an inch
i've been at this since 2016.
it is grueling
it is a snell's pace
so i'm hoping that we can absolutely
spur some things on for our county
that's what we need thank you
carl
uh yes ma'am chair i'd like to request
the county administrator to review the
feasibility and the cost to install a
small basketball court approximately 30
feet by 30 feet at the fenney community
center we currently have dedicated
volunteers and monetary donations to
assist in this project
david
the only thing i'd like to say is
i'd like to thank all of our employees
and everybody and our board members and
i want to wish everybody a merry
christmas and happy new year and pray
that this coveted stuff
leaves the area so we can get back to
business as normal but i just wanted to
iterate on that
steve yes ma'am i've got several things
here
first of all i had two or three calls
from sherman wallace wanted to know what
we're gonna do about his property
and he says he has talked to you and you
promised him response for the last three
months so we need to take action on that
i know peanuts probably had a call or
two from him as well
we just need to let him know one way or
the other about the parking lot so
and i remember i was in your office when
he called and we promised to get back to
him
so that needs to be addressed certainly
at the next board meeting
i've also had a couple of calls from
some employees who are looking at
retirement they're talking about a
retirement incentive
can you explain that to me
it's it's the same incentive that the
school board has
on their retirement about paying part of
the insurance
are you there there you go
sorry about that we had
looked and drafted the school board has
a retirement
policy
when they retire
what they do they take what time they
have built up on their sick leave in
retirement like other companies do
and
like the state does it converts it to
health care credits instead of paying
out lump sums
it converts it to health care credits so
one of the things that we had to look
forward and one of the things that we
ran into the issue is
we redid the language that was
concerning the teachers we took that
portion out and and it
scoped it just for county employees but
then and of course katie's got it for
that review we've got two different
proposals right now but also we have the
constitution officers in there that
component is hard to deal with because
see they're paid for and controlled by
the vrs through the constitution
officers so we're trying to figure out
how to get that one component equal and
and fair on both sides so
that's that's where okay
if i may when the issue was brought to
my attention and i was aware that the
school did it and i said that's fine
it's all legal but like lonzo said and
i'll just elaborate on that the issue is
with all your different county employees
under all these different supervisors
there's no those each supervisors
control their sick leave and and there's
no accounting to lonzo as far as that
goes and so like with the teachers
everything is reported under one system
and so there's more checks and balances
you wouldn't want to have some
department saying oh my person has you
know and i'm not and definitely i'm not
making any comment about any of our
constitutional officers just looking at
it as an issue is how do you have
accountability in that as far as their
sick leave that they've accrued over the
years because some people i'm not even
talking about sick leave i thought this
was insurance payment and the sheet that
i saw was they pay like 2 000
for the five year for a five-year period
depending on the number of years and
service you had towards your insurance
and that'd be like for a five-year
period
so you know if that's paid towards your
supplemental insurance then they they
can get their insurance substantially at
a less cost for five years
and i think you might could do something
like that where it's just if they if
there's a service that there's a certain
amount that's paid but what the school
has in places there's options and so
depending on how much how many sick days
an employee has at the end that can be
converted over and so that's where the
difficulty would be in
in policing that with your different
agencies but that's
i'll give you a copy
with the schools you're trading in
unused sick leave yeah
and
you see you have the option when you
retire of taking
a
dollar amount per day or you can turn
those in
or have so many days
we'll pay a certain percentage of your
health care
per year and you can get up to a certain
number of years
that is yeah that's how they do it
no there's there's nothing well
i don't know where that document came
from but that was represented to me as
what the county
that the county's and i looked in him
in the uh operation in the employee's
manual
but
that
we need to resolve this i understand
there's some people that are looking
retirement and it's an incentive
so you know if we're going to do
something we need to go ahead and do it
well one one of the greatest things that
uh
one of the things that like i said is
the constitution officers and i was
looking at it from the financial
perspective the big payouts you know
with sick leaving vacation to being
converted to health care credits so yeah
but both components are driving this
well if we can just address it okay
that's i've only got one more thing i
got a call from lindsay hallman and she
apparently represents hard rock cafe
and she said she had tried to get a hold
of the county administrator a while back
and and
what she's doing she's going around to
the different communities and apparently
there's going to be a substantial tax
windfall from this hard rock cafe that's
going to be distributed throughout i
guess the entire area and she wanted to
come over sometime after the first of
the year and set up a meeting
and she can explain you know what it's
all about and how this
tax would be distributed and whatever so
i said yeah come on you got money come
on
so
i've got her phone number if you would
call her and get in touch with her and
set up something after the first i guess
you want it it is january february
probably and and i may have already
heard it because i heard it when i was
with the heart of appalachia so i'll get
a hold of lindsay i've got her number so
i was with hoa when i did it rather than
the county so
she is she she is and she's already
spoke to the hoas and the other counties
so let me circle back around to her and
i'll give lindsay a call
[Laughter]
that's all i am
other than merry christmas to everybody
okay don't uh
only thing um we will say that mr
christian is out today because he is
sick
and he did uh notify us that
yes i want to say uh merry christmas to
everybody i hope you have a happy
wonderful new year and let's do remember
uh tomorrow is pearl harbor day
and i guess that's all i have our next
board meeting will be january the 3rd
2022
so it doesn't seem possible does it
so
i will
take a motion to adjourn and see
everybody in 2022. i'll make that motion
to adjourn carl in a second