the russell county board of supervisors
meeting a special call meeting for the
purpose of our budget
at this time we will rise for the
invocation and please stand
remain standing for the pledge
let us pray father god lord in heaven we
love you we thank you and we praise you
today father father we thank you for
allowing us to come out and be a part of
our local government father and father
we ask that you keep your hand of
protection over us be with rebecca uh
father as she's going through this loss
be with us lead us guide us and direct
us in everything we do in your name i
pray
amen and to the republic for which it
stands one nation under god indivisible
with liberty and justice for all
thank you at this time i will ask for
the approval of the agenda please
make a motion we approve the agenda
need a second second thank you we have a
motion and a second any discussion
or additions all in favor
any opposed
motion carries thank you
um and at this time i will open up the
public hearing
so um
mr lester i have uh
a public comment sign-in sheet and no
one is on here
that is correct ma'am
so we'll give it its time and uh anybody
in the audience would like to speak
to the budget
this is public notice for the budget
only
well
i see a shaking of heads no one in this
room wants to speak no ma'am
okay
then i will officially close the public
hearing for the special call meeting
for the budget
next on the agenda is um the county
budget so we and we discuss that right
now during our workshop right yes ma'am
okay
and so you all have in front of you
some information that mr lester is ready
to present so i'm going to turn the
floor over to him thank you manager
now let's go to numbers
let me turn this around
good afternoon board of supervisors
again we're here
this time of the year again to do the
annual county budget
and
uh
we have been working with this
all month long
during the month of june of course
we have worked with each one of the
departments we have went back we have
re-evaluated re-analyzed and looked at
various things in the county to meet our
county budget which were required to
under the code of virginia
as
and i do have some good news for you
as
of 3 38 this afternoon the governor's
ceremony has signed the budget
ceremony key word
so what that means to us here at the
county level we will be getting our
federal and state numbers to be able to
calculate a more accurate budget
there's a but they have not released
those figures yet so
those should be coming in within the
next 24 to 48 hours from each one of the
departments in department of budget
planning so
what we
can do today during a workshop as as you
will see and i will go through
what we have encountered during the
previous fiscal year and what we will be
looking at during the new fiscal year
okay because we know that
as far as worldwide national and local
and state
we
the economy is
at a major high for hyper inflation so
what we're going to be looking at is
what is affecting of course the county
itself to be able to for the board of
supervisors to be able to deliver the
level of services that we've always done
and always will so
of course on the screen here that as
well as in front of you i have given you
the 22-23 budget revenue projections
now
as we have progressed through these you
have seen these numbers have changed
over the previous budgets as they come
in and we make adjustments to various
revenue line items and various
expenditure line items you see you've
seen these amounts have changed which is
what a budget should be doing a budget
is flexible it's operational it should
be able to be amenable to what the board
of supervisors
sees
and approves for the county budget to be
able to deliver these services okay in
the previous years of course this year
is the big ones as i have said in
previous meetings
we have
the eleven dollar
uh minimum wage that went into effect
during the half year
we have the twelve dollar effect that
went in it's going to go in in this
coming january we also
are looking
at the vrs increases and we're also
looking at the county employees salary
raises along with that
of course is inflation inflation in our
fuel cost inflation in our employment
cost
inflation
in
in everything and every aspect of
operation that we have so
that includes the electricity that we
got on as you know everyone is asking
for increases in fuel costs that from
that trash and we'll go into that
component later
so
as we progress through this and the
board of supervisors of course has
already passed a bud a
motion
that there is no tax increases in
russell county so
with that's being said there's only two
ways to be able to keep up with
hyperinflation
with increased employment cost
and
these other increases in as far as
operations now
that includes cutting costs
or includes cutting costs but i have no
other way to go so
one of the things that you guys did in
an act and i got to say that this was
the saving grace and i know many men out
there will not agree with me but we
passed the meal and cigarette tax that
was a three hundred thousand dollar
impact and it in what we've seen
through this in various
inspections because we audit this
multiple times per month various retail
places
is the traveling public it is where we
said it was coming from
so
this is additional
money that the board supervisors
approved
condone and made it possible to where we
did not have to raise the personal
property nor the real estate in the
russell county
so
that took a big burden off but at
in hindsight the board of supervisors
was not anticipating neither was the
world anticipating this hyperinflation
period
to keep up with it again it's running 10
to 15 percent i know what they're saying
is eight but that's that's numbers here
said you know
we that is what we're seeing on our
books is 10 to 15 increase now for
example
now the disposal
our trash sites and i'll use it for
example and a couple others
just on fuel alone in our disposal
operations our costs have increased up
to fifteen thousand dollars a month ten
to fif you know twelve to fifteen
thousand dollars a month depending on
how many days we run
now also the sheriff's department
has
runs an average of 30 000 a month in
fuel costs that's 24 7 365
public safety that is required i mean we
have
it's in cost that we're incurring and
that's what cost y'all had to incur
while increa you know incurring the 11
to 12 the vrs
the 5 salary no raising taxes
and this hyperinflation
so
again
the mill and food tax it took meal and
cigarette tax took a lot of a burden off
the county
but we still lack a little bit to go
and
the county
uh
administration and the board of
supervisors treasurer and commissioner
revenue we have sat down with these
numbers
one day we're taking them down one day
we're taking them up so that's what we
have progressed with over the last 30
days not looking just at our numbers
without looking at the state numbers now
one of the things that even came in
today and mr breeding came in and we had
a small discussion that come to light
with us and what i'm going to do is
going to make a proposal to the board of
supervisors and for consideration on
this
so
as again you can look through the
variations in all the revenue taxations
the top 10 as i call them the king and
queen of taxation
or
you can and look at that and what we
have in expenditures now right now
everything is built into the budget the
5 raised 11 to 12 the brs
all the operations including
the disposal field cost including the
sheriff's fuel cost so
everything that we've got in there and
we're looking at 190 000 deficit right
now today this morning give or take i
mean this afternoon
so
one of the things that i did give it out
to you and i apologize this came to
light but i think that you will
be okay with it coming to light is in
the previous board of supervisors
meetings we had also discussed a
disposal fee
one of the things that we had discussed
but also we had discussed operational
hours set standard
and we also discussed at one point
you know county stickers well the board
did not feel comfortable with that i
don't have to tell the public that
because y'all did hold off on it and at
the time there was hesitation on
increasing the disposal fee during a
hyperinflation no more cost so
but one of the things that we did while
we were working towards this we were
looking at the landfill operations we
were looking at the leche operations the
cuts that we had done to it and the cost
savings we'd done to that well we dove a
little deeper
and we and now i want to thank brian
ferguson for this
we got into
what it would cost to standardize the
hours
now
before you on page one of the
convenience site monthly cost
as you will see
we
have presented y'all the current
schedule
for
the
disposal fees for all the operations for
all the disposal sites from living to
swords creek
these are of course the current
schedules
now in this current schedule
if you go to a standardized hours and
this is what's being proposed we've
looked at other counties and other
examples
of
wednesday closed wednesday and closed
sunday
every
uniform
other disposal site during that time
frame will be open other than
the moccasin drill in fenney those are
what we call unmanned sites so those
will remain open because you know
it it doesn't have any manpower or labor
involved in it so
that was to get taken out of formula
when we were working on it this morning
we also took out
the
holidays and etc to take a look at it
and see what we could come up with the
cost savings we looked at every actual
day that we would be operational
from january to december
and ran
and took out the the unmanned sites and
what you were looking at right now
if you look at it on the monthly basis
this just reducing
or going to a standardized schedule i'm
going to say reducing because actually
you're go you're increasing the hours on
the open days
the monthly hours is equivalent to 760
hours
now
now unless the holidays then the hourly
rates as well as you know we have to
meet this will be actually an additional
savings because we're not making the 12
an hour until january so there is a five
six month
even more cost savings in in their
analysis because what our
side attendants now make is eleven
dollars an hour which is minimum wage
and it will progress to twelve dollars
an hour in january
okay
so if you look at either our hourly
they're not
they're not full-time with benefits all
of our site attendants are part-time so
based off their schedules closing on
sunday closing on wednesday extending
the hours
calculating the holiday hours as course
as you can see
what we're going to save
is
274 000
now that's
that is that is
that is true numbers hour for our
movement
so
and a give or take now what i have i've
proposed and and i have talked to
chairman wallace and what we are
proposing is what we're giving you and i
know you haven't had time to review
of course we have to prove and adopt the
final budget on the 29th
give y'all time to go back to your
residence and come up with the
standardized hours of operation for
monday tuesday thursday friday and
saturday that you would like to see
and if you do that
that
we could if you need to extend an hour
here but they've got to be uniform
if you can extend the hour say
or reduce or move whatever you want to
do and look at this
we can adjust those numbers down but my
point is this
if we can save 270 thousand dollars
by
by going to a standardized operation
which again it came out of the disposal
fee
we were just looking at different
components and we pulled this one out
it will cover the 190 000 deficit
just so these hours
yes just changing the hours because what
it does it and again we looked at
washington county smith county has the
same thing you can go over the hill and
it's it's it's they they're closed on
winds that's just the way it is now
again the only
sites that this knot will now apply to
is the open top which is moccasin drill
infinity
but
the labor component
is equivalent
and we went back through them i even
went back through because in the first
analysis when we was doing it this
morning
we didn't even calc we hadn't calculated
in the fica and the rest in the holidays
so we did even push more details so i
said i said brian you gotta go back and
pull we gotta pull the you know full
records payroll records get account
detail on what this operation will do to
you so we've cut the leche
we have cut costs where we can you
didn't raise taxes
you got a five percent raise on the
table two percent vrs
eleven and twelve dollar movement
all in cost cutting methods
so
this is what i'm proposing for the board
to consider as part
to
cover
the russell county deficit of 190 000
now mr lester let's make this clear
that we're looking at standardized
timelines
across the county so we're gonna all
have to figure out what works in our
districts so that everybody is everybody
knows that fenney
or not fanny because they're open tops
but um the belfast
uh dogtown
and all these that have uh yes all these
that have compactors and that are manned
will all be under the same times same
hours and we also talked about that
summertime we might need to be a little
more lenient and push the hours out
and in the winter time at five o'clock
nobody wants to be going to the trash
dump at five o'clock when it's dark
so um i'm thinking that
we need to work on that also
thank you
and and
one of the things that y'all will be
looking at whether they go to dogtown or
the belfast or cleveland
it's the same hours that way there's no
more confusion and i get a lot of calls
like seriously what hours are these
opens and what you know where where's
your schedules at because none of them
is on the same schedule number one
number two is and we did when i was
talking to chairman wallace
it did come up okay
in the afternoons but again at vdot what
we did we had a summer schedule and had
a winter schedule
so we could set that in stone you know
during the winter cold months there's no
reason because i can tell you right now
many of the residents especially of the
female gender during the winter months
it dark will not get out at the dry side
no matter if it's lit or not lit it's
just not
that's why that's some of the comments
that we get
but
in it some of them it's too cold
when it's it's that afternoon or in the
summer everybody wants the afternoons on
this go to the flip side in the summer
everybody wants it in the afternoons
ready in the mornings
now
you got the six districts in that large
so
if we you know i we can send out you
know what washington county has as a
schedule of course it's it's monday
tuesday off wednesday thursday friday
saturday off monday i mean sunday do
they do their hours also for winter time
summertime no they do they do not fly
they do not they do not fluctuate but
that's not that's not a bad thing i mean
we we're just taking what will work in
rosa county i agree because i have a
problem but i don't want everybody to
sit there in the dark and nobody's
coming to bring their garbage and we're
we're paying for that and we will carl
will tell you in some of the places at
dark it's it's vacant we we actually
keep a time traffic count when our
heaviest workloads is throughout all 365
days
when did the heaviest loads come in and
what time of days they'd come into
and we can give you that data too you
can look at it but to come to the key
point is
you know
like on the current schedule on the
convenience side you know the current
schedule in lebanon is from 10 to 7.
now that will work well
in you know
in the summer months
or you may
and it is
but one of the things i want you to do
don't count it as
that is a nine hour of operation right
there from 10 to seven
you have what i'm the point i want to
make is you have 200 and we ran these
numbers and i and i made you know me and
brian went around around and vicki would
tell you i made an obligation you know
it is we've counted every cost that we
could find in to get as a realistic not
an estimate because that we can do these
if you want to add an hour onto 10 to 8
at the lebanon site but whatever you do
you need to do it across the board
uniform
that what you got to remember is what
you ow that 270 that you're saving for
every hour that you add is taken down
that amount because once you add it
at lebanon you have to add it at
cleveland
castlewood
dogtown
i got a question like on here you've got
belfast and blackford i guess
you was alternating them but now you've
got them both manned
time but i i thought we was you had
blackford open and when black for what
and belfast was closed
when belfast was open blackford vice
versa
no the this was a schedule i've got that
says the 274 on the first page that that
it says the current schedule but that's
the current proposed schedule i mean
well i'm asking you right now is
blackford and belfast opened at the same
time manned at the same hours would they
be manned yes they would say
all under this proposal but right now
it's flipped it's lit it's flexed back
and forth you either grind to one or you
go to the other okay well i'm just
wondering i mean
wouldn't you keep it flexed
if you're that close in proximity
to save more money
actually this this the standardized
schedule is the one if we start flexing
then you're going you then you look like
you're just talking just standard across
the board at every location every
location that way when
what about sundays
i mean what's going to happen like
in these uh moccasin drill and finney
box and drow and feni will stay up
on sundays
these are open topics well i know but
you've got them closed i know he does so
yes i mean i'm a little concerned
especially like well we own a farm
property
we cleaned that shop inaudible was about
seven eight cars in our
and i was waiting in line
down there uh to haul off you know to
put out trash on a sunday after church
well and right now in the schedule
i'm sorry
on the schedule you have it he has it
closed but
after talking with mr mrs wallace and
taking a look at this
the open tops isn't is not going to be
that much of a factor because it is not
manned it will not calculate into the
hourly analysis so
so leaving those open will not affect
and if it does add a little bit of cost
or another training cost you got enough
cushion
into these cost savings to be able to
sustain the standardized schedule plus
leaving
the unmanned trash sides disposal sides
open continuously
i'd like to
bring this up to the board too uh
something that i think really works i
don't know how we do it but
the company in belfast you know the j
trash service that goes around picks up
residential trash
they don't charge an arm and leg but
they do a great service in our community
uh
we have a aging population
and it's hard for elderly people you
know especially if somebody don't take
their trash off form or
you know for them to go to a site and be
able to do it and i know our employees
work greatly with elderly people but
i'd like to see our board down the road
here
if we ever get to the point where we had
to have a trash fee
i'd like to see part of that as
working with a not seeing this company
but you know i know we'd have to
probably bid it out privacy a private
sector company
to be able to go and pick up the trash
i mean that's something i think would be
a great service for our areas and our
communities and i think it would be
justifiable
looking at it that way but i think there
will have to be many discussions on what
what it would be or the rate of what it
would be or whatever but
i do know they do a fantastic job right
now and it's just a private business but
i know for a lot of huh
i i think that's how that would have to
be done as a private entity i know
buckingham county's getting out of the
business
it's just so expensive with all the
trucks that you have to have let's see
all private entities under the uh
under the landfill ordinance transfer
station they there is a permit fee as
you know you all have enacted we do work
with those small companies actually
there's one in castlewood there's
actually one yes and and here's we work
with them from this perspective here
and and brian will tell you
if they pick it up it's not over the
hill
it it also gives it to the elderly any
way not to it's it costs so much when it
goes out that window onto the roadside
that you know extending the the hours a
couple here on the summer
it you'll save your money well trash is
never going to go away i mean it's just
how you manage it how you come up with
creative thinking or ideals to to do it
but i know the company in castlewood
that's doing it different ones it's
starting to privatize and do that that's
a great service i mean it is i mean just
figuring out
how we work with those entities
to be able to make it work for the
county i think it's would be
worth discussion worth discussion at
this point
right and i think that you've done a
great job in working with them for the
permitting because when they gather it
all up and take it to the landfill then
that becomes an issue there so i think
that the county has done a great job in
in working with the private sector and
that's what we want we want less
government and more uh entrepreneurs
well and another thing that while we was
looking at it
with you know of the trash sites and one
of the things that came up now you can
look at washington county it's got a
population base about 58 000 plus
during the last census give or take
they have
13 trash sites but if you'll look at
their operational cost on what they do
they're in
they're in the seven figures
so
we're
they're good at this i'm telling you
they they're i mean i hate to say it and
i ain't being facetious but the mob's in
in the trash business i mean there's a
reason there's money in it and
and
we
and that's one of the things for
consideration so when this proposed it
because we were looking at trying to do
the disposal fee and trying to do the
stickers to cut down and each thing had
its own component you know it one was a
revenue base one was to make sure that
only county
residents were able to utilize their
facilities because they were coming
across the lines from mccannion county
tazzle county washington
so
that's like working with jeremy down
there to move him down there to handle
her recyclables
that's made a huge difference
for him to be able to help the county
with the recyclables of the three
counties through the cumberland plateau
waste management authority so these
partnerships relationships are really
like i agree with miss wallace they're
crucial
from the private industry to to help
them
and with the price of metal right now
and he i mean he's his business is not
even slowed down i mean it is he's and
he's
he's he's he's hired employees i mean
it's it's a cycle
but
and again this is one of the proposals
that we
you know we wanted to give to you
because we have went over the county
numbers we went over the county revenue
we have tweaked this we have tried to
set and listen what the governor would
say
what the feds were saying
but
this way
by accepting the standardized schedule
being able to put in this cost cutting
effectively you don't have to wait on
the state
you can move
now well i think you've done a good job
here
monday and friday ten to seven teamwork
monday and friday ten to seven
tuesday and thursday seven to seven
closed wednesday and sunday and then
saturday is uh
seven to four you know which is kind of
the oddball out there
but
and
the saturday was done but again if you
have to move our here you want an hour
here if you want a winter schedule or
summer schedule i like that idea of the
winter and summer because we do get a
lot of cause and this is not lit up they
don't feel comfortable it's too cold
there's snow on it we can't keep it
covered because it becomes more evolved
in the winter times trying to keep the
side open so on these locations on the
hills trying to keep the snow down and
the interest is cleared and it's hard to
get out and help the elderly when it's
blowing zero with the standardized
schedule everybody know where to go i
mean right now you know they'll call all
of us you know what why aren't you open
where am i going to go to home a trash
well with this every everything be
standard standard so i mean i like the
standard policy i think you know we
might have to critique maybe a little
bit of hours here and there to make sure
that it works for the citizens of the
county but
i do like i appreciate y'all working on
this listing it was the smallest and all
y'all trying to put something i can't
take credit for it is my team and like i
said brian and i
you know thank god and and even the
waste management authority even even
toby even even to there the waste
management because right now whether
they know it or not of course you know
we talk trash and money but
and that's one in the same uh
you know
and we were discussing it this morning
the trans the fees that
they
the transfer company that charges us
from the landfill to buffalo you know
that thing is coming up next year so
we've got to find a way to cut off
there's other things down the road that
are going to be coming at us
okay well
you know not to throw a snag in here but
this is something that we did not
discuss and i think that
we're looking at these highlighted in
yellow
which is drill
fenney and moguson yes ma'am
and so i'm wondering on the savings now
i know you don't want to hear this
but possibly on the savings can we move
forward to get permanent sites
for these other districts or is that
something that we need to just
work on as we go well
and
part of this one right here let's let's
go down the mox drill and i'm sorry mr
lester i know i feel you right out there
didn't i yes you did okay but i think
this is a discussion that my fellow
board members are interested in okay
right now if anyone wants to drive by
we're we're working on the sun disposal
site we've you know the crews have got
this down to a science now until we can
do approaches and ramps and we've got a
prefab down and we can you know we got
uh
we've got these sized out so when sign
is done
then we're moving to honaker that was
what the board had conveyed to me before
and that was where we were moving to
now
to give the board caution just on the
drill and i'm going to pull it out
you're on the backhand county line and
it runs the third highest in the county
and let me explain it's not your trash
so you're paying for another county so
that's that's where we're trying to get
into all manned sites and then you know
of course i've we have proposed you know
the county stickers and of course you
know that was another issue but
by having them manned it keeps them
within 15 minute radiuses of driving
time y'all are so close that you don't
realize it but
one of the things that you don't need to
do is set in lease when you own
home acre it will give them opportunity
to pull in all that traffic for business
while they're there they will go to a
restaurant they will stop and at the
dollar store they'll stop here they'll
go the bank they'll do whatever they
need to do but it will pull that traffic
in
if you look at
our radius on our maps of each one of
the disposal sites we have one in
cleveland that is manned it's right at
the school right now and it's at the end
of new garden road you go down to
honaker on new garden road where these
are logistically being placed in 15
minute radiuses that no matter where you
live in the county there's a couple
places of course tim will tell you i've
got a blind spot way down on the lower
end so i know how i'm going to do that
one so
yeah
well i hope they're not listening
just across the line
you know but ken ain't going to do it
so
but i i hope i answered your question in
a long bad way because i know i'm
dancing here i know but we we we talked
a little bit about this but i wanted
this board to hear that we have been
concerned to try to fix
some of our problems that they're
dealing with and i think it's important
for them to know that so i'm i just
wanted you to say it publicly that yes
and another thing what y'all got to
realize is and you know i get i guess
some comments you know we go out and buy
10 15 20 000 piece of property
a trash side on and and we kind of work
with communities because a lot of people
don't want them adjacent to their houses
but when we put that in you sounds like
20 000 a lot of money
look at the monthly cost
just on one site twenty three thousand
dollars
that's how fast i can recoup savings
that is how fast well when i met with
the mayor and town council in honaker
you know when was looking at a potential
site i tried to explain
to even the residents that these sites
don't smell i mean they don't this trash
is moved and clean and nice
i mean it's
that's why they're very nice convenience
sites everyone i think that this board
has been behind the build and put in
they're nice i mean if you go to other
areas oh yeah go to them go to them and
see
them are like even the one at washington
county on the right at the double
bridges it ain't near as nice as what
that were being able to construct and i
think just the people's perception of
just trash i think it smells but i mean
you can go buy these sites and i mean up
there at the horse ring and the
cleveland school and all that that site
center well you don't smell any of that
and and
oh okay
we had
concerns speak about you talk about
these unmanned
moscon drill and finney
to try to keep uh especially drilled by
kane county trash coming in here
if you man that
would you be set by paying those
salaries to have a man would you be
saving money having a man
more than what your
tonnage would be on buccaneer county
trash
like i said
right
okay let me make sure that we're talking
apples and apples here financially
if you cut my tonnage at drill by
closing off buchanan county
the cost will go down it will cover your
costs for operating home acre period
guarantee it write down standing here
before you guarantee it
based off today
yes
cause you you because not only are you
saving the and that's next thing i'll go
into with you because we're not full
we're not completely done with this the
disposal because i got another thing to
propose to you
next on disposal sites but you're
correct
and it the next component of the of the
sites is is the lease sites
now
blackford and drill is leased
so therefore you will eliminate that
annual cost on it so
that is another one and now that you've
opened that one for discussion i'll open
up the last one of course we know that
the board supervisors
has been notified that the fan the
property owner of the fenney trash site
has notified us at the end of july that
the fenney trash site is closing
we have been working with a couple of
property owners to be able to take a
look at
a potential site
remember now this is
finney is an open top
it is
in the yellow it is an open top so it's
not a big compactor i don't need three
phase power i don't you know it's it's a
lot less regulatory from that in osha
and the rest as these man sites are but
that's at the discretion of the board of
supervisors right now
we
have talked to two property owners
and on a potential site and i'll i'll
have to bring that before the board when
we get it more definitive so
but you've got it based off of
what y'all began at the beginning on the
planing on this
you're almost there and that 15 minute
radius fully compacted other than your
open sides
which is you know drill will go away so
there alleviates one of them the other
ones are so far out like fenney but see
fenney
it would make a good open
sight but it if you'll look at the
annual the monthly tonnage it's the
compactor cost is what you'd have to
equal the pactor so when you when you
open one up and you man it
you got to consider the operation cost
the electric cost and the manpower so
based off the tons that we've got coming
in there feni doesn't have a lot of
tonnage
it's just it just don't but it's it's a
great candidate for an open top
so
that's but that's at the discretion of
the board of supervisors
so you would put one in home acre and
clothes drill and fenney as well i would
have closed drill and blackford
okay because that's what was making
sense you're going to have one in
honaker in blackford right there
okay yeah blackford will close see we're
leasing if you look into the pages
on the second page i have the rental
rates
for the the sites that we're releasing
so
right now
as you can see radio station we're
leasing blackford releasing drill
releasing and finney releasing
we have four sites that we're currently
leasing
so drill will go away
and blackford will go away
which is another annual savings
uh where would the hornet site to be
located if you go after your own life
based off of
talking with the local property owners
there because we've already started that
too
and the town of honaker because you know
we can just like us working with the
town of lebanon you know we had to work
with the town 11.
we wanted in a location that both of us
feel comfortable with that's
they
again not it
it's and i think a couple of the council
members have come and looked at the
lebanon site yes
and seen how automated it is clean it is
and in the way it would be on the same
because again home acre is into your
third fourth highest you know because
you remember you're going to be picking
up drill and you're going to be closing
down blackford so you will probably
become the number two trash disposal
site
is it in the county
based off the tonnage and the number of
houses in the clusters
you will become
when we do away with those you will
become the biggest sizes and these will
be compact sites these will be compacted
manned compact and copper yes secured
we can
we're looking at that and the uh yes
absolutely
but where is that i asked you where's
the site going to be for
we
no we have no i apologize the uh there's
three sites that's that's been you know
proposed yes but it'll have to be like
an agreement between the board of
supervisors
and the home acre town council you know
everybody's good and we and it probably
if just like the town of lebanon it
might not be a bad idea for the town of
honaker and and uh and the board to have
a public hearing you know the town home
character yeah
to make sure all citizens you know are
comfortable with it too
but after if they was to drive one
and then we and and believe not brian is
getting better at it as his building i
mean you looked at swords creek that was
mine i built that one brian took over
and then look at lebanon dog town sun is
going to be h1 that we build gets better
because it's lessons learned we learn
think lessons that how to make it more
efficient in and out entrances lighting
okay
district one well yeah
that's what they're doing now and
they're going down there and they're
spending their money in nicholsville
and they're going on gate city
and we had looked at this scott at
down at 71 because if you look at the
and
and i know again you get near the
northern county line and that's always
it's always concerning issue but when we
did the census if you look at the number
of cluster of houses that's down there
you're talking 4 000 houses
there's like 4 000 houses down there
around that cluster you know so well but
you can't find land because there's the
property owner in most of the county and
ain't going to say no names that owns
most of all you know i don't i don't
understand
all the count all the counties have the
same issue
i don't understand why we don't go in to
some sort of financial
obligation with county county and county
and say look man we're taking your
garbage
you're taking our garbage why don't we
build it close to the line or something
we'll go in together on it we'll man it
we'll share the expense and fix this
problem i mean that's just like tim down
on the lower end
well i don't i mean not hassle one that
but have a meeting with them
and and say hey look we'll build a nice
system down here and we'll partner with
you on it if we can find a piece of land
that we can partner on i mean i think it
makes sense to at least have a
conversation with
oh i'll agree
in theory
[Laughter]
i don't know what you mean by that
okay let me give you an example
at one time of course lebanon is number
one trash site in the county as far as
tonnage drill was number two
okay wise county closed down and ain't
gonna say which one raised their taxes
seven cents on the hundred on the real
estate and closed the disposal site near
us now guess who number two tri-site
which you got in front of you is hamline
we're pulling wise county trash
well i understand that but i mean just
to have a conversation with we did
you really wouldn't i mean be like the
waste management authority it would have
to be and i get what you're saying
because the moccasin side i know gets
scott county tracks
and and nickelsville gets lots of
south 71 trash from russell county
so you know
happening anyway
and i don't know what you do i mean
right
and and we they have been looking at
property down through there but again
it's it's hard to find i mean you go
from county line all the way to 58. it's
locked
you could you couldn't squeeze in there
we no we it's not on fire
mr lovelace
i i we love talking trash but
i have a have a question alonzo too uh
going back to the convenience site uh on
wednesdays and sundays um like the moxen
drill and fenney uh will they still be
open on wednesday or will they be closed
on wednesday right now on your schedule
he's got it closed but like i said
during the conversation and i hope
that y'all got it you have the
opportunity if you want to do it but
when you do it you take my 270 the 270
savings you everything that you add to
it takes away from the annual savings
so
if you want to
but what
if you open up one site you got to open
up all three unmanned sites whatever you
stay uniform to
because it's it's i'm just trying to be
fair yeah i think you're still going to
get a sister county
trash
because
until until we get rid of drill and
those outliers you're going to always
get them or you know go into it's like
some counties do again i'll mention it
the little county stickers
but
until you put but a lot of man that
they're they're hesitant to come into a
site
that is manned
that just that's just human nature they
they they know they're in russell county
and a man's site and and they come they
pull in with a tassel county sticker on
their thing and they're going hmm
which we had one you know come out just
this morning we had one out of florida
flying through but
yeah
but
no
but
but here's why no they moved flum
floored up to here
they hadn't changed their tags yet so
you get the low enough you get to know
when a lot of things allow people doing
trash so
but again you got
270 000 potential savings get a
standardized operating hours get a
summer schedule
winter schedule
and you know that's up to y'all
like
a different schedule and winter times in
the summer
so well you got seven minutes late you
stay open through the summer
i would say
five o'clock because
it's to get dark about that time
well
yes
it will and i don't disagree with that
but just remember
people work the same hours in the winter
as they do in the summer so that yeah so
i do
and and we do but if you'll look at and
we'll send you all that data sheets
of january through december on peak
times because we do number counts
actually we do number counts when
they're coming through during the winter
you'll be surprised
actually the best time is from 10
o'clock to 4 o'clock
i don't know why but that's just that's
the numbers that come through
they couldn't we weren't open early
enough or we weren't open late enough so
this seven to seven
on tuesdays and thursdays
should
care about that need
exactly yes so i think we're i'm hearing
that we almost have a consensus so we're
going to give it another week that's all
you have to study all of these lovely
notes which and if you need any more
data we got dude
i think you don't think you provided
i even have people from the town call me
and say
what what is the site out here what's
the site here what i mean you can ask
loretta and vicky they i mean they want
to know the schedule even though we keep
it up on the website and we've got it on
the track sites we've got their
operations people forget which
you know they don't keep up with
you know the operating hours so this
says
uniform
i love them across the board
okay lonzo like on wednesday here i know
you know we've got everything closed
all right that's gonna push more trash
on thursday or tuesday okay all right so
what i'm i'm thinking can we not open up
like uh three sites on wednesday one for
the home acre area one for the lebanon
one for the castlewood
and that way if people needed to go they
could go to a
standardized place see right now
if if you do it the way we run our
operations and
and if you keep and if you look at the
other counties they do the wednesday and
the sunday i mean this is no big one and
it's always to be a little humbly yeah
but
and leaving these
moccasin
drill fini open
will accommodate i mean if somebody's
really like in a bind and they need to
get they can they can go a little they
can go
to one of those if we don't mess with
those the unmanned sights
and watching who got who accumulated
the most trash they can't
have it closed one day right exactly and
what you gotta remember in on those on
that wednesday when they're closed
mike
brian's crews are moving and hauling and
getting it prepped for the thirsty
opening you see what i'm saying
see right now we got three
disposal trucks that are running they're
running
they're
they're shiren yes it would that's why
we're asking this that's that's why we
that's why this cost savings will happen
but you see the hourly
but
by using the three trucks we're we're
cutting the costs on the leche which is
working perfectly and we're getting
ready to cut it even more but we also
using that alternative third truck to be
able to move the trash in so if y'all
get any calls of something being full
you let us know because we we've got
we've got the operations in place to be
able i mean brian we're talking about
that we look back through on the
comments and complaints
if it's if it's full it's it's
somebody's come in
intentionally with multiple truckloads
of quickly and filled one up on the
unmanned not demand
right
hey that's my there you go that's a good
one we make money on that one just come
on down yes
absolutely
which a lot of people don't understand
that's a try too
right
they don't they think of it as
commercial
i've got word that uh loves sending some
people to the transfer station if i got
much trash yeah i've got complaints from
people because she's done that right and
she just didn't want to fill up
the
compacts out here
premature i guess you would say yeah
there's some things that you know and
there are rules and regulations and
ocean all that that they can't take like
construction materials etc and they'll
move them down to the the transfer
station
that's part of the ordinance of russell
county
it does
i haven't got those numbers yet i hope
steve i was doing so good here
well here's what we do know and tim well
this is what we do know but there's a
butt
and see if we've got some numbers we've
got we met this morning at 10. oh did
you
you got the numbers we good
we're good
we're good and we were in and we were
out
we're good
um
give him a minute he's got him
i'll find it but it's 271 thousand
dollars we're getting back okay
but what is next
360 something
and i don't remember what it was the
year before i want to think it was 280.
while they're looking at it madam chair
can i ask a question
can i ask a question uh we uh i've been
talking to a couple of
companies that do surveying and we've
been i had one of them contact lonzo uh
on our gis
they had informed me that we have a lot
of property
in russell county
that we're not even collecting taxes on
yes we know i happen to know someone too
that knows that so those are i figured
you did
the gis is not
you don't go by that yeah i understand
but i mean
you got people that call you and say
here is our property line which does not
exist it just exists out there and
well i know
i was shown 20 acres of property that
we're not collecting tax on at all
and
i don't know how you fix that but
i think that that needs to be looked
into a little bit even if we had to
contractually
get somebody involved and surveyors
involved to fix this for us because
that's hundreds of thousands of dollars
well if you'll remember now we we opened
it up so that you could
our real estate folks
would be able to use our sites
and
somehow or another we were supposed to
be updating this and i don't know what
happened
we didn't have any money to do so i
guess so i have no idea
but this is a complicated little system
and i don't know how to fix that you
need a professional to tell you how to
do it i guess
it's untailing i mean i just went to one
guy and he showed me
he showed me 25 30 tracks of property
that we're not collecting any tax on and
forum didn't they even know who owned it
man it'd be nice if we could apply for
some kind of funding to get
i mean it would take probably a crew of
different surveyors to be able to work
in every inch of the county to fix this
but i think it's going to have to be
done eventually down the road
we don't disagree yes
we have all we've all discovered this
yes
oh
you found more money mr lester
you
while you're looking mr lester you know
we enacted the cigarette tax
but the virginia general assembly did
not give us the
authority to enact any other tobacco tax
is that correct
i'm sorry that's okay
it'll be next week
it'll be next week when you can talk
about that
i'm sorry
did the virginia general assembly they
did not they did not address the um
occupancy the other tobaccos no they did
only smoking that is correct
that was wonderful and they haven't done
that this year either that's correct so
we cannot enact anything else on tobacco
products thank you no man we're at the
cap you know
yes
what y'all decided uh and and
and to give all fireness the counties
the towns followed sue so everybody is
in in the same range
yeah so
again i'll look at those numbers not
that i got to say
i'll go through them and plug them in
fast enough to make sure that the
regional jail hasn't
moved some cost on the reduction of
inmates et cetera et cetera so we'll be
able to see this at the next yes ma'am
meeting mm-hmm
i can
i will i will
but again
that that one was at the top number one
in my list was the regional jail
i actually i was more worried about the
regional jail that was the sales tax
because they
what they had done in this trade-off
between the city of bristol is and
during the reduction in laws and doing
the covid
we're we went from a population
estimated 180 on an annual basis that
was our numbers now we've dropped to 160
but
every other county dropped down two
which
on a per diem base is it makes the cost
per inmate per day go up even though
you're going down in numbers so
right but if bristol hadn't came on it
would have been even worse worse because
bristol is you got to remember they're
paying a a premium per diem
and they're paying for
200 inmates
whether they have 200 or 5 right
exactly
so that's helping that that's helping it
to not go
without him and i asked him i said why
are you just hold on to eight that is
all to keep the facility
functioning well now eight is still in
their facility eight is still in their
facility but
yeah the re the regional jail was one of
my major concerns but
as we'll take a look at those numbers
but again what we have proposed for the
budget and
and
one of the last things is
uh we had a board member
the board wanted to know about the
health insurance and i you know katie
sent that out so
okay and
what i pulled up this is out of the
general ledger
it looks like based off of our these are
the revenues and expenditures we have to
keep about a balance of 7.1 million you
know in that range on hand so
i was
i was i was telling uh
miss wallace and mr breeding this
morning i would like to have took the
money to do a reduction in health you
know the employee premium side i was
trying to snatch it from there but they
wouldn't even let me do that so
but again
that was one of the most best kept
secrets
i hate to say it in this whole budget
thing
we have we have went from a major
deficit
to a surplus
to back to an 80 20.
we will compete and and until
uh
uh steve both said on that board we can
compete with any county in this region
as far as health insurance
i i don't pick one i mean there may be i
think the one or two instances where the
single is a little bit lower
than what we've got but i'm telling you
our health our family plan some of them
ours is in the 700s is 11 to 12 hundred
dollars a month on the employee side
so
if y'all want to see the numbers
i'll put that out to you too
but that was a
that we went to stabilizing it is a
great program everything is in place so
it was hard work but the board stuck in
there so we fixed that problem but again
on the disposal sides please think about
it for consideration think about the
consideration for the schedule we'll
implement that in the budget and put it
into operations july the first one more
thing before i go
now one of the things that the governor
has said and this is the law he had just
ceremonially signed
now
in it
the schools and the constitution
officers
five percent raise begins
august first not july first i don't know
well how they why they started there but
that's their logic and reasoning
so
we will have to be uniform in our budget
so my proposal right now and then these
numbers that you have before you
currently
has that five percent into the july so i
will be removing that so that will be a
little additional savings because we
have to match what's in the code
virginia so everybody is uniform through
all departments
and state and local so
augustine i don't know i he august the
first is what he re he wrote into lyle
it's restrained
august the first but other than that
board thank you for consideration let me
know if you have any questions give me a
call
send me an email but
thank you
and at this time i will ask for any
citizens comments after we've hashed out
the
budget a little bit anybody out there
need to say anything concerning what
you've heard so far
i'll allow that
all hearts are clear so um next meeting
mr
lester so we can come back and do this
all over again
got me okay
it is all racist it's already set yes
that's what's going on june to 29th at 6
00 pm june 29th at 6 pm it is the
adoption the final adoption of the ross
county budget by law very good and at
this time i will adjourn this meeting
thank you so much
the last meeting i made a statement that
i hadn't attended but two other budget
meetings
that's the only two i've been notified
that they've had so i want to clear that
up to the public and the board members
not that i had skipped some but i could
have attended but those only two i was
notified
about and i think that's about all we've
had so far without knowing everything so
thank you very much all right we're
adjourned thank you