good afternoon everyone i'd like to
welcome you to the russell county board
of supervisors meeting
april the 12th 2021 and 1pm
i would like to first start off with uh
call to order in row column
tim lovelace here david eaton
david said he was on his way
steve brady
carl also said he is on the way rebecca
die
here ma'am you have a quora thank you
let's stand for the invocation remain
standing for the pledge please
thank you dear lord for giving us
another day thank you for the blessings
that you've given each one of us
help us to make the right decisions
help us to understand that you are the
leader
we are your instruments in helping guide
our county watch over our nation
our state in the local county and help
us to understand you or who
help us make the right decisions for our
people in jesus name we pray
of the amen states of america and to the
republic for which it stands
all right the first thing i need a
motion please to amend the agenda
the school system has called and asked
us to
do a quick resolution for them they are
working on their
ag building behind lebanon high school
and with that with the construction they
do need a pump and hall permit
and we do need to help them with that so
at this time could i have a motion to
amend the agenda
to add it as number one
under our new business so that we can
thank yours do we have a second second
tim
all right all those in favor anyone
opposed
all right we will add that as number one
under our new
business all right
uh then
alonso do you have that would you like
to read it or give a brief
synopsis of it what the school is
needing yes ma'am
thank you
this is a letter from the russell county
board school board to the russell county
board of supervisors
um these this is from uh allen addison
uh we met with brian stanley at the
virginia department of health concerning
a field and pump septic for the new
agriculture shop at the lebanon high
school
due to the distance to connect the
existing sewer he has allowed
a pump and high tank mr stanley is
requesting a resolution from the board
of supervisors to the department of
health
the resolution will include the
agriculture building at the lebanon high
school
and the baseball concession stand at the
castlewood high school
to the board of supervisors existing
permit
this is the they're working with bill
skeen to obtain the written plans
for the placement of tank cap and alarm
this plan is required by the department
of health to
obtain a permit to install vdh
needs the resolution and the plans to
issue the permit for installation
um we may need clarification
i'm reviewing this and
that will have it to
uh as number a number two for the
uh concession stand at cass wood so is
there two components to this
yes well yes and that's the permit
this is just for the permit yes yes it
is
okay i'll clarify that my understanding
was just for the ag building so do i
need to
just say that this um this uh
amended agenda is to clue the resolution
for
the permit not just one place yes ma'am
okay
thank you
all right any uh further discussion
all right do we have a motion to accept
this resolution
for the uh school system for their
permit
for pumping height so move thank you tim
do we have a second
thank yours all those in favor
anyone opposed like we will give the
school system this uh permit for pump
and hall agreement
all right the second item and i hope our
gentleman can
come on in here mr eaton and mr
ray they did call that they were coming
we will start the fiscal year
2022 financial budget workshop
alonzo will open the floor for you to
start presenting the
budget to us thank you madam chair
thank you madam chair first
from the fy 22 budget
as the memorandum states from from
myself to the board of supervisors
in this budget year of course due to
our the financial condition of the
county for less
in addition combined with pandemic
this has been a very unusual budget year
that we just went
through and the one that we're getting
ready to go into
in the previous budget workshops
what the board supervisors you know of
course
reviewed ever you know expenditure line
item
between the revenue and the expenditures
to
you know come to an agreement between
this one this
meeting due to the pandemic and you know
all items are important to us especially
in donations and you all will have time
to take a look at these
on your own because this is the first
budget workshop
we can come back but what i wanted to
touch on today
was the big issues in the financial
budget considerations that we must
address that will impact
the larger financial impact of the
county rather than the small budget
items
so what as you can see in the cover
letter
that it says you know once again it is
time for the financial
new fiscal year in the budget review
process we've almost
completed the 2021 budget and beginning
the fy 21 22 budget process
departure the county budget departments
have done an excellent job
even during the pandemic so i'm giving
out a shout out to them
during this time because this has been a
very trying time under
unusual circumstances so
throughout and also one of the things
that i wanted to point out
that throughout the fiscal year the
budget finance committee has
continuously monitored
and worked with all the departments and
they
looked at the budget line items the
expenditures
and includes the cares for compliance
with local state and federal regulations
we did finish up the first portion of
the
fy 1920 budget that had some of the
cares funding that
has already been audited and we have
been
given a clean audit by the feds on the
first component
so now that we're proceeding into fy
21 and 20 19 20 and 21
budget year we expect to do the same
but as we all know that the state of
virginia and the national economy
continues
to challenge us financially and the fy
2122 budget year
may even be more challenging to the
county due to the kovit pandemic
and what we're encountering the final
considerations through the budget as we
go through it
first of all is the statewide salary
includes
this was given by the governor of
virginia
to all constitution officers and school
teachers
that the second one is of course
the state of virginia also increased the
minimum wage
uh the second thing is the cigarette and
meal tax
and then of course the impact to the
regional jails
the g3 impact the g3 impact is the share
the state's share of tuition
for in conjunction with our race program
the next one is of course the county's
leche operations i'll get into a little
bit
on that on what we're proposing and it's
of course at the board's consideration
and also the disposal operations on what
we're going to be doing
within the next 12 months on those
so i have included a draft of the
fy 22 financial budget which you know
again it says that shows all the
budgeted revenue and expenditures
as we proceed through them
that you know one of the concerns you
know
of the county is during the pandemic and
one of the things that we have been very
sensitive to
especially on the commissioner revenue
and the treasurer's office
during this time we worked with of
course the russell county residents
on personal property and real estate
taxes as as
setting up payment plans we knew during
the pandemic
it was many of the residents they either
had financial
you know um impact
to their family or their jobs so if they
you know we worked with them to make
sure that
they were not worried about their real
estate at the time
we set up payment plans or their
personal property that way we could work
through them
and this gave an opportunity
to proceed into the new year and a lot
of times with
the uh the impact from the federal side
on the uh the supplement money a lot of
residents
have you know come in and approached and
took on
their responsibility and paid their
taxes on time
they paid their personal property on
time and
the ones that are having those small
portion
that were having financial difficulties
we are working out a payment plan with
them
so we are but it is an impact to
the county budget of course everyone
knows
that in of the king and queen and taxes
what we call them in the financial side
you know real estate is the largest
revenue component that we have
in the fi in the county budget it is
number one
uh of course everybody that knows that
personal property is number two
and then of course that we have
machining tool
is number three and sales tax is number
four those
four make up over 80 percent of your
budget right there
just those four line items so along with
what we
have worked with on the federal
government side during the pandemic
and tried to take care of russell county
citizens during the pandemic
in in putting out masks and giving extra
funding to
the rescue squads the first responders
the fire departments
we gave uh you know donations to the
food pantries
these are things that russell county
board supervisors felt that were very
important for
community safety net issues to make sure
that
our citizens of the county received what
they could
in within the guidelines of the program
so as we continue through this you get
another thing that must be considered
this is the new fiscal year
number two is as we can
work through this there is also another
relief package that has been approved
by the federal government that the
american relief fund so from that
you must consider you don't have
finalization on that
yet do we no ma'am the last word that we
got
is the federal government has passed it
it is it will be sent down to the states
and each state due to the pandemic has
different circumstances
so they will be deciding how they can
best expend this money within each state
some of them
like we're not as big as new york of
course or california or et cetera
but the state of virginia is different
so what the federal government did would
they give the autonomy to the governors
to be able to manage
down to the localities the
municipalities and towns
of that funding and the last word that
we received
on the schedule on this is that the
governor's office should have something
to the localities and the governing
boards
by the middle of may now this is
uh this relief funding is different than
the cares
it is more focused on infrastructure
uh it's not in focusing it is of course
focused primary on kovid first but it is
morally focused on infrastructure
projects
so to take us through number two is this
funding also
is has been approved over a two year
period so whatever we
are awarded this will be spread over a
two-year period
this is to help sustain the counties and
municipalities and localities
over a two-year component rather than a
one-year component
so for example if we receive four
million dollars
we receive two million in july
of this year and we will receive two
million
in july of next year so it will be
spread over a two-year component to be
able to pull us
up economically over two financial
budgets
so that that is a good thing so
as you have time to go back and review
you know the 60 i think it's 62 61 pages
of financials uh from the revenue side
and the department side in expenditures
you you will see that russ county board
supervisors has took and
has taken the flat level budget
we have not increased anything in this
component
other than i have written into the
budget is the increase in salaries now
let me explain that and i'll lead into
that component also
so of course again back
the state virginia has given five
percent to all the constitution officers
and that includes the sheriff's
department the commonwealth attorney
commissioner of revenue the treasurer's
office and the school board
now the school board will take has their
funding that they take care of that is
funded by the state of virginia
that on the county side we have our
constitution officer side
that will also be funded by
the state of virginia that five percent
of all constitution officers
will be funded by the state of virginia
the second component is what we have in
the county as what we call support staff
that are county employees not
constitutional officers
that we pay for on our side and that's
what the five percent
that we have estimated into the budget
to be able to complete
that way the board of supervisors have
y'all have done
since you've been sitting here is to
give a flat across the board raise to
all employees that's the way i
have done for the previous years and
this is the way i developed it
in this one so right now i have the
constitution officers which were easy
that's what we get 100
funding from the state of virginia on
that but i also had to pick up
the county side for the 5 of the county
employees
so everyone will receive the same amount
so and again as i'm talking at
feel free to you know if you've got
questions about as we're going through
each and everything that we're dealing
with
yes ma'am how many currently do we have
as
considered to be county employees right
now
between the full-time and the part-time
which we do full-time and part-time we
give a raise
to both if you're a county employee
whether you're a full-time employee or
part-time we give that five percent
raise
between both full-time and part-time
and we i can break it down to fte or not
we have approximately 67 employees
yes no
that's just the county side now what you
got to remember is
that 67 is very broad but majority
of those 22 are part-time
that sounds like a lot yes ma'am
that was the last run so here is the
thing
about it now those of those are not
the remaining full-time positions are
not in my office or the county's office
they are supplements to
their deputies their their security at
the courthouse
they are uh
they're at training yes their track they
do disposal
they also supplement the the
commonwealth attorney's office the
commissioner revenues office the
treasurer's office
custodial employee yes so
that between that
and and and the number of employees that
we have in the county
that gives the five percent across the
full time in the part time so
yes
i wish they did but no they don't they
since those are county funded but
the point that i want to make sure very
clear on
those are not the board supervisors
employees those are mostly
ones that you gave to key component
departments
the court's houses the sheriff's
departments
the commissioners the treasurers at
the disposal those are the ones that
where those are at
so i mean if you look at at our facility
on maintenance
i've got three i got three personnel
takes care of the whole county
that's it that that's it in maintenance
period
the rest is supplemented by the
community work program
there is not a contract in the state in
the county in the state sorry
in the county for any operations like
mowing
it's all handled by community work
program
our leader program is done by the
community work program
our additional house cleanings that we
do to fill the
east these facilities that we have
we have very little or it's majority of
it is community work program
from the courthouse to this government
building is cleaned
by the community award programs
community work program is done through
their probation rather than being put in
jail
they have worked out with commonwealth
attorney and the courts
to perform their services and services
they use yes
their time that way they pick up trash
they clean our facilities they mow our
grass
they we the the ball fields etc these
are things that are
that are done
yes sir that is exactly correct
it is a good thing so
but now we do have to uh payment has to
go to
the officers that are with these folks
so that that needs to be clarified too
here uh with mr christensen that
that even though the program is not
paying the
work program folks it does pay the
officers
does it not it does but even to make it
even better than you know even the
community work program itself
we have one program manager that watches
the community work program and she
manages those and we have
what we call part-time you know previous
deputies that
that oversight two working crews of
between six to ten men at a time or
individuals
male and female but one of the things
that
the program manager has done in the
community work program we actually have
a grant to pay for the two additional
part-time so she
is the only one that we have to pay out
of our com
our our revenue base or our taxes
so she she works very diligently with
the federal side
she gets grants to be able to to pay for
these deputies that work her groups
plus they donate their time to pay off
their their fines
and their time so it is a great
community program
but the point that we're trying to make
is what i don't want
confusion you know about
concerning the employees is that those
60-some employees
by the time we take our full-time out
again are dedicated to
core core gov you know core positions
within the county
so
and one of the things if you've had an
opportunity to look through
um our total revenue
has increased only by 0.9 tenths
and that's that's uh as you as you go
through
the local revenue and as you go through
the revenue from the state virginia
and the rest you're looking at seven
tenths of one percent
that's that's it on the revenue and of
course
when we go through and add in to the
expenditures
of the county even including the five
percent pay raise
we have only increased the budget
by i think it's what hang on just a
second let me get this
up as you can see on the screen
on the total general funds
i apologize for technology
that is on page 59 and 61.
as you can see and that's the point of
after we
and i'll come back to this sheet of
course eight tenths of one percent
that's the total impact of the eight
tenths of one percent is what
the cost to the raise whatever we've
increased in
on operations uh as everyone knows on
the board
we've had since this time we've had
enormous cost increase
in disposable operations you know trash
we've
almost you know our trashes went up 25
you know that's a good thing they're out
there they're they're buying things and
but we do have the trash that we have to
pick up
so they we are gaining in sales tax so
one knock kind of offsets the other
so as we go through it as you can see
eight tenths one percent
and after we have
included all the five percent as you can
see
uh throughout the financials
the
apologize i'm getting up to the screen
as everyone can see
the 18 right now we have budgeted out
the total general fund at 26 million 246
728 dollars which is again an eight
eight tenths of one percent that's the
increase
so between this year and last year
and that's taken into consideration
going back to what the beginning of the
conversation
that on the real estate and the personal
property people are still paying their
payments
we are running low as as i'm getting
ready to show you
we on our real estate it is lagging
behind
and and we are working with them and
they are working with us
so as you can see this is the
uh on on the big screen i have it
highlighted in blue right now
and this is the budget that i just ran
on the current
real estate currently we're running
4.83 behind where we should be
on real estate
and that it equates to 182 439
and 32 cents that again
that is the king and queen and tax when
these go down you do notice it
now where we are where we are
increasing where we're picking up at is
of course
whether everybody's you know buying
stuff buying for their family buying
groceries our sales taxes went up so
when one going down one went back up it
kind of leveled out
but the total impact you know
as far as deciding to do level fun
is the reasoning well we're going down
one way and up but it's still
the same amount of revenue is what is
basically the way we say it if we go
back
to if i go back to the previous revenue
over last year
compared to this year
this is the one of the things that last
year
this is the variance between one versus
the other last year we had 25 million
998
thousand two hundred two dollars this
year we're 26 million 187
115 you're looking at a hundred and
eighty nine thousand dollar variance
between
two budget years over thirty million
dollars that's the variance that's tight
that is uh what
one of the things that y'all have done
not just considering the five percent
across the board
is y'all have made it you know
to where we live within our means what
we make is what we spend
no more no less i have a question if i
may
on the real estate that you mentioned
that we're down
a little bit on collections are we
seeing
uh absentee landowners or are we seeing
where where is that that we're losing
that
real estate are we seeing it because
people have left and they're not
people just not paying their taxes are
they living there not paying their taxes
do you do you have a feel for that have
you all got some information on that
we do when we pulled up the list of that
what makes up 282 000
it's a hybrid of both it's the ones that
are making the payment plans have not
got to that point yet they're paying it
off
number one number two we're not seeing a
lot of abandonment
i mean you're you're not i mean if you
look in the previous
last week's paper you will see a page of
sale
it's it is but what you've got to
remember though
those were on the agenda 18 months ago
before the kill bid hit
so those are pieces of property that had
been but one of the things that we are
seeing as anyone knows and i don't know
how it works out
but and why during the pandemic the
price of real estate has went up
and everybody hears that these prices
are going up so these houses are selling
and we are selling them in russell
county they're going up
so between a hybrid of all of it
together
of the prices going up the and
and we are assessing right now on the
industrial side and commercial side in
the retail side
we we're seeing gains in those in
appraisals
but you will have ones that will leave
and
vacate you will have ones that are on
payment plan that are not able to pay
all at once and they will catch up and
then the
ones with the increase that offsets it
in the increase in the real estate i
hope that answers your question
it does and also um just does the
majority of the senior
citizens in our county do they take
advantage of the discount that they're
allowed to do
yes ma'am they do most people yes they
do
they they almo they almost have a
personal
working relationship with the
commissioner revenue okay
in the treasure they they do and we're
very
they come in we help them out you know
in previous years before the pandemic
hit
you know we actually offered them you
know tax
preparation assistance even on those but
we
also work with even even during the
pandemic
and with the subsidies that we get in
the stimulus money that we got
we're still working with the elderly if
they are on a fixed income
to be able to get their property and
their real estate paid
and a lot of times a majority and i'm
talking a high
percentile of roster county citizens
they come in
and want that assistance they ask to say
we can't pay all of this but this is
what we can pay and that's what we do we
work with them
well what what what what commission
okay
not in the predicament but in all
seriousness the
the the elderly that we work with you
know and
uh one of the things that the commission
revenue and the treasure works so
together with them so well
is during the pandemic uh
there was things that were happening
with their citizens that were
on fixed income that were retired during
the pandemic
they may have had incurred in crosstalk
in medical
you know insurance or med medications
so if they come in in which they are so
like i said a majority of them i mean
the majority of them they do they work
with us they tell us
what the issues are and then we'll work
with each and every one of them
but again as we we look through the real
estate the mineral tax and the public
service taxes and the personal property
now one of the good you know like i said
as we work through each one of these
components the big four
yes i call them uh it's like the odd
forms this is
the big four taxations and they set the
base
for the rest of the budget now what we
get
in additional funding from grants and
feds
that will help sustain your budget also
again
i will go back to the additional funding
that we'll get over the two-year period
we don't know what that amount is or the
terms and conditions but we do
know that it will be two installments
over two fiscal years
and it will go majority of it will be
the guidelines for infrastructure so
that's that will be something that the
board will have to consider later when
we have all the details
i got a question uh as for i know we've
worked really hard on trying to get the
debt service
on the debt service down as far as
trying to get some of those large
payments take care of so that would help
on the budgetary side how do you have a
list of those budgetary items
listed that on the debt service that how
close are we
to having those fairly substantial debts
paid off
of course right now to start russell
county
is current in all of its debt payments
number one that that's that's a good
thing
so believe it or not why do i say that
during the pandemic
as well as anyone i don't care what news
outlet you watched
there were a lot of towns and counties
and municipalities that were having
problems financial problems
rossa county again when you operate
on the type of operations that we do
for example and i'll use this as an
analogy
i got three maintenance personnel if i
go to the other surrounding counties
they're 15 to 18 people that's
we heard it earlier this morning they
have their
you know a lot more staff we work with
our means we do what we can within
our budget when the board of supervisor
sets the budget
it it by law
we y'all are testing to what you
collect in either local taxation
state or federal you will spend
no more as that makes sense so
that's that's the way y'all have done
since you have been sitting here for the
last four
going on five years so again back to mr
eaton's
question on the debt we're current on
all the debt
but we're also drawing down on certain
things where we have
consolidated the psas now we did
we consolidated those debt loads to make
it one
we got a three-year deferral for
payments on it
which worked out well we are also taking
that money that we had budgeted for the
payoffs on the debt and we're dedicated
in focusing that
to the payoff of the board of
supervisors debts like the big a
mountains the lynn springs the bell
presses
the swords creek community centers
things like that we're paying we're
still dedicating that debt to get that
debt load off
while in a pandemic which is great
accomplishment without
you know again the russ county board
supervisor
if you go back and look at the taxation
base
in 1999 you were 64 cents on 100
and and me and the commissioner revenue
and treasurer talked about this
you're at 63 cents on 100 in 1921 i mean
in 2021 1999
you were 64 on 100 you're 63 cents on
100
in 2021 you're one cent less than you
were
21 years ago that is that's unheard of
in any municipality
you know that financial
stewardship it's it's hard to maintain
while maintaining the level of service
and
as we progress through this this will
take resources by paying the debt load
off
well that's one of my questions you know
because i know we looked at that pretty
deeply as far as
once we got the debt service paid down
on a lot of those things that we had
accumulated i guess this board had
inherited
you know we worked really diligently to
knock some of that down and get it
paid off i know we looked at some of
these
projects cost projects that we're going
to have to do like the courthouse and
some of these things so i know like an
example of the debt service on the
government center was extremely high
at one time and we've been able to get
it down
and it's what what do we have two years
on it haven't it paid off
well you got about two and a half if the
payments in the pre
interest in a principal setting on
different times
they we divided it up to where we're not
paying it all at once because of the
cash flow issue
but take it back to the courthouse by
the time
we pay off the government facility the
courthouse
will be be constructed the first payment
will be due so we're not incurring
additional debt that's we're just we're
keeping the same level of debt that way
we're not putting the impact back on to
russell county residents well that's
just smart business
i just wondered as far as the list of uh
debt services that we had i know we put
a big dent
in it to get some of those old debts
satisfied and get them off our books so
that right there makes up a huge
difference in your budget
if and you know without having to you
know occur any any deeper expenses
and those are good points to make and
one of the things that y'all have done
and to put it in in terms is
y'all have operated the budget without
raising taxes
you have operated the budget by cutting
cost
by cutting them paying the debt off you
can take care of the five percent raise
you're not incurring any more taxation
you're you're working
efficiently operationally you're working
with
again with limited resources performing
the level of services
and that you know we we do apologize you
know and i'll go into disposal
operations later
you know we do apologize we are
getting there to where we need to be
we're getting into
compacted areas and getting the trash
down then
you know getting it consolidated to
where we can take care and manage
this disposal issue the trash issue we
will get there
but to get it in place it's going to
take a little bit of time
if you if you go right now
as ross county you can go through our
sites you can go through the lab inside
the dogtown site
you can go down to swords creek and you
can go
even into cleveland take a look at our
disposal sites and then go across
on the john douglas wayside stop off and
look at washington county
now washington county is double our
population
in population and in revenue
our our tray sites as well as you know
to be an accolade
you know as a cheerleader they're
unmatched
you will not find one in washington
county smith i don't
with from here to roanoke you will not
find disposal sites that away
and we do have a lot of we do have more
work to do
and we do have more to build but
once we do we hope we are this
this will work what the operations are
to do and
not to continue on the disposal is we
are looking at in russell county with
being within 15-minute drive
of disposal sites no matter where you
live in the county
that's where we will be when we're done
kim i'm sitting there back so
that is we have the locations actually
picked out
to where you can drive 15 minutes in
either direction and have this worked
out
so
it blows up
in
right
and see that as a good point and during
you know with litter ordinance and etc
that we you know
the issues on it one of the things that
i wanted to convey during that time is
what you've got to remember and this is
coming back from vdot
the trash that is on 19 and on 58 route
80. that is through traffic
a majority is coming from not your
county and i don't want to just blame it
look at each other and go that's your
fault and it's
my fault and it's my next-door
neighbor's fault if you go out on 19
and you know i live on 19 close to it
that traffic is 24 7. there's 15 000
cars that run on route 19 a day that's
the traffic count to 17 000 on 58.
there is a lot of trash up and down
those ways
the community work program picked up
three weeks ago
you can already see the trash back on it
and then and the majority is not the
ross county citizen
it's when they're coming through they
and they are stopping at mcdonald's and
either you know here and then they're
going and they throw it out the door
but we have to take care of it because
it's within you know our
within our county we have to do it and
but if anybody has been to washington
county now and i can tell you i know
this is firsthand go across to john
douglas wayside and look at thur county
look at the trash load through there i'm
telling you it
is bad and they you know two weeks ago
they had their all their deputies out
from the town of abington coming
this way back on 19. they had the
sheriffs everybody out
and i'm still telling you that our work
our community work people can pick up
per mile
and you know per day than any other crew
they've got so they are doing a great
job
so not to get back on the trash but it
is a big problem
we will get it fixed then we will get it
i'd like for the board to look at
too in the budget committee is like say
interest bearing loans
that i mentioned this once before that
we looked at
a few years ago is like you know you
might have say
i'm going to use an example five loans
every one of them has the interest
bearing on them
if we do a particular project that right
now where the interest rates are low
my recommendation would be to take a
look at
knocking out some of those loans getting
rid of the interest payments on those
things because i know they vary
from one to the other some are low some
are kind of high
but if we're able to do a particular
project was able to land a fairly
decent deal on the interest bearing of
that is to get rid of that
interest on those additional loans and
that's additional money that we'd have
to pay off the principal
based on on a particular project and i
don't know how many you
you know do you know off the top of your
head how many i know at one time i
i looked into it pretty deeply when
on the consolidation uh other than the
government facility
that's the major load they load of the
board supervisors along with psa
projects
now currently what we have
with the restructuring under the vra and
r
d a majority of our loans are zero
percent
so let's let's start off that the ones
that we do have is two percent
now we do have five existing loans
that are through rural development that
we're looking at in the file
to consolidate to bring back under the
vra
we're switching from the r d to v r a to
bring down
those five percent to either zero or
two percent well that'd be a huge impact
if you could do that i know
any of those okay
that sounds good yeah yeah
yeah it's freaking deal any times it's
zero zero percent
zero i like zebra and and
and the good thing about also on the
courthouse
you mentioned it you know the loan that
will be on that we have a debt load on
that but what you got to remember the
debt load
that is here it was it was taken out we
did redo it but it's
it's at the 2.75 percent range
now what we are looking at through vra
is two percent
again you will get it still will be
eliminated any savings
is a good savings i mean if it's a half
a percent or
one percent i think it's a good deal it
is
it is so question
yes ma'am on air
i think you and i have had a
conversation a little bit about it but i
just want for
clarity's purposes that don't
sewer pump the sewer station
and the pumps those are
we're paying those off i know monthly we
do that but
or how much longer on the day
sewer treatment plant yes sorry about
that okay
um right now we still
we still owe half a million dollars on
the dain sewer treatment plant
that was even in the consolidation that
is that is under rule development
and that is one of them so that is one
of the five loans
that i had referred to earlier
yes well that's when i for an example
that's one that if you could get
restructured that'd be a huge savings
for additional
project development with that sewer
project now that we've
you know all voted to do that would give
you some additional funding and stuff to
build the extra lines and
stuff like that yeah the um
and we'll go into those that later
that's one of my lines on the that goes
in with the leche
i'm work again did you work that out
i don't know about that but the
the again back to y'all y'all have not
raised taxation it's either through cost
or operations efficiencies that's the
only way we've
we've made it so far since 1999. i mean
you can go through all the records and
take a look
i think during john barbank's time they
it went up and went down and he went up
too high one year and they got into all
this
and they ended up taking it down lower
than what it was to begin with
so ended up at 63 cents on her 100
versus
64 cents on 100 but the point is
is y'all have not as a whole
have not raised taxes at all and that's
where i'm going to lead into this one
and then the next topic
of course you know veco has asked for
the five percent
they're giving it the states paying for
the constitution in the schools
you know that's that comes through that
funding the next one is
as as the community you know just
as far as the cigarette tax and the meal
tax data has been proposed
through all municipalities currently the
towns and municipalities can tax
cigarettes and meals
they always have had that autonomy to do
and that was one of their biggest
revenue sources
to what you see as far as the nice you
know
aesthetic lamp post that you see in town
and
nice roads and et cetera et cetera but
but
what the counties vacate the virginia
association and counties did they
approach
the legislators and the laws had passed
beginning july the first to be able to
tax given the same tax autonomy and
authority to the counties that the towns
have
so all this time you know the towns have
been taxed and your cigarettes and your
meals
and they're driving through your county
to get to it
but you don't get part of it now
to me to in any other tax authority will
tell you
a cigarette tax and a meal tax is a
luxury tax
it is it doesn't apply to you unless you
smoke a lot
to a lot or you eat a lot so and
[Laughter]
hopefully
yes ma'am in restaurants
yes yes it is restaurants and
and there's covenants that are in terms
of conditions that are put into them
that we you know nonprofits and
hospitals and all this but
here again it's a luxury tax number one
but here number two i'll go back to your
disposal trash issue
as you're traveling through the county
that they're stopping in the towns to
buy
this food they're throwing your paper
out on your right away
you're paying to clean it up so that
what they expend at mcdonald's down here
in lebanon the town of lebanon is
and i'll use them as an example and
they'll have to give me if they watch
this
they they get the tax food tax off of
this
so what they'll do they'll pull in off
of 19
go through mcdonald's real quick through
the drive-through
they'll go back out on 19 going towards
tassel county or towards abington
and when they're done they get out there
to the
out of the town limits they throw that
mcdonald's bag out yes
and here's where we pick up the cost of
picking it up
so again it's a luxury tax it relieves
any pressure or any financial issue that
you have to have
with raising real estate personal
property machining tool for economic
development
and with that combined with your sales
tax
this is an alternative it is a luxury
tax
so uh as you read through the material
again it it comes effective july the
first
katie is currently working through the
ordinances and the legal issues on it
i'm doing i'm working on the financial
side with
commissioner revenue and the treasurer
of course these have to be stamped and
they
they have to be done but it is an
autonomy
that all counties want it in the state
of virginia there is 95
counties in the state of virginia all 95
voted for this this was a 100 across the
board
from northern virginia to western
virginia to eastern virginia all 95
counties what they said the
the virginia association counties which
represent us
said to the legislators if you don't
want us to come with our hand out
which that we did we had to come to them
if we run above our tax base we need
money we need funds to do
economic development projects we need to
do community projects
this is one way that they give us gave
the counties the autonomy to be
able to compete with the towns those
nice
aesthetic poles light poles utility
streets
this is one way that they put it in
place
so again for your consideration this is
the first
budget workshop so before the next
workshop
comes together you'll have an
opportunity to look at what we have
proposed for the
five percent uh increase
and the cigarette tax increase within
our budget we're still leaving within
our means by cutting costs
so take a look at that and watch our
what y'all want to consider have you run
the numbers
on or have you got with the health
department to see identified how many
you have in
russell county uh you mean the smoke
talking about like food tax yeah we do
have ranges yes
okay if i may i did some research and
you gave us all this in our packet last
month
and am i understanding correctly the
town of honaker taxes cigarettes at
20 cents a pack
was it 10 cents a pack was the town of
lebanon's 20 cents a pack
town lebanon does not tax they're not
taxing cigarettes
just home acres yes and the town of
saint paul yes and they're only at a
nickel
yes which i think is a little low but um
anyway so i was hoping we would find a
happy medium in there i didn't look at
tazewell
i didn't look at cedar bluff or
richlands or anything like that
otherwise had maybe it was hayside that
had 40 was it
way up there 40 cents up
was it taz was 40 home acres is 10
hayside is 70 uh i'm sorry 20.
okay i've got it up on the big screen
now lou i will tell you this i know we
worked with a company
in the town of honaker when that was
implemented to they had to we had to
produce the labels
we had to get with the company to be
able to produce those labels you know to
give them to the people who like the
cigarette stores and stuff like that
there was an expense there also i don't
know if five five cents i don't know how
they covered the labels
i mean at 10 cent it was it was close
well let's watch all we hear from katie
and and
you need to find out what's involved in
the budgetary side
of the expenditure that's what the
counties have been doing because there
is a consortium
there you go in northern virginia that
was doing
a partnership authority aboard and they
came and they
we had a webinar about that back in
somewhere i don't remember
another year or a lifetime ago but
anyway they were talking about that and
i did reach out
and i asked the town of st paul how they
how they did theirs it's a very it is an
expense but it's a minimal expense
and it is uh we have to pay for
a patrol officer or somebody that goes
in and
checks to make sure that all these are
stamped and we're not bootlegging and
that sort of thing
so there is some expense to it and there
is some uh
legal work and leg work to it but i
think it far
i think what you accomplish with this
far exceeds your expenses
i'm all for it i'd vote today
well i and and thank you as
and what what
and one of the things that y'all have to
consider is
uh like miss wallace you know stated
here is the town of abington and as you
can see
they started off in 2017 at 25 cents
pack their
they're averaging 35 cents per pack
that's that's what the town of abbington
does now
again the reason we don't have a county
analysis
we do have the numbers we do from the
apa
the the authors of public accounts as
you've seen at the top that's their seal
we the towns is the only one that's had
authority to tax cigarettes
and meals that's other than fairfax
so we don't have an analysis but what we
do do
is this and we look at the total
population
and if i do comparative analysis with
comparable
populations that one has to be in
southwest virginia
now the reason i say that is this
uh if i do a comparative analysis of the
population here
versus the one in the east coast
we have more people that smoke and chew
than the ones on the east coast
they they're more healthy they got a
better diet i mean they don't eat and
drink and mcdonald's and smoke
so that's but that i have to say
the reason based off ourselves in
comparative analysis so i have to go
to towns of comparable sizes on
populations that are within southwest
virginia's footprint
to be able to get a close range and
based off of you know what those
population bases are
and being in southwest virginia then we
can get it within a range
like it the ordinance says and i don't
know if you've had an opportunity to go
through
this hundred plus pages of the
ordinances is
is like uh ms wallace stated
that there is costing incurred now
at the at the discretion of the board of
supervisors it will be done by an
ordinance
in that ordinance you will stipulate
which department will be
over one the administration and the
inspection
of this and usually and this is just as
usually as
that yala's uh choice
is the commissioner revenue has a
position because they are taxation
as far as the real estate personal
property and etc
that will be within his office under his
authority that way he can go out
inspect to make sure that they are not
bootlegging they've got their seals
they're doing their due diligence
but one of the things of discussing with
other counties or
not counties but other towns that have
this and
and david you worked in the town one of
the things that the realtor
realtors will do and we'll do this at
the wholesale side is
they will not jeopardize that that
licensing because once they can't sell
cigarettes
you can bet that's a big portion of
their revenue they will not
jeopardize that they will that's the
most
time and this is talking to the virginia
association counties
and and the dea the
cigarette uh um
i know when we listened to that zoom
meeting they did recommend that we
all work together in our locality as
that we would try to fix the uh tax
at the similar area because we don't
want all their population to leave and
drive to abingdon to buy over there we
don't want to lose that
that population so yes so
they did recommend that we work with the
commissioner of revenue and have this
someone in place that's going to enforce
this to make sure they do have their
stamps
and it is on the vendor to have the
stamp
and if they don't then they can lose
their license to
sale cigarettes and we need to work
closely with all their little small
convenience stores
to make sure that they understand what
this is about
what it entails and how we're going to
work with them
and to kind of have a local group
to work together to help offset this so
that everybody's
on the same page and not it'd be nice if
all the taxes
i agree with rebecca you know it'd be
good if all the towns municipalities
worked with the county closely to have
the same rate
because if
yeah they'll lower the her fires goes in
or
what i'm saying in a municipality you
might have two or three two
or three stores that sell in the county
you might have 25
you know once you get out here and you
see how many you know
convenience stores you have so
it'd just be a bouncing ball effect if
you don't work with municipalities and
say
look you could generate more money if
you would look at
doing it across the board and still be
lower than the other counties so people
would buy from russell county i'm just
saying but
i think lou's right i mean if the towns
are lower than the county
they're going to go to the towns and buy
and they ain't going to buy them in the
county
or they'll hurt that'll hurt one
business if everybody ain't on a level
playing field
somebody's going to get hurt well
and and that is a point and it is
competition but
let let me also that that came up during
the meetings and the conversations with
the towns
and one of the things you got to
remember is
you gotta look at the demographics of
russell county when you make that
decision
you your your traffic flow again
you don't your town your traffic flow is
on 58
80 and 19. now that doesn't mean you're
taxing
the residents across the county the
majority of them that's coming through
is going one
going from one place to the other what
what will happen
is that you got to be competitive
you know on this make sure that you
cover your administration costs your
enforcement cost
and and the rest and being able to get
within that range
unless you for example i can go from
false church at 85 cents a pack that's
what they tax it at
or you can go to you know to ones that
are comparable like charlottesville it's
55 cents a pack
now when you get down to you know the
town of abington or something like that
that's
that's you got again go back to the
southwest virginia the reason they're
taxing
at a higher rate is because of that
through traffic they're
high volume they're not taxing their
citizens they're taxing
the traveling public same way the food
is they're getting that ones
so again the ones that's throwing out
the trash again
is not your citizens you can ask the the
sheriff's department that sits out there
and
you know goes up down 19 now
you do have ones that do it but a
majority of the traffic you can watch
them come out
you know out the window they come out
the window but
whatever y'all deciding and that's why
the reason i put the table in what
you know if you look on here
and i've got i'll say it you know 10
cents
we run the numbers by the time you get
through the administration
and the rest you know you got to
consider all that
so to be comparable but here's what i'm
saying is the town of honaker the town
of saint paul
they could probably be cheaper because
if you're going out there
and you're going to go get a pack of
cigarettes you're sitting all the way in
hansonville you're not going to drive
the saint paul
for five cents on the pack you're not
going to do it
it is not going to happen there is no
way no
what about vaping with nicotine any
this includes vaping and snuff and
tobacco chewbacca all types of tobacco
anything with nitin in it and it does
include the vaping
it refers to it as a cigarette tax yes
it will be and some counties decide to
do partials or hybrids
that's up to them they do mostly
cigarettes and moist but
they stay away from the vaping but
that's because vaping when it first
started it wasn't that big but now
it's big billion dollar business
so billions not billion billions so
you don't it would not be fair to
you know tax your regular smokers and
then the vapors
you know not being able to be put on the
same level field
because
how are you going to do that with the
liquid vape it it is not taxed on the
component it's taxed on
the cylinders you know that's that's
that's how it's done
okay so you see the city of bristol has
17 cents a pack
you got a number in mind are you just
you playing you're playing with the
numbers i know you are
yes that's your nature
you're not ready to divulge a number yet
not you
i think it's okay i'll text you this is
how much we need
i think but
but but and and not to be
you know come out with it but what i'm
i'm trying to point out
and the board is always considered how
what amount can you do to stay away from
real estate and personal property and
machining tool
stay away this is a luxury tax
and that's why all 95 counties out of 95
voted for it they wanted that autonomy
to be able to operate on their own
without going to their hand to richmond
because everything that we did that was
not
above our tax base we had to either get
it from richmond or the feds
that's it do you have anything on the
stickers of the other counties of how
much
they charge them per sticker to go one
of the packs of cigarettes
of the other counties
see the counties only don't have this in
place yet
everybody's coming in they're
are they like two or three cents or less
than that i think so
a little decal it's not it's not much
oh you're oh you talking about the
little stick yes yes yes
yes a half a percent high for percent
of one percent because once you start
it's my opinion
understanding is once you start
producing this little tag of sorts that
goes on the bottom of all these
you just mass produce it and the more
you produce the cheaper it is but you
have to keep
somebody has to keep up with the numbers
and if the commissioner of revenue is
that's that's going to come out of his
bailiwick then that's all the better and
so well you do it
through the whole sellers or through the
retailers
again like miss wallace said you high
volume
i can tell you based off the apa numbers
and
when vehicle came in they had d.a
numbers they give us a range of what
rosser county does
they they know because they know every
pack of cigarettes and tobacco product
is sold in this county you can guarantee
it
because yes yes they already have it
they know our range
do you know how much some of the
municipalities
on the budgetary side how much they
collect
okay well i i do
it was in her packet but okay
let's go to uh let's see if i got it
here
and i i had one that that's it the easer
cities and i'll get that for y'all
hang on a second
there's john loftus cobbling back
yes well the one that sticks out in my
mind
is is the city of bristol
and it's highlighted it is simple
population
it's based you know based off the
administrative
and what you know the cigarette per pack
has
so
yes
um you got to kind of watch both of them
if you'll go up to
where it says tobacco attack you know
where the sheet i just showed you
the one previous to it it has the town
of abington that's
but that's their population on the far
right column
that's what they collect just in the
town of lebanon i mean town of abingdon
off of 8 100 people
8 200 people
some of these localities do really well
that's that's what i said in the
southwest
i'm looking at that
virginia beach 10 million yes
and see that's a luxury tax they're
picking up the ones that's driving
through 1958 and 80.
because if you look and and we've had
now since this has happened i've had
phone calls and i've had phone calls
from the tobacco outlets in abington
i mean to say that already
they are looking at locations on 19.
there's where your volume of traffic is
that's where the tax is a is a flow
through to them
yes it's a flow through it's just a flow
through
and they are looking the one that's
setting out 19 the owner of the one is
you go into the town 11 and one that
sits on the left there's a tobacco
outlet
he is looking at locations in russell
county
so they will be coming so
in our volume here based off our 20
you know 26 000 plus population
it we do have a range for it but
we again in southwest virginia we have a
lot of smokers a lot of people use
tobacco products
and this is one way the same way
and one i spoke about is very little
about is the meal tax now the meal tax
is a little bit different because you
know it it
is for restaurants or carryout or
on-site food
now that we also have a range on it also
if it's uh for beverage and food and for
restaurants
so and katie will be explaining all that
that will come in place
too as an ordinance there's a cap on it
right yes there is a cap
because i know we started out at two and
went to four
yes i think went up six and i think it
capped
now unlike the the cigarette tax this
town of saint paul
and the town of honaker tax on it now
all
three tax on the meal tax so yes
so you're just being competitive now
what it will apply for
the ones that it's got a six percent six
percent six seven six percent sorry
cap on it it can't be taxed in the in
the towns
so what you we have to pick up is what
is not in the town's
uh boundaries now what that means is
places like the valero and
pizza plus subways
ramona's places like this we will pick
up that and what else comes in place
later on as they do those will be you
know a tax base
for you know the county
as hopefully you know after all this
building
everything grows we have more that goes
in this
this is other taxation that will be in
place that you can pick up on
and stay off the real estate and
personal property
i'm trying to get it in place that's
y'all's decision
i'm just trying to get it in place
we're paying down our debt load that
david's talking about hey man sister
okay then you got your answer it'd be
nice you know for a board of supervisors
to say that you had
the debt load reduction as well as no
not raising the taxes i mean
you know that's an accomplishment i mean
you know to be able to reduce the debt
load
how we've been able to do that has just
been a blessing to be able to do that
and still not raise taxes
i would like to say since we're on this
topic i wasn't going to go there but
um if we're if we choose to implement
this
um and we come up with a nice little
figure that's going to satisfy everybody
i would like to ask this board to start
to consider
to look at your tourism authority
and to possibly designate some
funding not all that they wouldn't know
what to do with all that but
just a little tiny piece of this this
funding to go to
help support um the marketing of the
county
and um with this what i consider to be
some tourist dollars is in this because
all these people coming through
that we're trying to get here is going
to be stopping and paying and they're
not going to be asking how much taxes on
this
because we have such an influx of people
from air county
that goes down to gatlinburg let's use
pigeon forge and gather
i was going to use those go down there
and look what your tax base is down
there
does anybody stop at the county line
severe county and say i'm not going in
there and buying anything
no they're in there like crazy it's in
it's incredible tennessee has higher
sales tax but you go to the pinnacle
this weekend and it was a mass
crowd of people now because they're
you're paying more for sales tax over
there than you are in virginia
so i don't think people really mind
sometimes they're not looking they're
not
looking at that so i don't think this is
an issue
that we're wallowing around here today i
don't
and i'll agree i agree with you it's
almost back to
they're not going to drive from
hansonville to saint paul to get that
packed cigarettes they're going to stop
up for valero the first quick space they
get to they're not because lord
knows that the price gasoline is going
up too now and so i mean
i mean well it's convenient time they
don't think about it like miss wallace
said they don't i mean
the ones that use tobacco that that's
they they're going to stop at the most
convenient site they're not going to
drive an extra 10 miles
to in and get it so
and again based off the geographic
location you know
route 80 58 19 in the county it's like a
horseshoe
they're not going to drive from you know
cleveland to saint paul you know
to get a pack of cigarettes when they
can go to handy's and get a pack
right there it's just not going to
happen well if you have a like louis
talk about man
if you have a strategic plan of where
you're going to earmark some of that
money and what you're going to do
for the future of the county or for the
growth of the county or for economic
development or for tourism or whatever
you do
i think once you look at that and you
let the public know
you know i'll give you an example i used
to tell them down there
little league all the time i said people
don't mind to pay a 45
registration fee if you want to they
want to see where their money's going
so we did a huge renovation when i left
we had 30 000
an account but we did that and paid for
it ourselves we didn't ask anybody for
the money but
people don't mind to pay a little bit
extra if they see where their money's
going
so i think if you demonstrate an earmark
toward
certain things and show them how we're
going to grow the economy and how we're
going to bring things here to the county
it makes good sense because the public
don't care like and lou said they don't
really mind
when i want to stop in and i get
something i just going to get it i pay
for it i don't really think about the
taxes part of it
but yeah well my wife does i'll tell you
that but
i think to uh to earmark some of this
for preparations for future projections
and
future projects is a good idea and
looking at going
forward and more you know the money
could be invested and you make good
investments you get a good return
well and that's absolutely true
but when we said and randy and i talk
and
you know and and we we look at
okay one of the things that y'all got to
consider and i keep going back to the
route 1958
this is a a flow-through a pass-through
taxation
the and this is we went even farther not
just
coming into the county to go into the
restaurants or stopping and getting the
pack of cigarettes
what y'all got to remember is the casino
is going in
they will be coming from you'll pick up
tazewell county but cannon county
bluefield west virginia you will have a
new the flow of traffic here will
will go up i guarantee 20 to 30 percent
coming through route 19
and 58 out of kentucky so that's where
you're putting the tow in
this whole road where they can't pass
and that's all about that they gotta
spend so much money
i'm just kidding
but all of those things combined this is
a way for the board of supervisors
to continue not raising taxes as you've
done
take care of the employees as you have
deliver the services
even though there's a few bumps and
roads which i'll get to later but
it gives you an opportunity us to move
faster on some of these projects
because one of the things that you know
the board supervisor realized
the only thing that's standing in our
way to doing these projects and these
community brought is money
right now we have to beg scrape bomb
from the feds
to get everything that we get because
you know we just don't spend beyond our
means
i mean uh that's just the way it is
so uh on this tobacco tax and i
i know we've talked about that a lot i
do want to say this and i agree with
everybody
if somebody's out they're going to buy a
pack
i am if i'm out tobacco i'm going to get
it wherever i'm at
but you will if we're not careful we can
lose a lot of the
the volume purchases because people here
do go to bristol and they do go to
kingsport
and they will be going through
washington county and they will be going
through scott county
and if we price ours way way higher
they'll stop and buy a carton
yeah on their way and we will lose that
business so
we just need to keep it relevant with
our surrounding counties
and and we had thought of that
and we had thought of that and i'll use
abby an example as another
washington county is going to follow
theirs so you know about what
washington counties is going to be right
now so
town abbey is their big base it's their
main town that's where
it's in adjacent to the casino now
you've got to remember they're going
they're going to go
to where they can support when they put
that casino in
there is going to be a lot of support
services that they're going to have to
provide they either raise real estate
or they raise their sales tax or etc
because they're going to have to have
extra police
extra security they're going to have to
have extra infrastructure
they're going to have to find ways to
pay for this and this is another
way that you know if if we're charging
and you know the same amount as the
surrounding counties
then we can be as competitive whether
you're coming through buchanan
or tazzwell or dickinson or wise
or alex out of the state of west
virginia you go to state west virginia
and take a look at their taxpayers
they'll they'll come through here
they'll stop just because of those
adjacent
taxation same way tennessee they will be
coming
and that's things that you have to
consider not just the residents of rose
county it's the way i said on the
disposal
do not you know don't focus on russell
county residents and current you know
creating this problem it's a majority of
it is the flow through
traffic and that's the way you're going
to pick up on your customers too
so thank you thank you for the meal tax
and the cigarette tax for consideration
we do have ranges we're trying to be
comparable with the other adjacent
counties
in the towns because if you don't you
know they're going to take it i mean
that's just
that's the rule there'll be somebody in
place to take it if you don't
same with the state funding the next
thing on the county
budget is the regional jail that's the
third largest
expenditure on our budget tim said mr
lovelace sits
on that board and of course with our
community work program
we're able to defer a lot of the costs
there we
actually they do it so well that other
adjacent counties
and other counties around the state
actually call
and try to get the same model of the
program that we're creating
so you know if you look at the regional
jails
in russell county that's up on the
screen that
that is our cost it's and this is
right now even on these numbers right
here
on between the russell county board
supervisors we pay
what we call an operational cost and a
debt cost
because that is we have to pay our
portion
of the facilities that is there
now the right now for the
fiscal year ending june 30th 2022 our
operational cost per diem
is 922 and uh per day
uh of course right now we're paying 906.
and
of course the debt is is actually went
down this is something y'all
referred to too we lowered our debt
worship county
board came to the board of supervisors
back follow-up last year and asked for a
resolution to restructure their debt
y'all approved it so we actually
decreased our costs
at the regional jail of from
764 to 728 which is a 24 000
savings immediately now that's on 180
uh inmates census now we're what we're
currently running
is 160. so we're 20 below
budget projections so and
that is ways that we're also saving
money because every additional day per
inmate per day we're paying an
operational cost and the debt cost
on that inmate per day it is more
beneficial to the county
and also beneficial to our residents
they have the opportunity to work on the
community work program
not only do we defer the costs from
sending it to washington county no
disrespect
again this stage here and we
also get the litter picked up the
building's cleaned up
and they're able to work with it in this
program
so it's a very advantageous program it
pays for itself on both ways
it less labor and less cost
so that's that's how we work the numbers
i work in conjunction with commonwealth
attorney and the sheriff on this we
we monitor both sides and of course tim
he sits on the board which is a
you know very advantageous and we'll be
able to move those through
on both sides so again our
our savings on this you know just this
year
is another cost savings due to the
restructure the debt that the board
supervisors approved and the reduction
in inmates that would be going there
that were
diverting to our community work program
did the city of bristol ever not jump
into this
and want to participate to drive the
deck
i'll let mr lovelace ain't sure that one
they're still talking about it the last
i heard but they haven't
i mean the the regional jail houses some
of their
people but they they've never they've
never really gotten in and i think it's
partly because they didn't do it
initially
so there's this question of okay what
part of this debt
are you going to incur yeah so
i think that's the kind of the hold up
but they're they're housing people in
there
and paying us to do it so
the next thing on the budget issues
is of course the regional jail now the
uh
g3 impact and you know i
i know that's an acronym or acronym
slice number
that the boar that the state of virginia
has used
for you know partial
and let me pull it up
it's the impact for the in conjunction
with our race program
is as far as right now currently the
ross county board of supervisors has
implemented the race program to pay for
two years of college
for every student that graduates from
russell county
so this is up on the big screen
of course you can see the noun that the
state virginia has implemented
the the g3 initiative
on his county-wide tuition program
to assist on it what program what
students that attend and these are
focused on
to the curriculums like for hvac
you know technical skills that the blue
collar ones
and these are actually the ones that a
lot you know many of our students wants
to do
you know they go out into a electrical
or hvac
or mechanics and anybody's ever hired
any one of the three that i just
mentioned
you know that you pay well they do pay
well
so what state virginia under this g3
program
they are paying for those blue collar
technical skills
and this is the program to do it now
based off of
of course southwest projections
based off of what we contribute in the
number of students that we've done
we've had two full years plus the
summer's classes
the g2 if we run on the same model
will be an 82 000 savings that
to our our program so they will reduce
our race program
by an average of 82 000. now that's
that's
is a range because each student
depending upon the curriculum whether
they go in for
a uh associate degree etc and some of
those are covered we're still getting
some of the
the curriculums that are covered in tim
and rebecca could
answer some of those questions uh
but it will depend upon the student and
what they they major in
so but the program is in place it is
uh and that's the point for our russell
county residents to take advantage of
so if they want to get not just the
two-year degree to go to a four-year
degree
now they our students have an
opportunity
to attend the trade positions the blue
collar the hvc the electrical
the mechanics and you know and know that
the russell county parents have a way
and a method
to be able to get them through school to
give them a good
light livelihood to live off of and
and also stay within the community
so now
any questions on the g3 program
and and again if you've ever hired a
mechanic or an electrician or a plumber
it cost and that and that's their salary
i mean it is a good trade
it is a it's very respectable yes
exactly
that is the truth the next one on
in the budget can you know
considerations
is the leche operations and
this i have to bring up before the board
uh currently right now
uh well previously the board of
supervisors approved that additional
truck
uh for consideration for again to help
with number one with
the disposal operations to get
the trash sites open more cleaned up
faster
so we've now got three trucks that will
be running
operations but it also has a dual
purpose
and it will run the leche we have
currently have a
private entity that's that's hot doing
the pun the holland pump right now
with that we'll come within the county
we've got the truck to do it that'll be
a cost savings
of approximately by the time we which
we're going to use our existing
staff so we don't have to hire anybody
that is an 80 000
savings and again that's how you're all
affording this five percent so there's
an 80 000 savings there uh
per year so in second second part of the
formula
is that we have to treat our leche
and one of the things that i'm going to
ask the board to consider
right now currently the town of lebanon
treats our leche and it treats it at
five cents per gallon
now and we still have a little bit more
dq work to do
a little bit more environmental work to
do but we've already done a couple test
runs
on the dain sewer treatment plant which
we'll own
for until we pay off
sorry about that and
be able to treat it there now this
is two parts so first part
is to treat it and do it environmentally
safe number one
number two is you got the daint sewer
treatment
plant that will be going from in a
future project y'all just signed a
resolution
that's that's going forward for the
catch basin this the sewer tree plant
will go from there to saint pile
okay now once that is in place that
still can operate
into it because why based off the test
results
of and this is going to be dequeues and
results when it gets through being
processed based off our volume
we can process it through at groundwater
level or comparable
to go back into our agreement with saint
paul
now currently we pay the town of saint
paul 28
800 for capacity that's off the sewer
treatment in phase 1a
that's in the castlewood area they're
pumping it in we have that capacity
so this will give extra capacity with
the other 223 customers
and whatever we pick up along the route
from the sewer treatment plant to the
town of saint paul
so we'll click we'll pick up that so
that's additional
savings there so right now we have a
capacity agreement and these are the
numbers
we pay 53 3.50 cents per thousand
to the town of saint paul right now we
pay five cents a gallon to the
town of lebanon that's either fifty
dollars a gallon
i mean fifty thousand fifty dollars on a
thousand or three dollars fifty cents on
the thousand
so this agreement with the town of
lebanon was made many
many years ago it is there is nothing in
written agreement
so we're trying to look at because we
have the debt load remaining
on the dain sewer treatment plant to
find an alternative
revenue source to be able to maintain
this
you know what costs we do to treat at
the town of lebanon and we can move it
to the to support the
the operations and the payments while
till we pay
off the dain sewer treatment plant so
that
that it will equate to it because once
that goes offline in the
and what you've got to remember is when
those 223 customers plus the additional
customers get picked up
that's going to be treated by the town
of saint paul that sewer treatment plant
will have to have an
alternative use where y'all will come
continue paying
on a facility that will have no
alternative use
so if we take the funding that we do
we run 2 million gallons of leche
through it that's our average
per year that equates to 125 000
a year that will pay the payments
on the daint sewer treatment plant until
it's paid off
as mr eaton is and uh miss wallace said
pay off the debt this is the way to pay
off the debt well it'd take you what
three years to be knocked out somewhere
around there
that's what we're trying to do but you
gotta remember too
you get two advantages on this one we
got a truck that will haul the leche
that one that that
totally got rid of the eighty thousand
dollar pump and hall contract
number two is you got 125 000 on the
treatment that will be maintained plus
you also have a truck with an
alternative disposal to be able
to do additional runs picking up the
as fast as the compactors fill up we've
got an additional truck right now
that will make the runs too so we'll
have three trucks running
uh to pick up disposals when it's not
running lychee
one of the things that you gotta
remember on leche and it and
this is the simple way it's when it
rains
in the majority of the times it's in the
spring or in the fall
then you'll have your peaks and valleys
as we call it you'll have your up and
down
some month we may not run but five
truckloads
but some months we may run 15 in one day
it's usually in the spring and in the
fall we can almost track
what almost nature is doing that's why
it makes a sense
so we know that during the spring we get
we get a heavier
influx of glacier which is almost being
tested at groundwater
then in the summer you'll have also a
short span that will have a peak on
and then in the fall we'll have a peak
on it's almost three peaks and valleys
well the reason i want to go back to the
debt service again
is projecting these years
coming forward that we're going to have
to deal with
what are we going to lose what's the
what what
you know what what are we looking toward
down in the future the meeting we had
with aep
there and richmond
uh they didn't give us a whole lot of
promise about the power plant
and in 2023 you know that's gonna be a
huge what 800 000
year impact i don't know i'm just
throwing that out there but
that's the reason i'm kind of concerned
about making sure we get some of these
things paid off
and what are we going to be faced with
is my biggest thing because you don't
know from the
from the governor's office in the state
what aggressive action they're going to
take to
eliminate this or eliminate that and
then here we're going to be faced with
additional you know expenditures or or
revenue short files
so you know i think that needs to be
projected in the budget somehow that
this could possibly happen
and this is how we're going to treat it
going forward this is how we're going to
take care of it
i don't know if we can take care of a
big lick like that
right out of the gate but i know it's
not going to be
they're going to have to pay taxes on
some of it i know that right but no
we're gonna
lose everything but we need a projected
plan or something going forward to see
what we can do with that i'd hate to
look at that i have it as an eyesore if
we can't come up with some sort of
initiative ideal or something to utilize
either the intake on the water or the
sewer or whatever it may be
in that plant going forward i know
up at going up into virginia there the
one they shut down
is just sitting there you know doing
nothing now
so nothing you know i i know that we're
going to be faced
when you know like with the situations
that we've been faced with
all of a sudden you don't receive taxed
income or money
incomes but the earmarks for some of
this funding to put in a rainy day fund
to hold back for possibilities that we
might lose certain
things i think with these new what we're
looking at with the taxes
or the cigarette tax or the food tax
some of that money's ought to be
held back somehow in a rainy day fund
that's just me talking but
i mean we know we're going to be faced
with these dilemmas if we're still here
i don't know and that was always good
points
but if just
not that we're not setting back and and
planning you know we know
our revenue base right now what it is
yeah we know that the russell county
board of supervisors is not anticipating
raising
any personal real estate taxes so we can
take that
absolutely for granted right now if you
put these
cigarette mill tax in like we say it's a
luxury tax and we reduce the cost of
what we're
proposing here along with continuous
operating efficiencies along with the
debt reductions consolidating the debt
reducing these other payments we can
live back again to the beginning of the
conversation
russ county board of supervisors lives
within its means
we're not again 1999
64 cents on the 100 2021
63 on 100. so it's not like that
you're out there you know just living
outside your means as we say
financially but again back to the
cigarette in the middle tax this
this gives y'all an opportunity as a
luxury tax
to not to not
raise the taxes on the on the residents
and reward them with
the additional projects that you can do
say
if the casino does go in and these other
economic developments
projects come out and we do get extra
funding
y'all can look at the tourism you know
projects and the events and you can look
at
economic development but that way
but again still the bottom line you'll
still be living
in within your means even if an issue
happens with the carbo plant
or the virginia city that's the town of
saint paul this will be additional
revenue that's coming to them
either we all all swim together we all
sing together that's just the way
southwest virginia works
we got to work together i mean not just
the county
and the counties together it's got to be
the county the towns and
and the municipalities it's got to be
we have to work together because i can
tell you right now
just from the economic development you
can look at northern virginia or eastern
virginia or central virginia
they're developing quick and fast the
businesses are coming in
we have to we have to sit and check and
and go after and work and rework and get
you know grants we have to work to get
businesses
it and we you got to have things when
people want to come
their families want to have certain
things and this is an opportunity for
the board of supervisors
to put these things in place not for
just next year
but for the future
is there any more questions
and disposable operations is the last
the i say the best for last
we of course the little origins was
passed they were in you know
that's we're trying to get in place to
get everybody you know in compliance
with the litter ordinance and
and that's one of the things that uh
this is another one i want to put in for
consideration
now and y'all have time to go back and
talk to the residents and tell
i would like to have a county sticker
put in for county residents
and that's my proposal free of charge
it'll be mailed out with the tax tickets
and it will have a county
county steel sticker put on it
that way they can put it in their
windshield or back window that way
there's no
issue with across the county lines
because we're getting a lot of the
influx
of you know county trash from others and
and they will tell you
no disrespect buchanan county if you're
listening our drill trash
is number two in the county which nobody
even knows where that thing is at
but but but cannon county residents they
can that is the second highest trash
site
in in in the county and one of the
things that is we have to account
for every load that goes across the
transfer station down to the hundred
tenth of a pound so we know where the
trash is coming and who it's coming from
if i take every residence in pine creek
area drill area
move them into the home acre we still
can't reach that low per
household if if we go on that we
are equivalent to a major urban city on
the trash side that sits in the middle
of drill
in the same way in hamlin if that's why
we're designed we
i spoke with the property owner this
morning and
we're moving on end we have got to get
these in place for compaction
get longer hours get these in place and
this is going to have man's size yes
ain't gonna do no good and bands like
the chickens and stickers i'm sorry i'm
serious and it will be the county seal
just what we have up on this but it's
transparent black and white
it will have the county seal on it and
they can each vehicle that
they have that's on the tax rolls or if
they don't whether they're a veteran or
if they're
elderly they will get one that way they
got one for each car
that way it's free or they can come in
and show us driver's license and we can
give it to them
also for free so with the proof of
residence or et cetera
but with this tax tax
cigarette tax and meal tax we can open
these
up build them get them within 15 minutes
and and and now it's not going to
alleviate the traffic on the right ways
because
you're going to have a bigger volume
with the casinos
so let us get up a set of standard hours
longer hours standard hours
and get them manned and and and
yes that way everybody knows what they
are
and where they're and what y'all want to
do and give longer hours and compactions
because what y'all got to remember is if
when we don't have man's sides or with
compactors on this is
how it works this is the operations
component
an open top 50 cubic yard container may
hold three
maybe two to four tons depending upon
the type of material that's in it
okay that's that's where our trucks are
running back and forth to
a compactor 10 to 12 tons compacted so
we can take
two three times more in a compactor
than we can in opentops we could run
ourselves to death with these open tops
we need compacted sites within 15
minutes
from all the way from hansonville
moccasin
hamlin all the way to honaker down to
belfast in lebanon and drill
and drill
and a copper creek well i tell you you
know before you do the stickers
these are gonna you're gonna have to
have a plan to make sure these are all
manned
yes and that's what i'm that i will
agree with i wouldn't do the stickers
until i had this
plant in place yes because nobody gonna
be there to
check you out well and with the funding
it is and right now
on the building and to go back to it to
understand the cause like and i'll use
the hamline site for example okay by the
time we get it to keep the cost down we
do
our work in-house it's not like a
contractor comes in and builds it those
are built by county employees that are
being paid
where they build if they are here
painting the wall or doing whatever
they're still paid the same thing
we are building them in-house so we keep
the costs down
but what we have to do when we we buy
these compactors
and to get the investment on the capital
equipment we have to
have to wait for the cash flows because
that's
that's extras that's something that we
have to work through
we get that one built our next focus is
on the drill area
that's that's the next component so
that's where we have to go based off the
tonnage
and then of course mr lovelace has asked
for
the area around the copper creek area
that we've even
we have a preliminary on the census
right now
we know all the households within each
quadrant each block on the draft right
now
and just in and i would never anticipate
it
it there's over three thousand
households in the copper creek area who
would have ever thought
i mean you don't know where it's at
until you look around
it's all up around again i'm going to go
back to 1958 and 80.
all of our developments and housing is
following the 58
just like the water on copper you know
on bozo bruce and the rest and copper
ridge
58 19 and route 80. that's where
everyone lives
that's the majority of the population
that's where they're focused at
so that's where we have to focus our you
know not just the water sewer but also
the trash
that's that's where it's got to be well
i will tell you this
i mean i've seen these guys run their
cycle
and go out and pick up the garbage and
it's not it don't make no sense to me
if they're going to run the cycle and
they only pick up a half a container
when they should be picking up a full
container you know i mean
i think that with the money that you
could save
in fuel costs and a lot of that cost is
to have
like you say these compactors and having
it more trash in one can
well these guys don't go out in one area
and they just pick up
half a load and they have to ride it all
the way back down there when they're
going out to one area and they're
picking up
three loads you know i mean i don't know
how you fix all that but
i will tell you this uh i know it's it's
been very complicated to them and i'm
sure make their job a lot easier
if you had everything compacted together
give you a more
traceable way to do things well
and and that's a good point now it's
like in miss wallace area
ms wallace's area down in the hamilton
area we get we get calls on it
now but based off the site trash site
which is
adjacent to a railroad on a railroad
owned half by the railroad
okay we can't do much with that site one
number two is
it was designed you can only put two
cans out at a time
now based off the volume those two cans
run in monday wednesday and friday and
on the weekend they'll fill up in a half
a day
uh if you're running open tops again
you're only running two to four tons on
that thing
because that's all you can get in them
based off what it is now if they throw
in
you know larger debris like tvs and
mattresses and stuff you're coming and
picking up
stuff that can be compacted and
contained in man
when it goes to that site for the future
handling site
there will be a recyclable there will be
open tops
and adjacent with compactors that way we
can take care of the household refuge
in the compactors the tvs and and
box springs can go in the open tops and
what people want to recycle is that
here's here's the analysis on the true
last numbers and i heard
the disposal site mentioned in
the carbo place now when we were running
down there we ran
four loads per a week at the carbo side
now we run two now there were compactors
that's how
two loads that's it our tonnage is
compacted down
you will get it down but we here's the
easiest way and we're working on another
project
the easiest way to get the project but
you got to have the money it's not
doing the project the hardest part about
project is the funding to do the project
and we've been doing it
in-house with our own crews and it takes
longer than expected
but if the you know the funds are
available that we can move and we can
move these things faster
well another thing when you've got those
compactors uh
you're gonna have to be able to fix
those things you know pretty quickly
and uh also if not you're gonna have to
have some open tops there to throw it in
if that compactor is not working i mean
we need to have extra parts i think
extra
and we need extra parts there so we
don't have to wait on order or some you
know what's
what we got from what we got coming in
that's true too yeah that was a question
that i had because i've had several
complaints about some of the compactors
that's been down and not being
taken care of and i don't know i'm just
getting that second or third handed from
some community folks so
is that are we having issues with that
since carl brought up parts of pieces
we need to make sure that we're running
efficiently as
my group in the back says but also that
they're actually
functioning i don't know well one of the
things about the compactors is once you
order them
they still have a warranty on a certain
time now
we've had an all used dog town as the
example we had dog town down
and we had to rebuild it but
i'm not going to use this as an excuse
but it has
taught us lessons the pandemic it's hard
to get
certain parts right now i'm telling you
right now and it's hard
even if you have the money you can't buy
them and if it is it's in the delay
those specialized parts because the
manufacturing
manufacturers not just with compactor
components
but any kind of machining tool
components has been delayed
we as we get the all these
things compacted which we do have parts
on hand and
brian keeps you know things we
what we're trying to do again to save
the county money is
like on on the compactor the hydraulics
and the motors
we can't have a 2000 or twenty five
hundred dollar motor sitting around
you know that we can build up a major
inventory we got ten thousand dollars to
go out and spend to buy five
so what we'll do is we're kind of fixing
them as we go right now but as
as these get more consolidated on
compactors
we can start saying okay every one of
our sites are manned and they're
compacted
we can start putting these motors in
place as backup or rebuilds
to have them in place when one goes down
and that way we got a quick change in
and quick
change out yes we will get better at
this
we need to look at a company that builds
them and makes them and we do locate
them here in russell county
well we we do have the manufacturer that
builds these
and the one at dogtown even they are
having with their buying power
like i'm going to use the dogtown we had
the compactors down there to go down in
the compressor
but it it even they couldn't get the
parts
and they buy nothing but compactors has
anybody talked to any of these
companies that we brought into the
county like jim maher and steel fab and
i use a lot of hydraulics equipment i i
just wondered as anybody talk to them
and see if they might even have an
interest to
look at manufacturing the parts and
pieces for these
this equipment and and the compactors
they're capable i mean if they can build
a round tank they can build a compactor
right and see that's some of the things
that we
not just on the compactors and the extra
parts
we also are very conservative with you
know the taxpayers money on the number
of cans
that will also alleviate the process as
we
as right now what we've got in our
inventory we recycle we
repaint our community workers we paint
them we scrub them we rust them you know
scrub them down
sand them and keep them operational but
as we get to more compactors we'll
have additional kansas sitting out there
instead of one or two
we can have four our capacity will go up
they might be able to design something
totally different
that would work more efficiently here
locally in the county i don't know but
it'd be worth having a conversation with
them and
taking them one and showing it to them
and asking them can they
can they manufacture and that's one of
the things we
when the dogtown signed down we the
manufacturer
of the compactor didn't have a service
man
in the area they're out west thinking
yes number one number two
is they the one that came in did not
have the skill set to fix this one so we
actually had to find one in bristol
he he as that's the closest we could
find one
and it took us a little while but the
pandemic did teach us
lessons on on trash and and
the good point is on the inventory on
backup motors and parts and components
and because we we were used to it on
pre-pandemic and not
having to worry about parts because
we're almost like amazon if i need a new
motor we could get in
you know two to five days you know be
sitting here now
when you call it's like a truck the
truck that y'all just bought
that y'all approved back in january will
not be available until august
that's truck the full compactor truck it
will not even be
operation i mean even here until august
well i know you got a lot of
talented people here in southwest
virginia that built
a lot of mining equipment this whole
area was
developed in building the manufacturing
mining equipment that would
drill through a mountain and and produce
coal and
i mean it if you was able to if they
seen the need
they might be able to build them here
and we'll ship them out there out west
and not buy them out west ham shipped in
here
it's like the cattle you grow them here
and you ship them out west well
the same way but i'll talk to brian
we'll we'll reach out i just have a
meeting with
yeah i think a lot of the problem is
maybe the pressure switches you know
because i think it goes up to 1800
pounds
every time and then if it don't then
you've got a little uh
i think it's the blue light comes on at
80 percent then the yellow light comes
on
at 100 full but if you if that pressure
switch is not working correctly then
you're
saying it's full at 800 pounds which you
may have two to four ton on it now and i
don't mean to speak for brian
on those on those lights this is part of
osha
you you can't push them to the max
capacity
on compression it's just like putting
everything in
in the wall and in a bottle and then
putting the pressure on it
what will happen at the outer end we
know what's going to happen it's going
to push it through at a certain point
those hydraulics when they go through
that tube
and push that trash it's going it's
either going to compact
or it's going to you know stop so
there's a what i'm trying to say there's
a safety
range there on those compactions now
i'll check with brian to make sure that
we're going at the maximum ones but
here's the thing
as we do the mo get the additional parts
in and the additional sights in
maybe we'll we'll take a look at that
but right now
osha does come around and review those
now like i said i don't mean to speak
for brian but we'll we'll check it out
osha checks those out
and baco chicks and bako comes in once a
year
believe it or not our trash sites as far
as insurance and
in in this is another part of the the
cost that is not realized
on those disposal sites when you go to
compactors our cost goes up as far
as liability because and one of the
things that you
hear about on complaints is well there's
a chute there
but that shoot is there to protect
somebody from going in we have to put
those up
there will be we're putting one on dog
town right now
because they come around and they look
at it not from osha's perspective
also from safety but also vaco goes
around
and makes sure you have those safety
mechanisms in
for your insurance if you do not have
them you will pay for that
that shoot one way or another so it's
better to be in compliance
have them tested have the reports on
them because it's just like the transfer
station with drinking water deq
everybody up there looking
we have to stay within those even though
we could push
the equipment to do more we're kind of
regulated on the safety issues too
but we will look at it
any more questions
second highest in the county
no they do not
she said they don't need it they're
sending it to us again
so when they come out they come out
through drill they come out of
through van sant and they come through
and they do come to rosedale and i mean
that's a straight shot to abbott and
that's the quickest way anybody that
drove
knows that's the quickest way to go the
volume of traffic
there go day and night nine you know i
know
the traffic county is high
[Laughter]
yeah i do i do and they should have one
at the further mountain
exactly
actually now that you you say it as many
times i've drove the drill road over
into van sant
i don't remember trash site at all on
there do you i don't i don't
i don't they have they have pick bucket
and they just added
uh ten dollars per household
for ten dollars a month to the fee
they they come through and i mean my our
site attendance they'll
they'll last people and that's why i was
asking i mentioned previously
the county sticker that way you don't
have to feel
or embarrass anybody because you know
we've got the people there in the
county residents that way we don't have
to ask them once we get
all manned that way we don't have to
encroach and say you know
you you know offend anyone you know do
you live in the county do you live out
of the county you know
that that is an issue too so
well when the sticker comes in if we
give one to every vehicle they'll have
it in their front window when they pull
up the side tend to be there they'll all
be manned
so they'll see it in the window if they
do not have it then
they can ask for an alternative id and
then
and if you really think about it mr
christian it uh
you won't have once they know those are
in place it's almost like they
they won't they know to come through
with those in their window
yes
any other budget so you have it we'll
come back again this is just a
preliminary
we still have to wait on state and
federal
finalize their points all right with
nothing more
our next item on the agenda is any
citizen's comments
no one's out there okay constitutional
officers
anybody out there no
all right there's no matters with ford
team you have anything
uh no ma'am david no ma'am orris
no luanne uh no thank you
and carl no ma'am all right i'll leave
it all right at this time
i'll ascertain a motion for adjournment
our next meeting will be our regular
meeting may the third
here so do we have a motion to adjourn
i'll make that motion carl thank you do
we have a second second
david right all those in favor aye
anyone opposed