okay
we have a motion to return to regular
session
some movement chair
thank you for a second
david all in
favor thank you madam chair
certification in closed session
pursuant to subsection 2.2 dash 3712 d
at the code of virginia 1950 as amended
each member of the board of supervisors
upon roll call certifies that the best
of their knowledge
only public business matters lawfully
exempted from the open meeting
requirements under the virginia freedom
of information act and only such
public business matters that were
identified in the motions
by which the closed meeting was convened
were heard discussed or considered in
the meeting by the board of supervisors
any member of the board of superiors who
believes there was a departure from the
requirements shall state so prior to the
vote indicating the substance of that
departure in his or her judgment has
taken place
are there any supervisors who believes a
departure has taken place
being none if you agree that the matters
heard discussed or considered during the
closed meeting were pursuant only to the
motions by which the closed meeting was
convened please signify by saying yay or
yes tim lovelace yes
luanne wallace yes
car ray yes
steve brady yes
david yes
worst christian yes
rebecca die
ma'am you have approval to return to
regular session
all right let us stand for invocation
and remain standing for the pledge
please
thank you to the lord for giving us
another day
thank you for the blessings that you
bestowed upon each one of us our
families friends
and
our fellow people in the russell county
please give us the strength and wisdom
to do and guide our decisions that we
may put
your love first our friends our family
and our fellow citizens
surround us with all walks of life all
backgrounds help us to do what is best
for our folks in this county
bring us together in high moral
character
help us to be the best that we can be in
jesus name we pray amen
our
first business is the approval of the
agenda do i have a motion to accept it
i'll make that motion all right thank
you carl do we have a second
second thank you steve allen madam chair
i need to make an amendment to the
agenda
i'm sorry
okay um
i'd like to amend the agenda um to ask
for a letter of support for the cprop
application that was submitted on march
the 23rd for the destination center
please
i'm in the agenda please all right do
you have a second i'll check it out
do we have to we're going to rescind
their first one
i would draw my second to peanuts
all right so she has her second so we
can go ahead with that all right of
course you're a second so
we will accept her amendment and approve
the agenda all those in favor aye aye
anyone opposed lou where would you like
to
i apologize again for not taking care of
that earlier
um
i'll ask that we put it under
um i guess under um the county
administrator report please
all right at this time then we'll open
up the floor for public comment on the
vdot secondary
year plan for fiscal year 21 22
to
26 27
so
any comment on the vdot secondary year
plan
six year plan
so
would you like to make any comments
about your six year plan
seeing
seeing no one has any comments on the
six year plan
we'll close that
the second thing on public uh hearing is
that we have our russell county
cigarette tax ordinance
any public comments on that
yes sir step right there my name's sean
vance i live in district 1.
i've read through this i got this today
i've read through this i should have
took more time i'm sure
the taxes i'm putting both kind of
together a cigarette in the mail tax i
understand that the county needs money
to run on but you know we are coming out
with epidemic is this the best way to go
seems like the only person is really
paying the prices the small business
i mean if you look at the
exemptions on the one if you're a church
or government or anything to do with the
county or anything like that
everything's exempt
so the guys who are collecting all the
money and responsible for collecting the
money would be the small businesses
if i'm incorrect on that somebody can
say
either or oh yeah more the food tax than
anything else i mean keeping records for
up to two years
i mean this guy's running the whole
business now you expect them to keep
rescuers for two years
and then the penalties if he makes a
mistake
am i reading the wrong thing
cigarette tax
well i'm on the food ordinance i'm
trying to put them back together because
there's no use of me standing up twice
you know i mean if you look through some
of the exemptions and so forth so on but
if you get into the part where the
you know um payments and collections and
all that kind of stuff i mean you should
know this i mean am i looking at this
the wrong way or is this are you all
looking at the same way i am
i mean if you know you have a guy
running a small business coming out of a
pandemic and now he's keep records for
all this stuff up to two years
and everything else are we underneath
the idea that we're going to collect the
taxes from people passing through
virginia and if that's so you know not
through virginia from county to county
you know you come from ice county going
to abington or washington county and
you're figuring we're getting their
money but where's the report or the
somebody did a report to study that
or somebody just come up that that's
what we're all thinking the more people
from wise county comes through
madam chair may i attempt to answer sure
mr vance's question
um
concerning your question
as a business owner and a taxpayer
um i mean i pay virginia tax i collect
virginia sales tax and i pay it back to
virginia right there's also a form there
that is for your meals tax right and so
when you audit when you start filling
out your form as a business person
that form allows you to plug in those
numbers and you pay it back to the state
so the state has already got all that
set up it will pull off localities tax
also so when you plug in your county it
pulls off the certain percent to come
back into your
meals tax now i think that
will the state taxes go through that
also or is that a separate thing that we
have to do as far as the county goes
can you hear me now i'm sorry
okay
the cigarette tax and the meal tax is a
local tax now the record-keeping
component is they're already keeping
records for this for this state
reporting yes this is just a different
reporting to the county in the state it
has to be
the state already acquires it by law
so to answer his question though
doesn't that does that locality doesn't
that go back through the state and come
back to you or does it come separately
it comes back directly to the county
yes but does it go through the state
first it comes through the county so
there's a reporting on that certificate
when you report food and and sales tax
is what i'm thinking you're going to
have the same reporting that i have to
do as a business person if i'm selling
goods and services and food i understand
that i guess to a certain point but it
still don't the way i read it it seems
like you're putting a lot of the burden
on to the business person so as a
business person as you said four times
you want that responsibility
i already have that responsibility thank
you
right well now these people are going to
be pushed upon to do it right
now
am i looking at this the wrong way
anybody
do you run a business that this will be
affected on
my family doesn't what does that have to
do if i run the business or not
i mean i don't i'm just curious i'm not
thinking that i'm agreeing with this is
what i'm saying i understand
what difference do i make of running
business or not
especially what business of yours
are there any more comments
on the cigarette tax go ahead all right
jennifer trumly just cigarette tax i
have not had the pleasure to read that
unfortunately i just
i just wanted to know if it had vapor
products in it first
and i'm not opposed to that i just uh
the only thing i was going to say if
if it did you know we just got a 6.6
increase that's like seven eight dollars
onto a bottle so i just want to make
sure the board was aware if we do want
to do a vapor tax going forward there
are
it's not as simple and cut and dry
cigarettes you know because there's
different milliliters different nicotine
levels so it would be a little more in
depth but since it doesn't then i will
or send my comment for that thank you
guys
once
i know it's a public comment but my
understanding at this time it is simply
tobacco products correct cigarettes
bait cigarettes are considered tobacco
products they carry that same licensing
currently but it just so happened this
year that we went into effect that we
got a 6.6 state percent 6.6 cents on
each milliliter from the state so it
would be in addition to that so
i just wanted to make sure that if there
was one how that would lay out would it
be per bottle because you know people
get different size bottles so that may
be something you guys want to look at in
the future and we can talk
thank you
all right any other folks on the
cigarette tax ordinance
yes step forward
good evening
my name is dustin keith
i am the secretary of the russell county
prevention coalition
and a prevention technician with
cumberland mountain community services
many of you are
familiar with the russell county
prevention coalition
we have been around since 2014
we are a broad
group of
local stakeholders spanning 12 different
sectors of the community
with the aim of reducing substance abuse
especially among youth
one of our primary objectives has been
reducing the use of tobacco products by
youth
as part of this
we formed the we don't support underage
use campaign
that you've seen on a lot of billboards
school buses cars
all over the place
we also conduct annual tobacco retailer
education visits
and we do science-based prevention
education curriculums in our school
system
we would like to
put forth our support for the cigarette
tax
ordinance as it's presented
in your packet you've got some
information from the national
campaign
for tobacco-free kids
this includes a lot of studies and
evidence about how
increasing the price of cigarettes can
work very well one of the most effective
tools that we have
to reduce the use rates of cigarettes
among kids
as well as adults
so they refer to it as a win-win-win
as far as for health for budget
increasing much needed local revenue
and then also politically as
the vast majority of people support a
cigarette tax
until last year virginia had the lowest
tobacco excise tax
in the nation we were 50 out of 50 at 30
cents a pack
last year
the state doubled that tax from 30 cents
to 60 cents
and virginia still ranks as the 44th
highest still among the lowest
in the nation
so it's very glad to see that you
assembled the local ordinance
tax rates for cigarettes that again
shows that
a lot of localities in the region
already have
a cigarette tax
so we would wholeheartedly
and
enthusiastically encourage you to adopt
this ordinance
to help us reduce use rates of
cigarettes among
kids
through our combined efforts in the
community youth
youth use rates have decreased to their
lowest levels
in several years of traditional tobacco
products
but there's still a lot more work that
we can do and this ordinance will help
us tremendously in those efforts
thank you very much
all right
another call anyone else that wants to
speak to the
cigarette
ordinance tax ordinance
all right seeing none we'll close it
now we'll open the floor for the russell
county meal tax
ordinance anyone wants to address it
all right
seeing none we'll close our meal tax
ordinance
all right at this time we have a
presentation mr mr donald perdue
am i saying that right
purdy okay appalachian coalition for
intervention the star x spacex starlink
thank you all for for the opportunity to
present to you tonight on the
starlink project i am donald purdy and
i'm the president of the appalachian
council for innovation
which is you probably remember the
southwest virginia technology council
we changed our name last october
and the reason why we did that briefly
is because everybody's got technology if
you've got a cell phone you have way
more computing power than they had the
first time they went to the moon
so we've got that covered okay now what
do we do with all this technology how do
we innovate with it how do we
solve problems that we don't even know
we have yet i mean that's what it comes
down to we got to be thinking way ahead
of the curve
and so that's what the appalachian
council for innovation is is about is
connecting businesses with each other
and working with state and local
governments and
with educators to make sure that what we
have
presented to to our workforce to our
youth as they're coming up is the the
right tools to do what they need to do
and the reality is in 15 years
there's going to be kids going to work
doing jobs that
don't even exist yet
we've got to figure out how to make sure
that we give them that opportunity to
get as much
ground-based knowledge as we can
possibly get them in order to be able to
compete with the rest of the world
because that's what we're actually doing
so
stay space based starlink is a project
that started in wise county last
last fall
and the it was a beta test and it was
it was done to try to reach those
students who have no internet access or
very or very limited access some of them
have
hot spots on their cell phone things
like that
but
when i was at the presentation that we
gave with congressman griffith a couple
two or three weeks ago
it was um
it was interesting to hear that a couple
of the parents that stood up and saying
that they had to take their kid to the
fire hall you know and sit outside
on weekends or they had two children in
their home and there was only enough
broadband to go around for one
and that's not doing the kids any favors
at all
so we want to be able to
with with starlink you're going to be
able to actually give
by july first part of august
internet access to those who don't have
it
i mean i just it's how fast this is
moving
we
the beta test i'll get back to that just
for a second right now there are 45 they
started out with a bandwidth of about 80
megabytes they're up to 150.
we're looking at 300 by the end of this
calendar year in december 300 megabytes
download speed
she whiz
it's hard to wrap your head around this
stuff we literally started talking about
this two and a half months ago we've
already tripled the speed i mean it's
just amazing how fast this is going
the idea of course is to be able to give
is the necessary broadband for students
at home so that they can actually get
their homework done
or participate in distance learning if
that's the need
don't rule out the obvious though that
we can also tell medicine with this
and remote work
and that's vital to what we're going to
have to do going forward so
telemedicine is is the next biggest
hurdle we got to jump and we can do that
with this
right now in
in southwestern virginia about 60 of the
households according to the federal
reserve bank of richmond says that they
have little or no internet
and that's
i've had internet for over 25 years i
can't fathom
trying to survive without it i really
can't
i mean it's just an essential part of
life i know internet and computers
supposed to make life real easy and we'd
be you know
that didn't work out so well but
we do have an awful lot of information
at our fingertips
um
so
appalachian council for innovation is is
trying to
is partnering with starlink so we're
gonna we are the the go between if you
will
we're the ones that's working with the
contracts to work with starlink directly
and the idea is if we can get six seven
however many sales you want because when
i when we first started this a week and
a half ago when i talked to mr lester we
could do one
60 account sale
now we can probably do 120 accounts now
we can do
two sales maybe even three by the time
we roll this out
because uh starlink is putting up
another 200 and some satellites uh i
think day after tomorrow and
uh and on sunday they're sending up yet
another one another full of these
satellites i mean just they just
keeps sending them up and the more they
send up the more coverage there is
so we should be able to do by mid-summer
probably two or three sales in russell
county and in every county in
southwestern virginia and that's because
we had a champion at starlink he kept
saying hey we need it here
and and he he doesn't let up and you
know who i'm talking about if you're on
his email list you know exactly what i'm
talking about because you get a thousand
of them every week which is a good thing
actually
um
so
and just to kind of get this in
perspective we're talking um
360 homes if we do six sales
and so uh 360 homes that's going to
equate to probably 450 students
that's just if we do the six sales and
again we can probably double that
capacity so we're and right now we're
guesstimating about 3 000 students in
southwestern virginia and the v cedar
region alone
that do not have internet or have
very limited capacity to it
and these are the ones that just you
just just the business case isn't there
for the landlines to get there and
that's that's always going to be a
problem so
um
the other day not and you see it up the
fcc approves a starling license
modification so what what that comes
down to is that they've licensed to
operate more than 2 800 additional
satellites in lower earth orbit
and so if you think about what is lower
earth orbit that's about 350 miles up
you know it doesn't sound too low but
it's low compared to the fact that the
hughes net and dish type networks were
they are 22 500 miles up
and that's the reason why when you hit
the enter button and you sit there and
wait for it to go all the way up come
all the way back down
and then you gotta you know
and it just takes a while 350 miles a
mil the latency is only like 22 24 five
milliseconds
pretty much the same thing as a fiber
object to your home
so that's not bad in fact that's
fantastic you stop and think about it
um
one of the things uh another thing is
and this is the the an unfortunate part
of this whole thing is
our area is one of the lowest uh
income per capita areas in
well in virginia but in the nation
and we got to fix that and there's no
reason on this earth why we can't fix it
but we're going to need tools to fix it
we need things like space-based internet
to do that so kids can get that
education that they need when they need
it and they can surf and go and look and
see things that they just can't
otherwise do
and this is that opportunity to get to
those kids
because when you listen to that at that
presentation in wise a couple three
weeks ago
the resiliency of the people in this
region is phenomenal if something breaks
you just fix it right i mean you just
you just do it doesn't necessarily have
to be somebody that went to a four-year
college got an engineering degree to fix
it he just looks at it says i can fix
that
and they do and that's what we need to
do we can fix that
and we can fix that and give the kids
the opportunity that they need and
that's what this is all about is making
sure that the kids have that opportunity
for them
uh cost wise
there's always the cost part
you're looking right at 200 000 for 60
accounts
and what that includes is the antenna
and a two year subscription
and we have to guarantee that to
starlink okay
now the antenna if you haven't seen the
antenna it is in this what you have to
have at your house
first you have to have a clear view of
the sky so a tree may have to come down
maybe maybe not just depending on what
your situation is
it's a dish that's about 30 inches in
diameter
and it is heated so in the winter time
snow and ice melts off of it
so you don't have to worry about that
piece
it tracks the satellites so that it
stays connected
there is one wire that runs from the
dish
to inside your house
that's it and it's about the size of
your little finger
then it hooks to a what i call a brick
which is where the power cord hooks to
and the ethernet cable that comes from
the outside satellite plugs into it and
then the antenna on the inside
that's it
there is literally nothing else to it
i've been dealing with network for 20
years and that really gets it simple
it really does
so the school system and wise is working
with those who were still struggling to
get those things set up so they worked
with them and that would be what i would
suggest that we do here because the
school systems are going to know where
the addresses are where the kids are
that need the help and if they could you
know the few that are going to need some
assistance setting it up
you know we suggest that you know you
because again local everybody knows
everybody type of scenario
but again the 200 000 is what you get
and and now there's ways to to we're
again we're looking for ways to buy that
cost down
we're looking for different grant
opportunities uh to see if we can't buy
down that cost a little bit another
option for you and again guys this is
this is brand new
this has not been done anywhere else
we're literally at the very tip of the
spear
so how do you pay for it how do you get
there because you know that there's
going to be some that can afford the
whole thing
that's a given and there's going to be
something that can't and so what do you
base that on the formula could be a snap
program a title one a medicaid
veterans
disabled vet services type of thing um
what's another one um
one other one i can't remember but
anyway you got those programs and it
might be a combination of those programs
to use or it might just be that you find
one that really works best for your
scenario but that'll help buy down that
cost
and again we're looking at various
foundations and other grants
department of education has a grant that
we're pursuing that there are others
that are pursuing for us
uh to see about buying down the hardware
for about 600 accounts things like that
is what we're trying to accomplish so
but worst case scenario is two hundred
thousand dollars and to get
to 60 homes
and i would dare say if 60 is the magic
number because 45 was the magic number
uh in november or december of last year
seems like a long time ago literally
just five months ago
it was 45 now at 60. i got a sneak and
hunch it'll be 70 or 80 before this is
all said and done per sale
still got to buy the subscription but
i'm just saying we can cover more people
because it changes literally that fast
so i would ask that
that that you consider
funding at least one cell and and trying
it because this is
it's working and we know it works again
we went from 75 80 megabytes to 150 and
literally five months
so we know it works
and we know that it can work here as
well and if we can bundle a package
between because uh wise is on board
dickinson's on board
tazewell i'm talking to them tomorrow
night they've already shown extreme
interest buck cannon and lee
so we've got a lot of interest in this
we've already got like say three firm
commitments now
so if we can go to starlink with a
handful of
commitment
that's going to get their attention even
more than what we already have their
attention because you know there's you
can go to starlink and sign up one two
onesies and twosies right that's 100
or a million
which one do you think they're going to
want to grab first and it'll be the
million and we'll be able to get that
and we will literally be one of the
first places
on earth
that will have this kind of coverage
i think that's pretty cool
and given our kids in our area had a
hand up a head up
and an opportunity i got a couple
questions yesterday
one do you have a business card i do
yeah i meant to handle it
follow-up in case we have follow-up sure
uh what's the upload speed
uh it's usually half or better
yeah so if you got 150 you got 75 up and
i got 25 at my house
down
and i've got fiber you know i guess i
could turn it up if i wanted to and i
probably will at some point but you know
i and what i'm paying is not that much
different than what this is which is 100
a month
after the two-year after the two-year
agreement what's the cost go to then
don't know it could stay at 100 a month
per subscriber or it could very well
start coming down as coverage goes
there's also competition jeff bezos is
really you know now we got to battle the
billionaires
and so jeff bezos is wanting to send
satellites up as well so the second he
does that the first thing is going to
happen is elon will probably cut his
price and that will destroy
you know the model that they had
this is going to be a battle and the
battle wins is in our pockets because
you know price will start coming down
just like it does on everything else
two people driving competition and then
there's a third outfit that's trying to
do this as well
they haven't lit the first rocket yet
and elon's already sent up i don't know
how many 25 30 rockets so far
you know so he's pretty much got this
figured out
so
in uh
in selecting these these cells those 60
connections what kind of geographical
area will that antenna hold
do they have to be within a thousand
feet half mile okay so the the the
satellites themselves or cover about a
five mile radius
okay and and so if you think about you
know 10 mile diameter and you've got two
or three sales pretty well got your
county halfway you know pretty well
covered especially with overlaps and
things like that with the other counties
the antenna itself that you have in your
home will just cover inside your home
it's individual antennas yes sir that's
not one big intent it's an individual
it's an individual which is correct yeah
for the geographic area of russell
county i mean we're all sitting here
representing one
you know
but it would encompass the five miles
have you looked at that to see
it have privy to actually look at that
now i think there's like five or six
sales if i'm not mistaken or four sales
i think cover uh russell county i think
you should have to go back and look is
there some sort of analysis you do to
see what areas you can cover with the
satellites it is that's way beyond my
pay grade to be honest with you okay
this is all done by elon's
engineers when they're figuring all this
stuff out what they're going to cover
but
jack did get the addresses no names of
source but addresses of where
kids were without internet
and
provided that with the overlay that that
he was able to see
and she said well we can cover no
question would cover this one or we
could cover this one or you know so
there's several that we can cover and
cover you know just gotta figure which
way you get the biggest bang for your
buck in other words that'd be really
good for the board to have a copy of
that to be able to see what the
utilization areas would be because
what we're seeing now is a lot of
unserved underserved communities don't
get don't get service and
anytime anybody
even any map comes out usually shows the
more populated area and not the less
populated area i'm just i'm just saying
and this the map that i was i actually
had the privilege of taking a quick peek
at literally because it's proprietary
uh was that there were several cells
that covered again there was overlap
around st paul russell and wise there's
an overlap cell there
uh there's one in tasman that overlaps
you know et cetera so there's a lot of
overlap so you're gonna get
you know and if we can work with each
county can work to figure out who gets
what where and how you know that that's
going to you're going to expand your
coverage in other words there there are
areas
that this is probably the only way
they're going to get internet service
well
yeah i mean again that's just one cell
again and
the more rockets that go up the bigger
the sales are going to get the more
you're going to be able to cover in a
cell etc i mean that's just just
it's just the math at this point of how
many satellites he can get up and at the
rate he's shooting them up there
by july or august there's going to be a
blanket over this area i think i think
what the community looks at us you know
we're going to spend 200 000 and i still
can't get access to it you know i'm
still left out
you know i mean that's a huge concern i
mean i'm in the broadband business and i
own a broadband company
and you know i think it's a great idea
because i think it's so critical for the
outlying areas where it's so expensive i
mean overwhelming expense to be able to
get it to the last home exactly and
every company i talked to for an example
clarks valley in my district
i mean i've done everything bag cry
plead to try to get two companies that's
on one end another company's on the
other to build that
and look for opportunity grants or
whatever
you know what i'm saying but i mean it's
it's something that's such a need i'd
hope that clarks valley is within the
demographic area
you know but i'm just saying it'd be
nice to know
that i will go back and get that
information and provide and let you know
what all areas we can cover but i i
from what i looked at uh two weeks ago
to what it is now it probably covers
more depends on how many satellites
that's exactly right let me ask you for
that two hundred thousand dollars you
said that covered the cost of the
antennas in a year's service two years
two years service two years okay two
years sir two year service that's
correct
and
that's only
thousand three hundred thirty three
dollars a connection
and it's hard to beat when you're
talking ground crown costs or just
i mean as far as looking at rural area
of america yeah i mean and how you know
i'm over in dickinson buchanan and parts
of tassel russell
i mean it would cost me an unbelievable
amount of money to get it to two or
three homes up in the valley or up in
the hall or across the creek or whatever
it may be
and
you know it's just something that's
desperately needed
you know
well let me give you a little example of
how desperately it's needed i've been
working with scott kaiser since back
before christmas on this okay uh the i.t
directory in wise county and i submitted
data
of all the you know the households that
we knew right were not served and we had
that data because of coded and the
virtual learning right there's over
there's over 900 addresses in russell
county that i submitted
so they they know where the areas are i
think yeah that's what they were using
to determine the sales exactly
exactly
well and and i was thrilled
to think we were going to get 60 and now
that we possibly make it
20 times or maybe three times that again
it's as massive
but that tells you the need i mean we
had over 900 households that said they
had no internet or not enough internet
to do virtual learning right
so even if you take half of those that's
500
just in our county yeah
so there's a huge need
so
i'll be you know happy to answer any
questions any other questions you got or
uh
i know the need is there it's obvious i
mean and you i know you guys see it so
it's just a matter but we're we're
working let's say we're going to be
contracting with starlink directly so
you would basically contract with
appalachian council for innovation to
get you know and we go from there that's
that's it in a nutshell
yes sir
one question i'm sorry
on these has the schools and counties
partnered
we have the american relief plan that's
coming in
between the schools and the counties
this is the applicable cost that it's
under that program right so
it is wise county and
why is county schools partnering on this
or is why is county carrying this on
their own from the schools or is it a
partnership it's a partnership it is a
partnership i don't know how much of a
partnership i haven't gotten into the
weeds without quite frankly but because
that was all set up before
uh appalachian council got involved but
it i do know it would be a partnership
thank you sure
anything else
thank you very much thank you for your
time appreciate the information
thank you
i'll leave a card with mr lester if
that's okay okay thank you very much
now we have our new business is the uh
approval of our minutes
our first one was our regular april the
fifth
regular board meeting do i have a motion
to accept
those minutes
it's written
so moved thank you tim do we have a
second for those minutes
thank you david
all those in favor
aye anyone opposed all right
second one is our budget workshop that
we had the following monday april the
12th and steve you're absent that day
so do we have a motion to accept the
minutes of our april 12 meeting
okay orris and david ii all right thank
you all all right all those in favor aye
aye
i'm cheryl i'm staying since i was not
there okay
you got everything then once again okay
good deal thank you all right the second
thing under new business is to approve
our expenditures do we have a motion to
accept our expenditures for this month
so move madam chair lou thank you do we
have a second second steve all those in
favor
all right the next thing is our
committee appointment and this was under
um carl's district this is for the
russell county planning commission and
it was mr edmund's position for four
years
madam chair i have a question about that
okay why why is it carl's position
well it just happened to be
the fact that's where was the match
if i'm if i'm correct now explain the
only ones that we've actually
agreed that we would have one
appointment per supervisor was for the
psa
when we did that we have never formally
agreed that we would do
one appointment per supervisor for all
the rest of these now don't get me wrong
i'm not opposed to it i think it's
probably a good idea but we just need to
formally if we want to do that we need
to formally do that am i right lindsay
that's that's at the discretion of the
board
yeah yes absolutely
yeah so i i think we would if if we want
to do
do that and incrementally work our way
into an appointment per supervisor as
one comes off
then
you know we need to formally make them
make a motion to do that yeah i have a
question also before we do that
you know it came up for consideration
about having
a board member
uh
a point a position on these particular
boards
uh and we had talked about narrowing it
down to seven
uh on every board with the exception of
those that are
uh you know i guess have regular
regulatory issues with the state like
the ida with the additional two
appointments
but that's one thing i would like to see
our board do is trim this thing down to
one appointment per board member
we have a tremendous amount of uh
you know
these appointments on these boards and i
think it really just needs to be
one per member yeah their bylaws would
have to be we have to re right
okay katie do you have any comment you'd
like to make
you want to maybe consider amending your
bylaws to state how committees and
boards are going to be appointed and
then some of their some of their bylaws
may need to be amended if that changes
if they're specifically in there some
some probably don't even mention how
people are appointed but i think if you
all want to have sort of like that
blanket rule that would need to be in
your bylaws
i personally think it's a good idea you
know and i'm certainly not opposed to it
but i just i don't think we've ever
really formally you know done it no yeah
we just we agreed to do it on the psa
because it was completely new because
when we did that yes yes and madam chair
if i may i totally could not agree more
with mr eaton and mr breeding tonight um
and i don't have a representative on the
on the planning commission so um anyway
no one from district two is on the
planning commission at this time
so i think that would be
very good if we could just
can we let that appointment ride
they'll continue to serve until
uh it's changed so my laws are changed
and continue well i just think it gives
you equal representation and you don't
just keep loading up these boards and
you know it would save the county
taxpayers money too i mean not to have
i don't know how many is on the planet
commission do you
about
12. i mean
and what do they get on a staffing
permit so you're so you're not only
asking you're asking to limit the number
of people that are on the planning
commission
okay
so that's different well every board
except where there's an exemption uh
every board except where there's an
exemption from the state or the only one
that i'm aware of would be the ida where
it's written into the legislature that
the town has two appointments and that
won't be yes
if you have nine members so we would
have nine you know and i think it's
important we have an odd number each one
so seven appointments would be an odd
number and it's nothing personal it just
gives you a balance and level playing
field like lou said she don't even have
a person on the planning commission
and that's a very critical
operational fact for our county
and we all do need one representative
that represents us from the planning
commission or from the ida or from you
know whatever means throughout our
districts to have that voice or have
that communication back and forth to the
supervisor so i just think it's a great
idea i think we need to postpone this
and then re-eva re-evaluate the bylaws
and move on that as soon as we can we
can make an amendment to the bylaws for
how you all appoint them but actually
changing the number of certain boards
will have to do
can you look into that katie and and we
can address it as the next board meeting
sure sure that should be a pretty simple
amendment tyrell's bylaws
so we'll need a motion just to table
this for now and he will continue
serving until you come back with the
information okay so i'll take a motion
to table this for now or or
and david second
all those in favor aye aye anyone
opposed all right mr edmunds will
continue until katie comes back with uh
some information for us
all right our next thing is our citizens
comment period please limit to three
minutes state your name and your address
first is michelle vance
good evening
michelle vance 99 with louis springs
drive i'm here tonight on behalf of
amanda thomas and the southwest virginia
star project
she called into the county
administrator's office
to get information on rental for the old
given school
she was told that
someone would have to speak with mr
lester regarding this
she received a call back on april the
21st
and i was going to read
i wrote down everything that was said
but i think it'd be better if you heard
it i had the voicemail message here
if it'll play
uh amanda this is loretta it's board of
supervisors office i checked on that
building uh the gibbon school
and he said it would be too large and
too expensive too much
rent and heat all that stuff i believe
so he suggested maybe you check with c.h
wallace in the town of home acre there
and see if there was something that
would suit better than that
that he just
he didn't think that that could be used
for that so
all right good luck
all right bye-bye
um
amanda's not generally uh
one to come up and complain so i took it
upon myself for her
i'm not exactly sure where you got your
customer service
from mr lester
but that's not the way customer service
is
it's no one's business how big how small
how much she can afford how much she
can't afford
if it's for rent
she is due what she is asked
it's a county property she was asking
for information
she was not asking for anyone's opinion
if she could afford it or how big it was
or if it was too big for what she needed
i think there's an apology that's owed
to miss thomas and to the southwest
virginia star project
they do wonderful work
over in the home acre area
she is there for everyone that needs
help she is there when someone's house
burns down she is there when someone has
a family member passes away
she is there when someone needs food she
is there when someone needs clothing
there is never any time that amanda ever
turns anybody away
and
that
when i heard that i was just appalled
totally appalled by that
um
andrew hensley could also not be here
this evening and he wanted me to throw
this in as well
and wanted to know uh since the givens
school and oak grove school are sitting
there empty
why are we still holding on to them why
haven't we put them up for sale and for
auction
it just seems like a waste of money just
sitting there
not being utilized nobody's renting them
it's
just kind of the buildings are falling
apart so on and so forth
that's really all i have but i would
hope that the board would do something
about this for ms thomas
because
it's not right
it's not right at all
alonzo can you provide documentation on
the facility itself to her
and reach back up to her maybe and set
up a meeting with her in regards to that
i you know i she has a large facility
out there and i think that they've got
it up for sale if i'm not
if i'm not wrong
that's correct and
i know she does provide a an
unbelievable service just like your
garden the deal we worked out with them
on school
uh it wouldn't be really any different i
mean if we could come up with a purchase
price or she's a non-profit it might not
correct yes or non-profit i'll work for
them okay
so i mean there might be an opportunity
for some grand opportunity or something
like that i've worked tirelessly trying
to get somebody in that but we had we
were so close to a company before covet
hit
and uh
you know it just
you know that kind of backfired on us
but uh i mean if
yeah i mean if we can come up with a
purchase price or a lease purchase or
something like that i mean just
something to put
together on the facility i think it's
open for discussion as far as what we
can do we sure don't want it to end up
like cleveland
and as far as oak grove i don't i don't
think oak grove is inhabitable right now
we really
we closed it down because of asbestos
and things of that nature and about all
it can be done up there i think let's
tear it down yeah yeah and you know
maybe that's something
you wouldn't like buy that building
would
talked about that and and
i think the issue is the cost of tearing
it down because of the asbestos yeah so
but that's
an ongoing discussion
all right
next on our signing sheet is sean vance
okay all right uh
michael hale
michael hill i live in russell county i
live on glade hill um
i'm trying to reach out to carl seven
times gonna get an answer back so i
figured i'd come here not to get an
answer
no y'all put county water up through
there it's probably on the road grateful
for that but since then i mean you all
have your county vehicles going in and
out actually school bus going in and out
don't oppose any of that but it does
make the road worse
are there anything in place to try to
keep this road worked are you all going
to keep putting your accounting vehicles
on it school bus and stuff if so
shouldn't the county take that road over
okay now what what bro what did you say
it's blade he'll drive probably
that's a vdot question i guess
right
well i mean i just know that the
county's getting the water off of it
i mean i don't oppose it i don't need it
i've got a good well somewhere down the
road my wheel may go dry if so i will
hook to the county water
same thing with the bus i don't pose
that because i don't want to see those
kids that could understand the road
but the vehicle is going to cross its
turn the road up
myself and other people live there goes
get gravel beside the road rocks that
fell off shell cliff to put it in there
because nobody will fix it
geron's vehicle is beating it out we got
to fix it back
shouldn't be our problem
thanks
next austin keith
justin keith excuse me dustin
glass is on
okay he's sorry
he's he's our guy on he's already spoken
all right
and uh jerry connor
uh my name is jerry connor and i uh
168 miners drive castlewood
and my question to the board is since
we're talking about raising taxes on the
business owners and such
how come the county can't do something
about the illegal businesses
that are open up in the county and find
them big time
instead of hurting the business owner
it's just my suggestion
so that's all i got to say
you know that brings it brings up the
question of a business license again
that we talked about before
i don't know
we can't do a business license as long
as we have a merchant's tax right that
is correct sir
so we just need to figure out how to do
it
you know to to replace that merchant's
capital tax
you know the merchant's capital tax
well it could be but what what he's
saying there's what about
sixty thousand dollars a year that comes
out of the merchant's capital taxes yes
we need to structure a business license
so that we could the cost of it would
replace that so it's not to lose the
revenue but the real concern is not
knowing who's out there and what they're
doing
and how we can help them
market you know because there's i'm sure
there are people out there doing things
i know
that we could help them with you know
from a marketing standpoint you know
even
we don't know we don't know and i think
it's something we really need to look at
right anything outside the towns
does home acre require business license
okay so any anything outside the towns
is unknown
anyone else with a public comment
any other citizens okay
your steps
yes stay yes come up and state your name
and uh give us your address
yeah we've broken every rule tonight
there is
ghost diggets and i'm from down in
luanne's district
and i've had i've had a problem i've
been working on for eight years
and i've not made any progress so i
decided to come here tonight
claude hart and i own 25
interest in
216 acres of mineral land on hamlin
creek
but we just own 25 percent but we own
other mental around that
that orders this 216 acres
and
my game plan is to have it sold at the
courthouse for no
delinquent taxes
and i've been trying for eight years to
get on the list and tomorrow's sale day
and they keep telling me it's going to
be on the next one
and i've looked and it's not there
and i was wondering if i get in relief
i've got a lawyer and a coal broker that
tells me that they think that they could
merchandise this
and we could put together about 500
acres of coal land there and
i mean somebody might go to work
and i don't i for the life of me i've
talked to the people in hand the lawyers
up in hanover county or in henrico
county
and i every time i call i get a little
different story but no action
so i was just wondering if there might
be something y'all could do to assist me
and and it can go to auction it brings
more than we want we like to buy it back
but if it brings more than
we think it's worth somebody else will
own it
yeah it goes goes how far are the
taxes behind how many years behind
about three uh luanne there knows i've
showed a turf several times
okay lou
yeah
with my taxis are three however how long
they go back and the three years i think
is all they can collect is three years
i'm not correct on that
yeah right
but now on the
part that we don't own
there's never been no taxes paid
katie is that something
i've talked to felicia mr thompson i've
talked to everybody that i can think of
and
it'll be on the next one
i'm not the attorney for the county that
handles the tax sales but i mean i can
try to work with bonzo and look into it
well i mean you know what what this
board done initially you know is to get
a lot of these properties sold and get
them back on the records on the tax
records
and you know i think this needs to be
treated fairly as well as the others
i mean you know what i'm saying i mean
if it needs to be addressed and i mean
maybe it needs to come from a letter
from our board stating that all these
need to be
looked at equally and
don't put it off if there's some
opportunity like ghost is telling us i
mean if there's an opportunity there for
the economic side of it we should have
done moved on it my personal feeling
something should have happened who who
owns the surface
uh
the smith lady owns it but in this deed
and just indeed for the 216 acres it
gives the ride for you to go in there
and dig a hole
go down you can cut timber off the
property to supply the mine you can use
the rock off the ground
and it's just like owning the surface in
my opinion
is that right luanne you ready
yes mr dickinson
or the so the surface taxes haven't been
paid either
oh i feel sure the surface tax has been
paid
the mineral tax has not been paid
now tell them that you're you're a 25
owner but tell them how many you think
how many people you might think is the
owner of the other piece
25 there was about 100 hours
and in the three-fourths
there's about i estimated about 500 and
they're in foreign countries and
but my goal my my thoughts were at the
time i didn't know how to do a little
written didn't do my research but
to sell mineral land you've got to have
86
of the
of the uh
ownership to force a partition suit
i'm almost afraid of petition suit might
be having you'd have to do what now i
think maybe a partition suit might be
how you'd have to handle it you know to
get to get a judge to
you've got to have 80s about 86
interest in the property before you can
file a petition a partition suit
i just have 25 percent
yeah but that's reason i'm here tonight
i want y'all to sell it for me
but i mean y'all can sell it the taxes
haven't been paid
just like we're doing the other just
like we're doing the other products
right
i can look into it i mean obviously
mineral mineral rights are different
than land rights and if if the if the
real estate taxes for us are being paid
then i mean it may it may not be quite
as simple but if you want to contact
lonzo if you have an attorney it's
probably best if i not speak with you
directly because i don't want to do
anything that's unethical but i'm happy
to speak to your attorney if you want me
to
my attorney
did you ever say that again i didn't i
didn't know you was talking to me oh i'm
sorry you just referenced speaking to
attorneys so i don't know if you do you
have a an attorney that you consulted in
this matter yes okay
so it's probably not best if i speak to
you directly on it because you're
represented in that matter so since i'm
an attorney i'd have to speak to that
attorney
yes but we be assured we want you to
sell that and do a great great work with
that honestly but this is the quagmire
that i can hardly even wrap my head
around
and we've been at this for a long time
yes
well i thank you for listening to me
any other citizens
any other citizen coming
all right seeing then we'll close at our
constitutional officers and reports
saying none
all right county attorney reports and
requests
you all had the
you all had the public hearing on the
cigarette tax ordinance and it's
something that lonzo has
put together and i've reviewed and and
it's and we've gone over it with
um commissioner of the revenue and
treasurer because they're going to be
the ones who are
enforcing and carrying out um the
ordinance and
i don't know if lonzo's put the rate
that he's suggesting in so he may have
to say that i did have one change
and
myself
that's not on the what was put in the
board's packet and that's on page two
under method of payment subsection b and
the way it reads now it says the
commissioner of revenue may
permit the payment in advance of the tax
um
levied and i i changed it to require or
permit so because again later on in the
ordinance it talks about how he will
formulate the rules on how this is going
to be enforced so
um i didn't want to limit him if that's
something that
that he wanted to require but it's not
mandatory but that language i did
change
and
other than that um i just i reviewed the
ordinance and lonzo as far as the the
rate is is the rate that's
in the board pack at the rate that
you're proposing to the board
thank you katie
right now
in the cigarette tax i have put in for
the mount levied and if you'll look into
uh page 207
and
there is hereby levied and imposed by
the county up on every sale of
cigarettes and exercise tax of
2500
1.25 cents per cigarette that's that's
the way it has to be taxed you can't
it's got to be because of the variance
in the different packs you must tax per
cigarette so
but one of the things i need for the you
know the would like for the board to
consider is whatever you tax if if this
is 25 cents on on the pack
this this five cents of this will
include the administration now whether
we had done it when they first proposed
it by the state the state was going to
take over control of this and they were
going to take five percent off the
aggregate at the beginning for
administration
so whatever your net is then
you've got to remember it five percent
is for the administration for the agent
the machines the distributor cost and
the additional you know work that's
going to be worked on by the
commissioner revenue and the treasurer's
office
so i had proposed 25 cents it y'all have
been given a list of the other adjacent
counties well
other towns that are comparable
again if you're going to do this then
you need to be competitive in in the
same way that they are so the range
would be 25 to 30 cents we have ability
under the code of virginia to go up to
40 cents per pack
thank you
well i'll make the motion that we accept
the
cigarette tax as presented by council
and by administrators
they want to accept it or
do they do stuff i'm going to second for
discussion okay
steve thank you
does this tax apply to
only cigarettes
how about
chewing tobacco and things of that
nature
it only applies to cigarettes right now
that's the only statutory authority so
it does not sniff any of that
that may come i know it's in discussion
but obviously that would be cigarettes
i've got a question
well you know when we first got elected
uh we were i was counted quite quite a
bit about different issues and different
money appropriations that needed to be
addressed throughout the county
long-term long-term plan
and like i said at the last budget
meeting
and i don't think people
they they will complain and they'll have
some issues but if they knew where their
money was going and some of this was
earmarked for different things whether
it be economic development
tourism or whatever it may be on any one
of these
i think it
it carries a lot knowing where your
money is going to be spent
in that regard and
i know we've talked about it as a board
i've
talked to lou about it as far as
appropriations of this fund or
earmarking some of the money
one of the things i i can tell you as a
county
for us to be able to be competitive
i mean to really be competitive is and i
would like for the budget committee to
take this up on themselves because me
and me and steve hit it wide open in the
beginning
but we have a lot of things here in this
county that
we're not as competitive with one is
school teachers pay
and you know if the five percent comes
down also tabs when washington's gonna
get the same five percent
so
how do we ever in our lifetime catch up
to these issues we never do
and we'll never be able to be
competitive before people want to move
here live here work here and build a
house here and to be able to feed their
family here
unless
somebody's gonna have to make a tough
choice eventually stating that
all these other counties around us
are out doing the things that we need to
be doing i know we have a lower
population i understand that but still
i'm a pretty competitive guy and for us
to be able to get new industry and be
able to you know in our school to me is
like an industrial development
project it's got it's the largest
employer we have in our county
our janitors our uh cooks we're the
lowest paid on the bottom and the
highest paid no offense team in in the
enough in the central area
and you know eventually we're going to
have to look at those people that's
making a considerable amount of money
and i've brought it up i got
hammered over freeze that pay and and
add the percentage of increase to some
of these teachers to get them up to the
level to where we can attract
and i would like for us to look at this
i mean if we're going to have these
taxes in place what are we going to do
with the money where is it best spent
where can we best spend this money to
make sure that you know we're growing
the economy we're adding more jobs and
we're attracting more people to come and
live and work here in russell county
i don't ever see us catching up
because we can't compete when they're
paying 10 000 or more per teacher and
we're you know we're never going to get
called up
and i've had this discussion with dr
brown i've had it with some of their
school board members you know you can
only
have so much money when it comes to
machine and tool and property tax and
really you're penalizing a lot of people
with that because you have people that
rent don't pay it and i mean i could go
on and on because i dealt with this with
the town of honaker but i was the guy
that implemented the food tax in the
town of honea and when i did that was
eons ago we started out at two percent
but as we built it up i had one town
council member threatened to whoop me
over because he said it's a tax i said
listen everybody that drives through our
county drives into our town helps
contribute
helps contribute to the balance of the
budget it's not just you're not just
putting the burden on the local
taxpayers that live here so everybody
that drives through and they come in to
your county which is an extremely amount
of a lot a lot of people especially
and we had this conversation about when
construction jobs were going on or when
projects like the power plant down there
in saint paul
it's hard to tell how much money we
would have generated through that
opportunity so
i just want the public to understand
you really can't put everything on the
backs of the property owners and the
personal property
you've got to look at area ways to be
able to generate and let everybody else
help contribute to
your budgetary needs
by that i would like for our board to
look at
how we earmark some of this funding
david i don't i don't think we can hear
mark this many because truthfully we
don't we we can anticipate where we
think we need it but i'm not convinced
you know that that's absolutely where
it'll need to go i think it probably
needs to go in the general fund
and and then we can as as the need shows
up the problem with earmarking is kind
of like that lottery money it was
earmarked for the schools and you know
about the state and they got some of it
they didn't you know
but
you know this
i think everybody needs to understand
this mandated five percent increase is
coming down from the state the state
pays for some of those positions am i
right lonzo
but not all that yes sir that that pays
for the schools that are direct you know
the teaching positions and in certain
positions at the administration level it
also pays for all the constitution
officers that are designated that is
paid 100 by the state
so only thing that we have to do is as
far as the the from the general funds is
to fill out what is the county employees
that are not
state supported and in the past
those county employees
and the ones that were not covered by
the state had kind of been left behind
they there were many years that they
were not and we made the decision that
first year that we needed to include
everybody play on an equal plane
yes sir and that's the reason that we're
going to need some of this money
uh
in the courthouse
who knows what i'm i'm
one of the things concerned about it
because of price materials alone yeah
well it's going to do to us yeah let me
say this what i'm what i mean by
earmarking is just to have a projected
plan
i mean you know if we earmark it if the
general fund needs it they're going to
take it anyway i mean that's just how it
works so what i'm saying is if it's a if
it's a if we look at like say tourism
how much money do we put in tourism
how much
six thousand dollars
and what i'm saying is if you set a
projection on it and say you had to have
the money
to fulfill another responsibility you
you got that legal accessibility to do
that i'm not saying that i'm just saying
i think the public needs i think we need
a plan like long term of what kind of
investments we're willing to make i
think we need a plan somehow and this is
going to have to be something that
school board is going to work on
is a plan to see how we can ever become
you're right we'll never become
competitive on teacher salaries as long
as
you know everybody does the mandatory
race
we've got to look at some way that they
can be more
competitive you know and we had talked
about freezing salaries at one time i
can get the admin i can get the
average the state average for the
teachers and i can get it for the
principals and the assistant principals
i i can't find it anywhere for the
administrative people or the custodians
or anybody like that but
you know my thought would be that you
know whatever the highest percentage is
we freeze that one until the lowest
percentage comes up to the next highest
percentage you know but but that's a
school board decision that's not our
call you know but you know it
it really
it really sort of rubs me the wrong way
you know
one one of the things that the board has
to consider is this
the cigarette tax in the middle taxes
and exercise tax okay when we look at
who it affects in the in the population
that we've got within accounting you
must carve out the towns automatically
so this is not a cash win file an
exercise tax that keeps you off the real
estate and the personal property
if you go back and look at the real
estate tax in 1999 it was 63 cents on
the hunter
it it was
you know it was i mean 64 cents on i'm
sorry
it's higher to that lower today than it
was 20 years ago y'all have not raised
the taxes it's one cent less on 100 over
since 1999.
so
th this is a way to you know to be able
to fulfill what the county has the
services that y'all get y'all have got
obligations into economic development
projects that are coming up this this
you all will be able to fulfill those
things you also have the casino that's
going in the public will be traveling on
route 19 58 71 80
leaps and bounds coming out of kentucky
in west virginia that's who we're trying
to catch with the food and and the rest
if uh
if if
citizens in russell county wants to go
to the town of honaker they'll pay 10
cents on the pack
that that's the ones that live there the
ones that live near lebanon the ones
that live near castlewood or the town of
saint paul that's the one to the catch
but the ones that's coming through and
traveling those 15 to 17 000 cars a day
here's vdot sitting in the room they
know what the traffic county is on up
here so
that's who we're trying to catch
no i fully understand i mean i know
we're trying to catch the intake
to be able to support the county and not
have to go other ways and other other
but i know we got a lot of things and a
lot of projects in in the room right
here with the courthouse and all that
i'd rather for somebody outside the area
to help us pay the bills and all of us
right that's it and project jonathan you
got these and we've got project standard
i understand
yeah
it's nice to have them pay some of that
rather than the people that are truly
vested to people that own property and
and such
yes sir call for the book okay that's
exactly any other discussion folks
all right
foreign people virginia's taking care of
the highway to taxing everything but uh
kentucky
tennessee west virginia these are
certain things to consider the
purpose of
all right
with all that said all those that are in
favor of the cigarette tax all in favor
any opposed i oppose
okay
next
um
i'm sorry i'm sorry
did you all hear any of that or do i
need to start over
okay
i'm sorry and
the meal tax ordinance i did prepare and
i sent to lonzo with a few questions
that i had for
how it was going to be administered the
one
suggested change he had and on the
section on page and
or under the commission to seller for
collection of tax
and
in in the draft i prepared it it allowed
for a three percent of a tax deduction
and under that and lonzo suggested that
would be one and a half percent
um
other than that i've um
i did we did check to see about the
collection of the days and we checked
with um the commissioner of revenue um
and
he was okay with the
days that the tax would be collected
under this ordinance but other than that
i just asked
the board would like to accept this
ordinance
all right with that
what's the pleasure of the board we have
a motion to accept the meal tax
ordinance
madam chair i make a motion we accept
the meals tax order ordinance as
presented okay do we have a second
i'll second then for discussions
okay
this will not apply
to the towns who already have a meals
tax
it will apply only to the areas outside
of the towns
okay
yes
any further discussion
three percent and one and a half percent
you said
yes that's under um
it's under the section labeled
commissioned to the seller for
collection of tax
anything all right any further
discussion
any comments
i do have a question what's the what's
the meal tax rate in lebanon does
anybody know here
what
six percent in lebanon
i believe i believe that's what it
it is
okay
all right
all those in favor of the mill tax
ordinance
i uh anyone opposed
okay
thank you
give her the mic again
i'm sorry the last um request that i
have
is um for authorization to do and
instead of an rfp it's an rfq
um for the building construction and by
environmental
inspection service regarding project
jonah and this is again a project that
we're working with with tazewell and
buchanan counties
and
i will work closely with them i don't
know if they'll want their boards to
approve it but really it sort of falls
on their shoulders to get this ball
rolling and
because it is for professional services
we will be using competitive negotiation
which means that price is not the only
consideration we can consider experience
and
other qualifications and other um
items and that
other other qualifications that we deem
and important so i would just ask for
the board's authorization to do that on
your behalf i'll make that motion i'll
second that motion
any discussion any thoughts
like all those in favor of doing this
request for proposal for a uh
building inspector type service for the
project jones
anyone opposed
okay
next we have our county administrator
reports and requests
thank you madam chair
first up on the county administrative
reports and request is the
three rivers destination center the arc
power ground application for 1.5 million
dollars
this is a power grant application for
building an outdoor recreation
uh facility that will be housed in the
heart of appalachia
uh
in russell county and at the entrance on
saint paul into the clinch river
police river and state park
the project will complete the
construction of the three river
destination center which will hub for
visitors and community members to
significantly grow the outdoor
recreation and tourism economy in
southwest virginia
the center will be located right in the
middle of virginia's coalfield region
with access to the clinch river state
park the nearby jefferson national park
the brakes at interstate park and
several other additional risk uh
recreation amenities
it uh
it also right now it will build on a uh
500 000 that is already standing in
funding from the department of community
development and the tobacco commission
they have a total combined match already
in place of 530 282 dollars
so
the destination serial will be centrally
located within the seven county region
footprint to promote the area's tourism
assets and increased visitation and
tourism for the coalfield region
the center will serve as an information
hub for office visitors and visitor
trips
connect the region amenities and
businesses
and learn about the area's natural
assets and book reservations for all the
critical
to grow the local outdoor economy create
new job opportunities and help foster
the creation of small businesses
this is again this is the arc report
power grant that for 1.5 million dollars
that has
and thirty thousand two hundred and
eighty two dollars in match already in
place so i've got a couple questions on
that
sir of that match money where where is
that coming from you said yes yes sir
it's it's split between the department
of uh
community development and to the bicycle
commission
yes excuse me i'm not using a microphone
i noticed it said that uh we're going to
create 16 new jobs
or are those construction jobs or those
permanent jobs
you on the 16 jobs yeah those are
permanent within the heart of appalachia
yes so there'll be construction jobs in
addition to that yes okay
uh
of those
of those 16 jobs i assume this
down where it talks about the projected
three-year increase in local taxes
uh
where where are those local taxes is
that russell county tax or is it
throughout the entire area
that's
the throughout the the entire region
through the entire review just passed
yes
so that would be probably in
sales tax or something like that yeah
meals tax yes sir the new wages a
million one
that would be for those 16 jobs then yes
sir okay is that over a three year
period or is that per year that's over a
three year period three year period so
and that at the heart of appalachian is
funded by the state so again
these are jobs that will be created but
it's not paid by the county so it's an
average of about 22
916 a year per job
it's part of the recreation tourism this
is the proposed sign that's up on the
screen of the facility that's been
proposed in design
the total project is to over 2.2 million
dollars yeah
that's all i have
right
so more questions
uh madam chair i know that we put this
in another place but um
can i go ahead and get that letter of
support for c-prop money at this point
in time or do i need to wait
so we need to vote on this this
application first correct no this is for
report only report
because it's already done she's already
taken care of
or you want to move the
c prop
now if i have to amend the agenda or
anything like that i mean i know we're
reporting on this now so this is part of
this is part of the ask that i ask to
amend the agenda just so we don't
confuse everybody
here's the floor plan of it
as we go through it
this is the target area that they're
looking at
heart of appalachia
next on the account administrator is
their county ministry request this is
another
project
this is in the dane area this is um
where
we utilized aml money grant money again
from dmme to tire down the old artie lee
school
i was talking about schools before we
turn
we actually used aml money on this one
and they paid this was 100 grant funded
to tire this one down and convert it
into a campground
so let me get to it
this is the application
for the
virginia department of health
the office of environmental health
services for the rd league campground
for the water and sewer permit
i'll need a motion to approve this
and this is the layout of the campground
that will be in the daint community area
where the arty lee uh
school building was and currently where
the artie lee
baseball field is
yes and madam chair i'd like to make
that motion with uh much pleasure that
we
approve the virginia department of
health plan as presented
do we have a second with this campground
all right thank you oars in discussion
all right
all those in favor
anyone opposed
all right
thank you man
and if i may not to belabor this but to
clarify
the school situation
there was
much mold as best as other things in
this particular school it could not be
salvaged
and we used
virginia brownsfield money to do that
in order to use a brownsfield
grant
you have to have an economic development
into it and i have inquired
per the request for the county
administrator on the given school
and oak grove
i inquired to virginia brownsfield and
they said that they did not qualify at
this time there is a plan being put in
place
by
virginia brownsfield which comes through
the department of environmental quality
that could
work
for
oak grove
but that's down the road so
we do have that on the radar i have made
that request through deq so just
not to belabor anything but i want you
to do some information sharing thank you
thank you thank you miss wallace
next on county ministry of reports a
request is the virginia as the vdot
secondary highway six-year plan that was
just presented at the public hearing
uh
of course we have representatives uh you
know from the virginia department of
transportation here so
if they want to speak
these are the changes on the six-year
update
the draft of the six-year plan is
included in the update along with the
draft resolution for the plan as the
board required no projects were added to
the plan in january remember we had one
in january
the proposed plan for the fy 22 through
fy27 adds route
824 which is walt drive and route 671
which is home acre chapel road
route 824 is basically the extension of
the tombes hollow on which phase one of
the construction is planned to begin
this summer with the second
and final phase being completed in 22
2022. sorry
hon anker chapel intersects the route of
route 58 approximately two miles east of
alternate 58
and route 71 intersection approximately
1.5 miles
of thomas warner road
okay also on the
notes is route 615
slide on back valley vdot is assessing a
slide on route 615 and develop a plan of
action on the end
again this is
project salmon
which is
the pure salmon project which is project
gentlemen vdot has reviewed the plans
for the connection to route 19 and a
single connection to route 603
which is 603 it was actually in tassel
county no other plans have been
submitted on the project the proposed
connection and related improvements to
route 19 are approved but vdot has yet
to receive the required bond for the
work and permit on 603 interest has been
issued
the saint paul welcome center this is
actually the destiny the residency
understands there's plans moving forward
on the welcome center that it will be uh
in saint paul
along alternet 58
the residency looks forward to reviewing
the plans of the project
this is the three rivers destination
center they called it the saint paul
welcome center
the route 19 commercial entrance
improvements the residency is working
with private developers to provide
improved access at two locations on
route 19
south of alternate 58 and 19
intersection this work include
improvements
to turn lanes near the existing way
station as well as an entrance just
south of the valero gas station
those are the 19.
the funding opportunities on both
revenue sharing and the transportation
alternative
project grant which is the tank grant
allocations are now being submitted
pre-applications for both programs are
due by july the 1st 2021.
the maintenance activities
crew maintenance crews are actively
involved in various activities some of
the more pertinent activities are on
hand are
on hand and machine
heavy and large area patch both for
general maintenance purposes and
advancing and repaving activities as
well as slurry seal of the various
routes in the county
that is the notes from
the resident
engineer
at the lebanon residency of course this
is the notice of the public hearing we
need a motion for the approval
of the right do we have a motion to
accept vdot's
secondary highway six-year plan
so move p.m all right
we have a second
carl thank you discussion okay okay uh
one thing i would like to say is i know
i've been hounding beat up pretty
heavily about horton ridge curve
uh
you know i know we've been working on it
and it's to me it's a school bus safety
issue and it's it's been there forever
and it's it's really a danger
and then we have a lot of uh i know we
have a lot of secondary type ditch
drainage road issues and stuff and
uh and then guard rail i don't even know
when we'll be able to get enough funding
for to be able to do
guard rail in areas that need it not
just
replacing the existing guardrail but i
know in my district it's needed terribly
in a lot of areas so
i appreciate what you guys do and i know
we work closely together and and that
but i mean we've got we've got a lot of
these issues and i don't know where
we're going to get the money to be able
to do everything that we need to do
i know how the richmond is they try to
pull everything they can
from down here in southwest virginia but
if there's anything we can do to fight
roll up our sleeves and go after it i
think this i think we're all willing to
do that but we appreciate what you guys
do
all right any other discussion all right
all those in favor of their six year
plan
ah
anyone opposed
thank you madam chair of course next one
up is
a proclamation of the older americans
month 2021 that's all that's applicable
too so
majority thank you
what are you trying to say
finally something for me
well listen to the proclamation
whereas russell county includes a
growing number of older americans who
have built
resilience and strength over their lives
through success and difficulties
that sounds familiar and whereas russell
county benefits when people of all ages
abilities and backgrounds are included
and encouraged to share their successes
and stories of resilience and
whereas russell county recognizes our
need to nurture ourselves reinforce our
strength and continue to thrive in times
of both joy and difficulty
and whereas russell county can foster
communities of strength by creating
opportunities to share stories and learn
from each other
encourage older adults
through education recreation and service
and encouraging people of all ages to
celebrate connections and resilience
now therefore we the russell county
board of supervisors do here by
proclaimed may 2021 to be older
americans month we urge each and we urge
every resident to recognize older adults
and people who support them as essential
contributions to the strength of our
community
i'll make that motion
thank you madam chair
next is a request request from the
county administrator to advertise for
the public hearing for the uh
the fy 21 22 budget and set the tax
rates for the county
for the next public hearing
so move
second
i'll need we'll leave we'll need today
okay
um do you all want to
reconvene at the end of the month
and get it have it taken care of and on
our june board meeting we approve the
budget and go
can we do it the end of may
may 19th 20th yes
by the code of virginia we need seven
days between the public hearing and
approval of the budget pie code
that's for comments
so the board meeting for june is june
the 7th
so
so for us to be able to advertise it in
the in the no local
newspaper circulation would go out on
the 11th so the earliest that you could
have it would be the 18th 19th or 20th
has anybody got prior commitments
19th 20th
okay
not the 20th okay 19th
is that fine
now what
y'all want to be here one
too much work okay
five
on may the
19th
is that what day of the week is that
it's wednesday wednesday okay
and we'll have everything set so
david
wednesday may the 19th at five
do we have a second with that
oars all right all those in favor
aye any opposed all right thank you
ma'am chair
next is the
on the counter minister request is the
advertisement of the deputy emergency
management coordinator position
on this position the board had
previously approved a full-time position
i would like for the board to rescind
that motion
and
for a full time to advertise for a
part-time position
i'll make a motion since i made it to
higher uh full time i'll make a motion
to rescind my motion
uh
from the last
position i held and uh
look at doing part-time
thank you sir
thank you any further discussion all
right all those in favor
aye
anyone opposed
all right
thank you ma'am chair i need to ask you
a question
now do you need a motion to give you the
authority to hire part-time yes
that's what i thought i'll make that
motion second okay david steve
any discussion
are all those in favor of hiring a
part-time
uh emergency coordinator position all
those a favor
anyone opposed
thank you madam chair next on the count
administrative request is the russell
county assistant wrestler's position
registrar's position
this was discussed in previous boards
uh the electoral board has selected one
we need approval for the
disposition because it is a county
funded position his salary is is
thousand nine hundred sixty dollars i
need approval for that motion to go
ahead and proceed for hire
all right
all right anyone wanna make the motion
to hire her assistant i'll make that
money of course
do we have a second
second team
all those in favor
aye aye
anyone opposed all right thank you madam
chair next again is uh the russ county
courthouse custodian position
advertisement for the courthouse
this is a replacement of
from the custodian from last week i'm
asking for the board's approval for
full-time full-time custodial positions
at the courthouse so move
second
steve
any discussion
all right all those in favor
you want to post
thank you
chair
next on the uh
county ministry request is the home
acres line club the 2021 home acre
independence celebration
has asked for a donation for the
fundraising for the independent owner
independence day celebration
let me ask you a question
we've always gave to all the entities
that did this
fourth of july
celebrations is that not correct
yes sir we have i thought we did
i mean i think if we're going to do this
i'll make a motion we do it for all
and give them those donations that we've
done in the past
so we support them all weekly
yes sir
yes
we need to get back to normal so we need
to support them all the town of lebanon
townes cleveland
town 11 and town of cleveland town of
saint paul and townhallneck are having
their festivals yes they're all
scheduled
i just think i know i appreciate because
i know they had called me about this
having it put on the agenda but i just
feel like we need to support them all so
what monetary amount do y'all want to
put did we do the last time 500 500
yeah i'll go with 500 again and support
them all all right
now
all right and
all those in favor all right
anyone opposed okay
thank you madam chair last on the county
ministry request is the one that was
added for the cumberland plateau
planning district c prop letter of
support from the board of supervisors
for the c prop application for the three
rivers destination center i need uh
approval for letter support
support
so move madam chair lou
do we have a second
i'll second it all right thank you david
any discussion all right all those in
favor
aye
anyone opposed damn chair i will abstain
as i'm on the cumberland plateau board
and also on the cprop budget committee
so we have all eyes except for steve he
had to abstain all right thank you
madam chair that concludes can
administrator request reports okay
uh the next is air matters before the
board tim do you have anything uh no
ma'am
david yes ma'am i do
i talked to count administrator about
this about some of the facilities in our
county especially like honecker little
league field i've been approached by a
lot of the parents down there and i know
we have appropriations that we have held
back from the board because they haven't
provided us their tax return in two
years of financials
over the past i guess five years five
years five years
but
they are absolutely in need of brick
dust i went down there and done a walk
through in a tour of the facilities
one little kids got hurt because they
can't even drag the field it's in pretty
pretty much disarray
i would like to ask the board or if i
have to make a motion that we get a
a tandem load or whatever it takes to
fix these fields they've got them down
so low that there's even like glass
looking particles
that's raised up out of it and rocks and
it's about as bad as anything i've ever
seen
and
i
you know if i need to make a motion that
that we order a load so we can protect
these kids i want to do that
i don't know about the other fields in
the county community but i say let's
send in brick dust to everybody well i
would because i think it's such a need
yes
second definition
i'll even if i can back up i'd like to
expand that to have a total review of
all the facilities
i mean i mean i'm telling you i i have
been down toward castlewood and stuff
where my son's playing now and
everything but i i think we need a
review of the whole facilities in the
area you you don't want our facilities
to get in disarray
you know and i've always said this i
mean you want to build something new but
you need to take care of what you got
first who is responsible for the upkeep
well the county is the one on the fields
well we own the fields but aren't the
little leagues i've got well we've got
an issue or a situation there that when
we first got elected
we uh asked that anybody would give
money to that they would provide us two
years of financials and when your tax
returns yeah to keep uh
uh
continuity there for anybody we write a
check to well we ended up having a lot
of people say hey we appreciate you in
the past we just don't want your money
no more
well since then
we got a handwritten was it a
handwritten
from new uh from honeaker little league
is this handwritten it wasn't a tax
return and it wasn't financials
and so we just don't give people money
unless and we do this with fire
departments rescue squads and everybody
i don't want you to think we're singling
anybody out this is just a equal way to
be able to protect the taxpayers money
but
we have a lot of great volunteers down
there and they
they've called and hounded me to death
because they don't have anything to work
with if they had some stuff to work with
they'll fix them they'll fix the fields
they'll maintain them and keep them up
and it's like at in all of our fields
you got good volunteers they just need
the product well i've had i'm i'm like
you david i've had a call from home acre
that their
big john deere lawnmower has gone it's
been gone somebody came and got it and
it hadn't been returned
so
yeah we need to be looking after this
stuff
we are still
getting those
audits or tax returns from all these
entities
yes sir we are we request them every
budget year yes we are okay
you know i just i think we need to do an
evaluation of these i mean you know
brick dust
is kind of a
i mean it i don't know it's not going to
break us to be able to protect these
children i mean they can't slide at home
or they can't slide into bases uh
without having to uh you know to get
hurt
i mean i know i've been in little league
modeling all my life i coached and we
probably kept some of the most pristine
fields in the area
and that's because we had a lot of good
volunteers but you still got to have the
product if you ain't got the product you
can't fix it so you know i'm going to
make a motion that we do an evaluation
of all the areas and if it's needed
let's get it a second
any further discussion yeah what did we
do a couple years ago lonzo didn't the
schools have a big load delivered up to
bus garage and then each field came got
it as needed and
they did sir and
maybe we could look at doing that same
thing i agree with tim well the school
system actually should pick up half a
tab because a lot of these
well if they want to buy it again we
appreciate it
they just settled it
thanks tim did you make it
[Laughter]
i know
well
and they do and on the glade on the
glade hollow field you know that's
that's used by our senior league field
used by eighth grade
so is the senior field at home acre and
and the school has volunteered to you
know help keep the condition on that now
as far as the county and we do work with
the uh little leagues and you know we've
got
we got you got some little leagues
they're more active and you got someone
that's not so
and
we do work with them on this and we do
give the annual stipend to them every
year that they can use at will how they
need to do it and how they decide we
don't dictate to them if they provide
their financials and tax returns we
don't dictate to them they they do keep
proceeds they do turn them in they're
very
they do their due diligence and they're
very transparent
they they stretch it and they they work
with community and donations
but
the
one of the things that you know if we're
driving around this is taking it from
you know my staff
during the pandemic there was no one
working so the condition has has went
down during you know this year of lapse
so
i mean we can reach out to the school
board and see how we can change half of
these
you know we can work on these these ones
that we've partnered with before
you know at the voice description we
need to do it for seasons up
yes
we'll do it immediately tomorrow all
right i'll call for a vote all in favor
anyone opposed
steve yeah i got it well wait i got one
more thing i'm sorry man you've got your
lead
i'm on a roll this evening
one of the things no honey you're fine
one of the things that i wanted to
address and i would like to ask for the
board
to give us a little bit of understanding
or or to reach out to some of our rescue
squad
services
i have been getting calls that you know
we we
we give quite a bit of money to these
entities every year and i know this is
going to cause a lot of heartburn
in my area and everybody else's area
when i bring this out but it's it's very
critical
because we fund a lot of these we've
only got two volunteer services in our
county the rest of them are what i
consider paid services they get paid
and they bill people for the services
they go out here and do now we have some
of these entities out here that operate
and they bill but they don't get any
money from the county
but now i've heard here recently
that some of these entities are going to
cut back services and only do perform
services that
they get paid to do they're not going to
do transports they're not going to
and that's to me not meeting the needs
of our people and our citizens when
you're just looking to get paid to do
something
and you're going to leave somebody out
there that you know that has a an
incident and they don't get picked up i
have a problem with that and i don't
care who knows it
i mean i think that we need to
have them come to us and
give us a list of what services they're
willing to provide
for us to support them now if we're
willing to cut back and do away with and
not do this i don't think that's right
in any regard because you know you have
an incident where you call 9-1-1
and all of a sudden you have to get
somebody on the lower end to come up
here and pick that person up that's not
acceptable to me
and i think that
we need to we need to reach out to these
people and find out what what are you
what are you going to contribute to our
county and i think we might have to come
up with a pretty much directive of what
the responsibilities are to the citizens
of the county if they're going to get
our money
and i'm just going to lay it out on the
line because you know
everybody's looking to get a dollar and
i understand that because you got to be
able to to do this but we also need
quality services for our citizens and i
don't want somebody to be looked at
because you know they can't transport
them because they don't get paid to
transport well i don't know how all that
mechanism works
but i know this has really been a bother
to me i've lost sleep over it thinking
about
this stuff i want to echo
in fact that's that was my comment as
well david because i've had calls even
from private vendors
that
some of the squads uh are looking at
just doing the you know the services
they're gonna be reimbursed for and and
if that's the case i have a real issue
with county contributing any money to
them if they're not you know
where's the break line between a
volunteer service and a cup a group that
we're giving money to and they're
competing with a private entity who
didn't get anything you know
i think we just need to review that
whole set of circumstances you know so
i'd like copies
of whatever
the rescue squad submitted
i want to look at those can you give
those to me lunch then i can't sir okay
well i i'd like to have a copy too i'm
sure the full board would probably
entertain a copy of that to see
how that this is working i know they're
governed i think in ways that
uh
you know in that scope of uh
what going through i don't know what's
it called if they have a charter or or
how they said it
describe what they do
each of the squads have a protocol
and that protocol within their service
area they must maintain it those those
protocols define what services they are
to do they don't get a chick and choose
what services they want to deliver not
to deliver who sets those protocols the
borders the state the state does they do
in in the uh but i mean or is it a
mandated thing and and how do you
inspect that
that's part of the operation plan too
they we
these protocols are set in place per
service area
yes i remember again reviewing them that
first year and there were a couple of
things that we looked at that
one of the guys must have lived at the
station you know
from the time
what they said they paid him and how you
know what his final pay was everything i
mean he must have literally lived there
so i think it's worth looking at that
again maybe we've gotten a little
relaxed
uh
some of them been
kind of mixed up with what structure
they get notification be torn down and
i've done run into one or two at least
that
they were about to have the wrong person
tied down a structure
you know i say structure it may be a
house it may not be a house
but
we need to be more careful about
the notification going out
whoever that
they don't get the wrong
structure torn down or notified to have
it torn down
madam chair yeah i missed one thing can
i apologize to you
okay
and i know carl probably
are you through are you finished are you
through i apologize horse are you done
thank you sir uh
something we discussed at the last
meeting i brought up or
in the meeting uh is something i need to
i need to make a motion to do this as a
designation for the amphitheater or the
music pavilion there at uh cleveland
park and since carl's related
uh he felt i guess feeling a little bit
uncomfortable doing this before he's
making the motion i don't blame him but
i want to designate and name that the
rabbit ridge pea pickers music pavilion
and
look to see about getting a sign put up
down there
at the facility
and actually invite the members that's
still living maybe at our next meeting
to be able to give an
update or a
concert maybe okay jennifer is that
within your town limits
that's the county right is it
she said
yeah this is over in the corner in the
county probably okay
they're about 16 feet over from third
base it kind of splits down through
there towards your left center
yes
all right steve ii
all right any other discussion
all those in favor
anyone opposed
i have to abstain on that
luanne you have anything
no madam chair thank you
carl no madam chair
all right i i don't have anything the
only thing is i need a uh motion to
reconvene on may the 19th ab that's a
wednesday at five o'clock
david and steve ii all in favor