great
good afternoon everyone
i'd like to welcome you to the russell
county board of supervisors september
the 7th 2021 russell county conference
center 6 pm
i'd like to first start off with a call
of order and roll call
tim lovelace
glenn wallace here
carl ray here
david here
steve brady here
horse christian hey
rebecca died
here
ma'am you have a quora thank you
all right we will have our invocation
now
our
person come forward and then we'll
remain standing for the pledge please
gather potential
[Music]
is let us pray
father god lord we love you we thank you
we praise you today father father we
thank you for the beautiful weather that
you've given us and we thank you for the
ability to be able to come out and
represent our county in this way father
father we ask you to be with us during
these decisions that are about to be
made tonight father and father please
remember gavin father that
you may he may have a touch from you
father and father be with all the
sickness and all the death that's in
this community and help us grow and
become better people for you father for
attending your name i pray amen
uh
all right i'll
take a motion please we do need to
amend our agenda
our legal counsel has asked us to
add
an executive session
under her
reports and request number two so i'll
accept the motion to amend the agenda to
add this
see do we have a second
second
is that
carl okay
and it is
2.2 2.2-37 11
a
h for legal counsel so steve
can you have them
all those in favor of amending this
agenda for this
okay
alonso
we'll read what it is or when
all right the first uh
right now we have our recognitions
the first we have is our lebanon high
school
2021 virginia high school league group
2a baseball team state champions do we
have any of our baseball
players
or the coach here tonight
i believe miss jesse said some would be
attended
all right saying none we'll hold their
plaque
the next one is our
virginia high school 2021 virginia high
school league varsity
softball team
and that was our girls
and our coach is mr dennis cross
all right so none
our third recognition is our stream
sweepers it is the clinch river project
and miss maddie gordon was
uh
in charge of this do we have our stream
sweepers if you'll step forward please
and this is
stream sweepers clinch river 2021
project in recognition of service and
dedication to the waterways in russell
county
1095 tires removed and lonzo will you
please show
what hard work these children via these
ladies and
i cannot believe
what all thank god
[Music]
shallower
[Music]
oh
[Music]
i cannot believe
all of that that they pull that that was
this
okay please yes
yeah
i sure will thank you thank you we will
no
[Music]
i just want to thank you guys for having
us out tonight um
so over the last three years we have
been on a 60-mile stretch
spanning all the way from
cleveland all the way down to lazard
the start of scott county
over the last three years we have
removed
three thousand
three hundred and ten tires and
thirty eight thousand eight hundred
eighty pounds of trash
that includes tires that are
five foot tall
almost two foot you know
with
engine blocks
you know anything you can imagine mac
computers is just
it's been a great experience with all
these young men and women to
be able to help our community and
bring back the
just the natural
essence of
one of the main things that bring all
these visitors into uh st paul and i
it's one thing i never get tired of
so thank you guys for that
thank you
we do appreciate it that was lots of
hard work
all right
the next thing we will open the floor
for our public hearing on the
alternative public educational program
school choice
if you will state your name and your
address please
and there's three minutes so anyone that
wants to speak you'll step forward
good evening
again pastor james nunley cedar point
baptist church here in lebanon virginia
i've lived here now quite a few years in
russell county i do first want to thank
you for having a public hearing for
agreeing to a public hearing
on this matter
as a parent with children in a private
christian school here in russell county
i do understand the sacrifice
i have for nine years
been willing to to make that sacrifice
to ensure that for my children
however in this opportunity
i do believe that support for all
citizens
choice would surely benefit all
i say that because we as as russell
county residents all
pay taxes and our taxes go
to fund exactly the things you all talk
about
week in week out but specifically for
our school system i have no problem
i'm helping to fund our public school
system i get that but i do believe that
there are alternatives that could be
searched out to benefit the whole of the
county
without harming our public school system
our teachers
i support them a hundred percent um i
understand they're under
uh a lot currently um but
as i say that also
because i know the narrative can easily
change to well you want to take jobs
away from the russell county schools
absolutely not
i believe wholeheartedly that choice in
some form of financial backing for those
of us who make a choice different than
public school can be done in a way that
would grow
this county for a positive i've seen it
in my life personally with my children
i've seen it in our school as a whole
and i believe that that it can be done
i do believe that the step can happen if
you're willing to put the effort in
if you are willing to go to the table
open-minded together
and iron those things out i believe
there are avenues but you're going to
have to exhaust those avenues
to make sure that it is available
for us um
i must say i'm pretty disappointed um
that three months ago
there was an agreement
that there would be a committee form
and that there would be representatives
chosen
to voice to come together to discuss
this and i'm pretty disappointed that it
had to come to public hearing
um
a matter of fact i feel pretty let down
as a as a county resident that our
supervisors didn't seem to care enough
about that for those of us who voiced
that concern
to appoint somebody on their behalf to
have that discussion
but i am thankful that you gave this
public hearing comment
section in time but
please consider actually coming to the
table and working for the best interest
of the whole community not one
individual
i would greatly appreciate that as a
parent with children in a private
christian school and on behalf of the
school thank you so much
all right
anyone else
next
another citizen
good afternoon my name is larry hughes
i'll do a 30-grade hall of jobs for
and i don't want to thank you for the
opportunity to speak to you about the
school i didn't plan on talking tonight
but i think i should
uh i graduated from girls county schools
all the schools and i was happy with it
and i was happy with it for my children
but when my grandchildren come along
around about five or six years ago i'm
not getting reason to file but we pull
with them out
and at first when they pull them out i
feel it put most of the expenses for it
because my daughter's son at that point
some law just didn't quite have the
funds to do it but i helped
it is expensive and i think the county
needs to give an alternative for other
students for the kids not because we
think the schools was bad just that it
was a right fit for our kids and i would
like to see you do that if the school
system my understanding for the past
five six seven eight years i mean has
had a surplus of monies that they have
given back to the county and we i think
you should consider
using those funds as an alternative way
providing some funding for these schools
i mean that's that that's public
knowledge that was that was mentioned in
the meetings so if monies are coming
back and there was a question this year
about retaining some because they
thought there was more than it's needed
so we i'm asking you to provide for the
parents
of these children if the ones that needs
alternative education let's give them
that opportunity i still believe in the
public school system and i hope we can
we can pull it out but i do have
concerns with some of the things that
happens i thank you
[Applause]
anyone else
um nathan kaiser uh green valley road 11
virginia um
i have with me uh the same petition uh
with some more signatures i brought to
you
three months ago
we've had 671 people sign in person and
423 online
um that's a total of 1094 signatures
in support
of school choice options for russell
county giving real school choice options
uh not as we've heard that virginia is a
school choice state
but actually putting some financial
backing behind that to help parents
and children
access
alternatives to public education
many many people in our community and
it's evident by this this petition
feel the need and see the need
for the board and for our government to
look at alternatives to public education
that public education is not serving our
children uh and our parents needs it's
not aligning with our values
and we simply ask for that option
because right now essentially by by
denying that you're essentially
financially holding
these children and these adults as
parents
hostage to
the public education system
for many people in this area are not
financially able to afford private
education or
christian education or homeschooling and
this is something we're talking about
for everyone
so if we can take that first step now i
know this is not this is not i'm not
trying to sell this as a point that uh
that will blanket the entire problem
but it is one step in the right
direction
and uh one of the candidates for
governor glenn yunken wants to pursue
school choice
uh hopefully our next president will see
that as a as a item someone told me
today that i heard on fox news there are
actually democrats talking about funding
school choice
so this is a real movement that we could
see take place
and if we can start a movement here in
russell county to make that first step i
really do think that is something that
we can see take off across the state
across the nation
and there's other states doing these
things there are
and we've got an opportunity here
you want to put russell county on the
map
this is a great way to do it you want to
talk about amenities
this is a great way to do it i mean
education is one of the main things when
companies
and individuals look to move to a
community
if russell county offers something that
no one else offers
that makes a difference
when someone's looking at it
so please keep that in mind
i hope that you all will uh will finish
by
nominating your your members for for the
committee i hope they're members that
are uh
focused on finding a solution not
stalling the process
so thank you
thank you
[Applause]
is there anyone else that wants to speak
anybody else that wants to speak
yes i'm monica martin i'm from brick
church circle castlefood
and i do have a son that started in the
public school system at copper creek
i was beyond pleased with my son's
education at copper creek he's one of
the best in the county
and he started his first grade at
castlewood elementary and it just
the education there was not what i
wanted for my son he didn't
he wasn't learning at the pace that i
felt like he should so i moved him from
there to the learning center
and i know that public funding for
schools is essential and i feel like and
there's some areas that could use some
more funding and maybe some schools that
could use some more funding but also
since i work and i pay taxes in the
county i would like to see a percentage
of my taxes
go to the school of my choice
to help my son
while also helping fund public schools
also because i know that not every
family in this county can afford the
tuition
to a private school even if it's just a
thousand dollars a year i mean that's
cheap
when you think of private school in
general that's cheap but that's just way
beyond the means for a lot of people and
just part of that tax money helping to
offset that cost
could make a big difference
to our children here in the county
that maybe public school isn't really
no the best option my son gets a lot
more individual attention
in the smaller classes
at the learning center than what he did
at the public school and it's been a
it's been a major blessing to me
and to my son especially this year i
mean it's been a massive difference
so that's just my two thoughts having an
actual son in the school system
thank you thank you
[Applause]
anyone else
okay anybody else
michelle vance uh willis springs drive
i wasn't gonna get up here but
i have a big mouth
um
i pretty much lost all my faith in the
board of supervisors here in russell
county uh over the past few years
uh
you know there's an issue when
a lot of people who live along
the county line between wise and russell
county
choose to send their children
to wise county schools
that's an issue
why aren't they not going to ross county
schools
i mean i know of a lot of them are in
your district
they're going to wise county schools
that should be an issue for you
it's you know there's there's kids that
are going to home school now which is a
hardship when i know it puts a hardship
on my family
because my son and my daughter-in-law
have decided to homeschool their
children
so now it's going to take four of us to
homeschool homeschool these kids
that's four kids that should be going
to russell county public schools
that's my tax money that's my children's
tax money my husband's tax money that's
a lot of tax money coming out there
and
it's it
like i said i'm not sure what good this
is going to do with you all
because i haven't seen much of anything
especially in the past year and a half
but someone uh recently told me
something about george washington
and
maybe this will help you a little bit
since you're our local leaders
george washington
once said
leaders walk
the talk
[Applause]
any other folks
jimmy hobbs castlewood
i just wanted to add to what she said
about the numbers i've actually got the
actual number it's 213 students from
russell county that's actually going to
last count that's a huge number so i
just wanted to add to that
[Applause]
i am matthew cashti um i
live in green valley
i'd like to a few words i'd like to say
and add to nate's point
put russell county on the map
a lot of areas around here are doing
economic tourism but looking at from a
regional perspective you know from
another place that's just going to blur
together you want to put a russell kind
of a map
you want to
get
something unique to the region
and that would help
bring in like education
educate and with education
it would of course be more jobs you
bring more people to the area
and
it's really fulfilling a need
that
there's a want
and you're feeling a need by
bringing in education and not only just
you know more people educated
but also more
jobs
and with the education brings more
high-paying jobs more high-tech jobs and
it kind of feeds back on itself
bringing in more people more jobs higher
tech jobs like up here at um cgi and
norfolk drummond you would bring in more
people that would be a
education it doesn't have to just be
christian schools either
it could be you know just alternative
education
um you know
private school any kind of private
schooling and specialized schools
and things like that and really that's
all i wanted to add i didn't really plan
to get up to speed
[Applause]
my name is sean vance um i'm agree with
very much everything they said
um
i hate to say it but when
after 30 days y'all couldn't some of
yous i will say some of you could not
pick somebody to be on this board i take
it as an insult
i mean do you think
you guys can push us that hard
in my opinion i would tell everybody to
pull their kids out of school
and destroy
brussels county school system
when you all start losing jobs and
buildings are closing then you'll pay
attention
dr donnar zampona 845 green valley road
lebanon virginia i am the pastor at
green valley baptist church
and i do not have any children in the
school system
but i am a pastor who cares for his
sheep and cares for the
children of our community
there used to be a day and a time when
people gave their word that they honored
their word
at the june meeting you gave us your
word that each one of you would
pick a delegate
and you would sit down
and we would discuss the issue
we left the meeting with hope
here we are almost
two months later
and it was my understanding that some of
you
either are backing
backing up on your word
or you're unwilling to honor your word
that's an insult to the community to the
taxpayers
to those who are trying to work with you
we came to that meeting to encourage you
to stand up for what is right
to stand for the values of god's word
to be courageous enough
in your position
and we all let you know we were willing
to work with you
you gave us your word
and i'm here tonight to encourage you to
honor your word
you do what you said you would do
no more no less that's all we're asking
but each one of you gave us your word
that you would choose a delegate and you
would sit down and you would discuss
the opportunity and the alternatives for
school choice
what's the problem
why are you not willing to do that
i think it's a fair question
all we're asking is for you to honor
your word to us community
thank you
[Applause]
else
i might die hornaker
of harmony community church
and uh we've got about 40 kids in our
church probably from high school down
and it is amazing how many of the moms
and dads are talking about would love
to homeschool their kid put their kid in
a christian school
and some of the
the comments is is about the funding
and uh i mean it's it's actually a
no-brainer to me i mean
uh the taxpayers pay the money in
and if the kid's not going to school
wherever hit ghost let the money follow
the kid
um i've talked to some of you on the
phone
and uh there's there's at least three of
you that pretty well said just up front
absolutely i'm for this i will back this
school choice
uh one of you said that
if it's nothing against the law and
ain't nothing you can do get in trouble
for doing this that you'd be willing
that's that's four
that's all you need
right four to three is is is all you
need
uh i i do have one concern on this on
the voting
uh i've mentioned this to some of my
representatives i don't really
understand this i have training every
year on my job for ethics
and conflict of interest
and i really don't understand how
uh that a board of supervisor
uh could be an employee of the school
system
at the
at the central office and
be able to vote on anything
that deals with the school without being
a conflict of interest
i mean how could you vote how could you
vote on a budget how could you vote i
mean if if it comes down to voting on
the central office getting to raise or
the school teachers who do you think
they're going to vote for i mean if it's
got to be a conflict of interest and
that's something i've mentioned to
someone to my representative
and he said that's a good question for
you to ask and i said you're my rep you
should ask you should find out
and and i said even if i do come to this
meeting and ask i'm not going to get the
answer because this is not a question
and answer and it's nothing it's nothing
against that board of supervisors it's
just the simple fact as uh if if the
county decided they wanted to store some
stuff in in storage buildings
it would be total conflict of interest
for one of our board of supervisors to
vote on storing that in his in his
storage buildings and so uh this this is
something we need to look at that that's
conflict of interest when it comes time
to vote on this uh but of the ones i've
talked to there's four that's willing to
do this that's first school choice
that's willingly despondent
they ain't nothing to keep you from
doing that
so i think the money i'll follow the kid
i have no kids i have no grandkids but i
i'm i'm here i'm here to fight for those
kids that hey if this kid goes to the
learning center that money should follow
that kid if that kid goes uh
homeschooling that money ought to follow
that kid and so uh i appreciate the time
to be able to speak to be able to say
this
[Applause]
good evening
michael carley live in
virginia i have
two children in russell county schools
one private
one public
and that's based
on decisions
me and my wife made
based on what was best for each child
i've got medical documentation i can
show you
where the one's better off in public the
other is better off in private
why don't you leave that decision to us
and help us out those that have
no choice but to send children to
private school
i'm asking for your help
i've worked i've crawled around the mud
holes for him tax dollars
won't you let me spend it on my child
thank you
[Applause]
anyone else
first let me apologize for being late
and i don't know exactly what's been
said but got held up by peanut
lion draw nowhere on the road
but uh
i'm lynn hess from swords creek 137 open
road
and with the situation that we have in
today's public education i think that's
the reason our country is in the shape
that it's in
not only in the elementary schools the
high schools but our colleges also and i
think paranoia have choice before they
send their kid for their education
they'll be able to get education
with their tax dollars on the
price the basics of their
religion or their beliefs however it is
that they want to go on
and what we're getting in public school
is indoctrination a lot of it is
we've got teachers that's
i just read the other day about a
teacher that spent a whole day their
first whole day
in public school
of cover nothing but what she believes
in in politics she's supposed to be an
english teacher
waste money
if my st if our students knows what your
politics is as a teacher you're not
doing your job
and that's that's just it that's the
bottom line they ought to be teaching
math arithmetic and so on and if that
child wants if our parents wants to put
our kids
into private schools they should be
allowed to put them in private schools
with their tax dollars paying for that
and that way that we can have children
that come up it's got good moral values
and it's got a good education for their
situation not everybody's situation is
the same
a lot of classrooms are overcrowded
maybe that kid needs a little bit extra
attention
it needs to be sent somewhere they
didn't get some extra attention my son
did he had to go to private school for
two years
because he had an aneurism on his brain
put him behind he slowed down he
couldn't keep up cost me a lot of money
but he caught back up and got was able
to re-enter the public school for his
last two years of school
there are situations out here that we
really need this tax money to be able to
be used by the parents in a manner that
they need to use it
i appreciate your time
[Applause]
anybody else
all right seeing then we'll close our
public hearings on the school choice
all right the next thing we're going to
move on to is the approval of our
minutes
from our august 2nd
14th do i have a motion to approve the
minutes that's written i'm sure i'll
make a motion to prove minutes but i
didn't find one
thing
i pointed out
one member
[Applause]
so correction will be made all right do
we have a second to this second blue
thank you all those in favor
and you want to pose for abstain
the uh next thing on the agenda is the
approval of our expenditures do we have
a motion to
approve the expenses being paid
i'll make a motion for that
to approve those but i
have a question
okay
do we have a second with this
[Music]
tim all right steve discussion
uh
we had a fairly substantial
i can find it here for tree removal
service
you know what i'm talking about
it's like
i just wondered what that was maybe it's
locked was it lawson
yeah lawson tree served 6200.
yes sir
uh that was clearing off the uh hamelin
site the trash site we had we had to
clear the hole right away for vdots to
get the side distance along the railroad
we had to work with railroad
yes sir
yes yes
any other discussion
all right all those in favor
paying our expenses
uh
anyone hosting or staying
all right the next one is our committee
appointments for the uh
school advisory ad hoc committee
and i believe um
steve you've made your appointment david
carl so
we'll start orris
do you have an appointment for this
county advisory school
ad hoc community i have chosen myself
all right
all right of course
um i am putting um ms brandy hurley on
as my representative
lou
uh donna ratliff
oh paul you've got one team
all right
brandi hurley
she is in the
law school and she has children in
the uh
town she's got kids
all right um
the next is our uh board appointment uh
that i will uh ascertain a
motion that we uh
table these until we have a
um
i guess a workshop
to clarify some of this to ask katie's
opinion
on
some of these what we really need to do
with these
so and in the thing it's a safe time
because we did have an extra we do have
to have a closed session tonight so i'll
ascertain a
motion to table these
these rest of these
committee appointments until our next
meeting we will have a workshop with it
ma'am chair uh i will go ahead and make
that motion for discussion purposes
okay
do we have a second with this
all right discussion
[Music]
um i i just had some um kind of
heartburn over how
mr breeding's
statements
were put in there now i know we all
agreed on this and yes i don't have a
major problem with it but i think that
we need to discuss some of the wording
and i would really like to have
uh have some of the wording redone on
this and i think it's going to take too
long to hammer that out here so if we
could have a workshop to do that or
reconvene me that would be appreciated
actually lee are you talking about the
recommendation i made the email
and i i think it
i i think it is merit has merit and i
i'm i'm not saying that i disagree with
anything on there some of them i didn't
see anybody else making any
recommendations so i just we've got to
get this done we can't keep putting it
off but
i agree with that
some
agreement on how we're going to do this
and this is the only way that i can say
once it works itself out and we're down
to appointment for supervisor we're fine
yeah
that i don't have a problem with the
problem that i have is the wording that
we had as how we get there
because it it sort of was like pitting
us against our our own county members or
something like that so i thought it
needed to have some of those words taken
out so if we could just talk about
taking it out of the motions
i'm not saying that's how we do i just
didn't see anybody else making any
recommendations so i
had to try to come up with something
okay so let's talk about all those that
for the motion of having a workshop to
work on the
recommendations on the committee
appointments so all those in favor of
blue's
uh motion
anyone opposed
all right and katie we will get with you
i know you're going on vacation so we'll
get back
we do this as quickly as possible yeah
we need to do that as yeah
we need to make these we need to make
these appointments next i agree well i'd
like to meet before the next four months
well we need to make
realized that we've already voted on
this but are we really lagging on some
of our board appointments these boards
are still functioning
and i do know that we asked last time if
any of our board members or chairs of
air boards would
have input in that
and i didn't see anything in my pack at
this time to tell me what those boards
if they're functioning okay because some
say they need x amount of people on
those and some say they don't so we
didn't get clarity on that either
so anyway thank you sorry
all right next we'll open the floor to
citizens
citizen's comments
[Music]
mr hughes do you want to speak again
again my name is larry hughes i live
with 30. a great hall job i'll just
mention the fact that i think
the monies
for the child
for the alternative education should go
with the child
i pay taxes
uh my children pay taxes
we get the benefits from it because we
chose not to send a school so we but we
should have the option to send them
where we choose to just thank you
i didn't sign the paper but i'd like to
speak if it's possible
my name's sean vance i live in big
moccasin
a little while ago when we were making
nominations but somebody explained to me
how orsk and christian can nominate
himself
i've heard him boast about i represent
this whole county he can't find one
person other than himself qualified
so i'd like to have an answer
i mean is that just legal
best case i'm gonna
you know i'd like to be president
nathan kaiser green valley road
um
thank you for for finalizing your
appointments board members um
i do have a question though as far as
and and maybe katie's person asked
what's the next steps
when do we set up the meetings and how
does that process work
because i don't want to be
tabling this thing
30 days
and tabling in another 30 days
and tabling i mean you're all we're four
or five months into these board
appointments
what's another 30 days right
so we we need to get the ball rolling on
these things
um
and i'd like to i'd like to know since i
am on that committee
uh what the next steps are
moving forward so that we can
do something
thank you
i agree with nate on what he just said
uh
my name is lynn hayes i'm trade because
i told you a while ago
about this committee i'm also appointed
to it we'd like to know the next steps
what we go to from here
uh another thing i have tonight is uh
the psa again
we are we've been looking at my bills i
had a lady from my church actually call
me and bring this to my attention
the psa is running over sometimes
uh three four five days a month reading
our bills it's not being being done on
30 days like it's supposed to be
so you know one month i might use more
water than i do the next month but when
those four days it might run me enough
to push me over into a higher fee
so i'd really appreciate
missed i believe you appointed yourself
and mr if mr eaton uh to look into the
psa and the board and the funds and what
was going on with them
i haven't seen anything i haven't heard
anything about what's come out of that
yet
but this is something else i'd like for
you to add to your list to see about we
can get our meters read on time
so that it's not pushing us over into a
higher amount of water that's being used
and pushes us into another
bracket of paying more money instead and
hope we should have to
appreciate it
shall vance well this spring
just got up here a few minutes ago
guess we're still talking and we're not
walking yet
okay miss katie
your first one the project jonah enter
jurisdictional agreement
yes madam chair um
this is an agreement that tazewell
county has asked us to enter into um
relating to the project jonah um to
really to enter into an
inter-jurisdictional agreement though
i've looked and you have to do it by
ordinance so um we will need to
advertise this for two weeks and take it
up the october meeting i've already
reached out to eric and i think there's
some changes he would like to
potentially put in the agreement and
there's some changes alonzo and i would
like to make but basically what the
purpose of this agreement is to allow
our building official and they're
building official to have authority to
make official decisions when they're in
our county where this project's going to
be in both counties so
um at this point we just need to
advertise it and then it will be for the
board's consideration as passing an
ordinance at the october meeting
and with that our building inspector is
here so if you come forward and talk
about
the project jonah what we have and what
we need to do with this
[Music]
over the last month and a half or
two months however i go once a week and
just check because three bees doing the
uh inspections and all that and putting
the sweat papers in that mailbox and i
looked at them
now sent lines oh some pictures uh
project's going along good i mean
they're
getting the latest spillway in
all the ripraps in
uh
now that
that's the van and the other
muddy road was actually a great rain we
had last week so
couldn't get up that way but
i'm just here to answer any questions
you have about the progress of the
that i saw about the project
you feel comfortable i guess working
side to side with fast county building
inspectors haven't talked to him
but that's fine i do what's on the russo
county side
uh i took the picture today i sent the
lonzo we didn't have time to get it in
there's water towers up there
and approximately a little over halfway
the building pad they're trying to get
going
all that on that side now for us okay
will you introduce and uh
oh they're still bringing the building
pad down they still got 25 feet to go
down through this rock before they get
down to
where they're thinking the building pad
should be
[Music]
and he said he's only got two more
couple weeks three weeks at the most
if they don't give him something else to
do he said they're gonna have to leave
he's only got a couple three weeks of
digging through this rock they're
wanting him to bring it down that
to a baseline that's still 25 feet above
where they wanted to be
right just add on what
vicky said on on the status updated
project john we we met
with all three counties which is a
three-county project which is russell
buchanan and tassel county is is this is
a joint project
um we also
met with representative from aqua maya
which is this is their project uh during
the conversations uh
to speed along what
progress they're doing and explain what
mickey did right now without the
jurisdiction agreement he has his tassel
county has their own engineers and doing
the inspection and services on their
side we're we're certified on our side
so we can as long as we watch the line
it hasn't got to the point of where we
need a joint across
the county line yet because the building
has not started and
on august the 17th when we met with them
they didn't have a schedule to uh for
the first building to be located in the
square footage well they're bringing
down 25 feet more in elevation and
they're going to have to let it sit and
i'm repeating only what they say
over the winter to be able to you know
to get compaction on it so that's what
they're looking at
[Music]
so apparently it's not too hard wrong
it's it's
yeah if wait a minute the uh you did
yeah so they're having a blast
well let's see uh let's see
i was being shocked
it's a lot of rock it's enough where
they have their quarry on site they have
a rock crusher on site
and they use the they're using the rock
and the base on the stones and the roads
and the basins to be able to you know
decues watching the other side on the
storm water management we have the ens
this is progressing forward but they're
not at the building side 25 feet in
elevation over that much acreage it's
going to it's going to take about two
minutes how big is it
how many acres
just yeah just the acreage alone i can
only speak on what they have told us
it's it's at 850 000 square feet
so that's that's going to take some time
to
get down to at that elevation
it didn't miss anything mickey no it's
like i said he said they got
they've been told
to
bring it down to where they're at now
and smooth it out that they don't know
when the next timetable is to do
anything
all right they're bringing in an
entrance off of 19 also
they're in the middle like up up that
road this is they're in the middle
part this side they've never even put in
any sediment basins or anything
and on the other side forward arrowhead
subdivision they're not doing anything
it's right in the middle
about where the building pad goes
but right now we're keeping 3b as the
engineering
company that's over it and of course
they're responsible for the e and s and
the stormwater along with deq and each
county
everything is going with their schedule
we're there when they're there so it's
progressing a lot
now 3b said uh
andrew died andrew diaz he said when if
they go to that grade and stop and leave
he'd be going to grundy to do something
because they'll
uh temporarily stabilize everything you
got
and i'm not being
congo set of buildings uh plans
electrical plumbing i can't get across
but we don't know what they're gonna do
only about another man
i was pulling up those pictures before
right mr lester was pulling him up the
muddy road right there is that does that
have dns controls on that
nothing
i just have on the side
all that stuff
[Laughter]
you're still on tap
but no nothing's there
but you got this big
channel
over near that van that the roads just
to the right of it that's coming out of
the press
we're continuously talking to our vdot
dq continuously
uh to discuss legal matters
section
2.2-3711 ab
legal
discussions
excuse me do we have a second
second
all those in paper uh-huh
i mean the motion's already been voted
so yeah the motion's already passed
i don't think it's going to be really
long but
i think
people would like to know
well i just i can't estimate exactly but
[Music]
you know
is it working
you're good
yeah okay i'll accept the motion to come
out of executive session
see thank you
hey
this certification in closed session
yes
pursuant to subsection 2.2 37 12
d
of the code of virginia 1950 has amended
each member of the board of supervisors
upon wrote cost certifies that to the
best of their knowledge only public
business matters lawfully exempted from
the open medium requirements under the
virginia freedom of information act and
only 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 supervisors
any member of the board's advisors who
believes that there was a departure from
the pharmacy
shall stay so prior to the vote
indicating the substance of the
departure that is
her judgment has taken place are there
any supervisors who believe a departure
has taken place
seeing them since you agreed 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
glenn wallace yes
carl ray yes
steve brady yes
david yes
first christian
and rebecca
yes
ma'am you have approval term regular
session
all right the
next thing that we have on our agenda is
uh from our county administrator reports
you madam chair
first up on the county ministry reports
is uh the russell county sanitary
landfill our leche storage operation
tanks
we had came to the board
previously and
we had
currently we're running our
landfill hey operations we to the dane
sewer treatment plant this will be the
second phase of what we're implementing
up there with uh
difficulty here a little bit
one second
that we're looking at for
the solid waste for uh delicious that at
the russell county uh landfill
we
are proposing or in working with our
engineers driver addison and also
department of environmental quality
we're trying to
increase the efficiency of these
operations currently we have
tanks that are setting in ground that
are con are catching earl hay as you can
see in the map here
existing legend tanks that are 5 000
gallons each what we are proposing we
also have them on the backside of the
facility of the landfill
that will be pumping into these and then
right now we have uh purchased
containers four thousand gallons
additional to where we can use up to
twenty more thousand gallons of
storage at a time plus the ground
storage also this will give us the
capability to continue with one truck
and run legend operations as needed
it also does another thing for from
alleged a environmental perspective it
also dilutes it it any concentrations
that we got it mixes in with the regular
groundwater and the other environmental
contaminants so
this is the phase two
this and this will also increase our
cost efficiency on processing at the
dang sewer treatment plant
so right now just with us treating and
we have been treating like we have
proposed to the board of supervisors for
the last few months
department environmental quality eq has
been monitoring this
we are meeting or exceeding our leche
cost per cost per gallon treatment
so and in an environmental way so i
wanted to give
the board supervisors a report
on how we're proceeding on this this is
phase two we'll have another phase three
that we are looking at with the
department of environmental quality and
also department of mine and mineral
energy
on the back side of
the landfill we're looking at maybe
excavating out one of those temporary
sites and closing down because right now
we are
we're
we're getting about 250 to 300 000
gallons of groundwater that's coming in
that we don't need to be treating the eq
and mme things that we can you know
excavate that out and shut that
operation down
and then only have the back two tanks
pumped in into the pond with the
additional twenty thousand gallons in
containment and processed that the damp
sewer treatment plant
so
that's a report on that
next on the county administrator reports
is
vdot
virginia department transportation
again this is the update on route 615
back valley slide
of course the second one as you all have
seen in your notes is the pure salmon
project on what we're working on
also the
the welcome center uh or right now it's
called the three rivers destination
center down in saint paul
and of course the maintenance activities
that's going through the county again
tombs hollow the rural rustic on the
drainage solution
and thomas warner the real rustic
project and they also mentioned on route
663 on rocky fork hollow
that on those construction projects that
is an update
next on county administrative reports is
a
letter from the authors of public
accounts concerning our uh
court system this is a naughty from
april the 1st 2020 through march 31st
2021.
this is nodded of their uh
their cash disbursements their internal
operations their accuracy of major
manchester's responsibility for internal
controls and financial reporting to the
auditors of public accounts of course
as always the
uh
the clerk's office you know was within
uh
the uh was was always was in compliance
with the
state of virginia the code of virginia
next is the county administrator request
this is a request on vdot route 637
discontinued bridge and prescriptive
easement on right away
this was actually a public hearing that
was before the last board meeting and
one of the things that vdot was wanting
to ensure that
not only were there public comments here
but there was no public comments later
to them
and as you all can see
this is an easement that
was done in
1975
and the bridge has been discontinued the
road has been discontinued
and one of the things that we're going
to have to do the green that here
is what they want to discontinue there
is currently a bridge that's going
through an easement down there that's
being utilized that we need to close off
uh it's it's kind of a hazard it's a
traveling hazard
it uh so we're looking i need a motion
for
the uh
the uh discontinued with the bridge and
prescriptive easement on the right of
way on route 637
i'm 637 yes
you made that motion
you need a second
second blue
all those in favor
[Applause]
[Music]
thank you madam chair
the next on the county ministry report
is the rosa county ide
afid grant for project brown
this is uh
this is an amount of afid grant for
project brown and amount of three
hundred thousand dollars it also
includes virginia jobs investment
program the jip
58 400
this is
for the incentive
on project brown which is the bush
building
i need a motion for approval on project
brown
sec
state any discussion
uh yes i'd like to know uh
now
are we
are we going to be morally obligated for
this
because nothing is i mean
i'm not trying to
put anything out there but i'm just
curious because we've had some other
monies that we've not been able to use
clawbacks does anybody uh mr lester do
you have anything that we can
hang our hat on that we might get back
on this
if i may uh or um is that okay
thank you um i did review the agreement
and basically what it is is they do not
get any funds until
they complete performance and they have
to submit annual reports and basically
they have to satisfy not only the
authority which would be the idea the
locality and
vdag that they have met those benchmarks
and there's actually three ways they can
get the money and they can have fully
have submitted verification that they
fully performed um all of the
um
the three things that they were required
to the capital investment the the
maintaining a certain number of jobs
and
and purchase of
the
those materials um and so if they
perform all of that then they um submit
documentation to us and we make that
formal request within 30 days for vdag
to give us the money and so they get the
money at that point and if they
substantially perform if they've
performed 90 percent of all three of
those
all three of those requirements they can
also be eligible for that 300 000 amount
but they have to provide that
documentation to us first that they have
complied with that then there's also
a partial performance where
they can submit
basically it states if they if they
perform 75
by the performance date
of each category or say they do 60 of
one and 75 of the other then they get 60
it's it's broken down it's a hundred
thousand dollars for each and so they
would get whatever percentage that they
have completed once we make that
verification so there's no money um
that's given to them that would ever
have to be clawed back they only get the
money that they when they reach those
certain benchmarks
yes thank you
now you're going to have to spend their
money up front first
before it is allocated
yes and there's a section in there on
what they have to provide
to the locality they have to provide an
annual report so that you can determine
if they are meeting the jobs
requirements the capital investment and
also the purchase of materials and also
we're not even the ones completely
overseeing the money we make the request
to be dag and they have to approve based
on what we submit to them so
so what iba submits to be that
yeah it'll be the it'll be the report
that they create but it's not even it's
going to be sufficient to us as the
locality first and then it goes on up
and then they disperse the money so so
no money is disbursed until and and they
retain the money until those benchmarks
are met so it would it wouldn't be a
situation where they get the money up
front and then you have to claw back if
they don't meet their
benchmarks
let me let me pull it back up i was just
looking at it
i think it says the locality it is
see that by the performance
as verified by the locality vdac in the
company has achieved at least 90 percent
of the targets the company is eligible
for the 400 300 afid grant work locality
and so it's
so it says by execution and delivery of
this agreement the locality requests
that the ap grant shall
shall retain with vdx until dispersed
and the disbursements of the aphid grant
proceeds to the company via the locality
and the authority will serve as an
inducement so i mean they have to
they have to provide us proof that
they've met that and then we make the
request on their behalf so they're
approved of the grant but it flows
through us but they don't they don't get
the money up front and then we have to
go back and oh you didn't perform you
won't they only get what they
what they do so they have to fully
perform to get that they have to either
fully perform or at least 90 percent
perform all three categories to get that
full three hundred thousand dollars okay
and this is grant's this is brett is is
very specific i'm assuming so it could
be materials vault or
i couldn't i just couldn't find that in
there
does anybody know
is it salaries you can't get yes
cdf a grand is to be allocated to a
hundred thousand three three percent of
the company which is capital investment
hundred thousand new job targets and a
hundred thousand for purchase of
virginia grown agricultural products so
it's clear three ways
that's what you're asking yes so if it
goes for salaries
that that's fine
100 000 it split into new job targets
100 000 for the purchase of agriculture
and forestry projects
and 33 for capital investment
each a third
i guess the question that you're asking
who who does the determination
of eligibility and targets is it the ida
or the board of supervisors is that the
question
and they have been watching other
projects that we have found ourselves in
lost money and i don't want to see that
again
that disturbs me greatly
so i don't i don't know how we leave
that but okay
well it says that demonstrates to the
satisfaction of the locality the
authority and vdx that they've made that
so i mean that's i think i was trying to
say that earlier maybe i'm sorry i
didn't say that clearly they have to
prove to each one of those that they
have met that benchmark before
the recruit the request will even be
made but so so we will make a
determination initially and then submit
documentation for that but vdag has to
approve it too so i mean there's
basically three checks in that chain to
make sure that they've met whatever that
particular benchmark is you're
comfortable
well i mean there's no club there's no
claw back there would be no need to claw
back it's a grant and they only get the
money if they do what this agreement
what's in this agreement what they say
they'll do
so as a capital investment is 3.78
million dollars that would be verified
through our tax department commissioner
revenue and assessment of machining tool
that would have to be assessed and
verified by on our side as far as the
real estate and the capital investment
right
all right you've had a first a second in
discussion you need anyone else any
discussion
any other word
all right all those in favor of this uh
abid grant to this project all in favor
anyone opposed
thank you manager
next on the account of ministry reports
is
is the virginia virginia supreme court
virginia drug treatment court doc doc
grant this is for 90 000
um
this is to advise that your the grant is
for the
award in the statement of grant for
special conditions to indicate
acceptance awards this is a quarterly
grant that's given through the
drug the adult drug court treatment for
90 dollars i need a motion for
acceptance for appropriation so
we have second second move all right
any discussion
all those in favor
and this is all fed you know all grant
no no match
next on the county ministry reports in
request is
um
the three reavers destination center
this is a
uh
rfq for professional consulting services
this is for the three rivers destination
center
for a
assessment on the site on conduct a
phase ii environmental site assessment
on the esa for the three rivers
destination project it also has
the conditions for redevelopment
planning and conceptual drawings for
this site and any other brownsville
related duties
this
rfq which is on the street which will
close out
on september the 10th on friday at 3 p.m
it is
concerning these scope of services and
it is also funded by the
vbaf grant virginia brownsfield
fund so this is 100
funded grant uh assessment also i need a
motion for approval
for the uh rfq
so move metal chair
do we have second
then any discussion
all those in paper
[Music]
and another good thing i'm here at the
virginia department of criminal justice
grant this is for 70 000
again this is all grant money no match
from department of criminal justice for
70 000
uh this will be used in uh the
conditions of the victim and witness
assistance program i need a motion for
appropriation for seventy thousand
dollars thank you
you have a second sec
any discussion
all those in favor
[Music]
the last item on the uh county minister
request is the russo county disposal
truck surplus this is one of our
disposal trucks that we have in our
program it is time to rotate them back
out
these are the trucks that we purchase
out on virginia state contract as
anybody that's bought used cars right
now we're
we're not losing much money on our
resales so
we will be taking these back down to
atlanta to have them resold and uh last
time we used a vehicle over
24
28 month period sorry 28th month period
and it cost us less than five thousand
dollars so that's not a bad turnaround
so i need a motion for approval for a
russ county disposal surplus
sec
any discussion
all those in favor uh
madam chair that can close account
ministry of reports and requests
all right
okay
uh
tim do you have any uh
i've had some complaints from some of my
folks
if mickey would look at those that's
already been reported that would be good
all right steve
yes ma'am
i'd like to uh
make a motion if we were chris an
attorney general's opinion as to the
county's authority
to issue a tax credit for alternative
education
and we need to ask one of our
representatives state representative
kerry of course
along with that i'd like to
ask the county administrator that he
contact
all of our
board members they've been finally
appointed tonight
and
make a room available for them your many
can meet it on their own you know when
you need to pick out a time when you all
want to meet
and it's up to you when you want to meet
we'll make the room available for you as
quick as you need okay
i'll see
fable once the ad hoc committee can
you'll meet lonzo will schedule it and
then with that within that group
they will decide when and where the time
and how many times they want to meet
it's up to their discretion and uh what
they what questions they want to present
and bring back to us
steve
did you want to direct me to work with
the representative too i just don't want
to exceed my authority
all right
any further discussion on this all right
all those in favor all right and you
want a post
[Music]
david yes i just have a couple things
one i'd like to offer my condolences
was mr lester he lost his father
uh passed away and
we're definitely in our prayers
and uh
we want to keep lonzo and his family in
our prayers his family were traveling in
uh we've lost his dad uh second i would
like to make a motion to get an estimate
and just an evaluation or an estimate on
trying to
utilize the technology that we currently
have in russell county
to look at getting electronic gates and
cameras at the transfer or the sites
trash sites that you have
i'm not saying this is the perfect
solution
to be able to keep them open
but it's something that i think we need
to take a hard look at
with the technology that we have we can
monitor the sites
and we can open the gates and close them
with a phone cell phone
uh this is something i proposed a couple
years ago and talked about it
all i want to do right now as far as
with my motions just get an estimate of
what it would cost
and to look
and have a discussion with brian and
some of our trash people
i know we need to man the sites but if
we're not going on man we're not going
to open we're going to have to look at
an alternative solution because it's
became ridiculous i mean people
through the holidays and everything else
i went by two sites and
it's beautiful and there's more trash on
the ground over the hill than they are
inside
i know this has been a very
controversial issue
we're living in 2021 we have all this
technology
i don't know why in the world you can
open the gate and give people access to
dumping in one canister and then when
the attendant arrives
monitor
those facilities and keep them clean but
i want to put that in the form of a
motion second
any further discussion i've i've had
complaints too about crash sites
and if there's if there's an issue about
changing out the kansas london to talk
to you about we need to put some signage
up here and explain
issues or whatever
but i'll say again we need to get demand
sites as soon as possible
we need to be working on that post taste
i know i've had complaints too people
called and said
uh
this site's supposed to be open it's 3
30 on saturday afternoon it's closed
well i mean we're going to do something
about this
i mean we talked about it we've been
doing it five years now and all we've
done is take the team down the road well
we're going to have something about it
with with with changing
legit we should be able to have enough
money to have some cost savings that we
can keep these
get to the man's sides first of all
let's get the man's sights everywhere
and do away with these little
sides stuck here and there
you know everybody's
mutually inconvenienced by the location
of the site there's one closest night
you can get to
maybe perhaps even during holidays
because i know
that's an issue
people are off during holidays they want
to get rid of it
it's
closed any further discussion
but all those in favor of getting messed
with on this
anyone
i have one more thing
uh some of the delegates uh i've been in
conversation with even up in eastern
virginia
have informed me that
southwest virginia is going to be
heavily penalized to cause consensus
they've actually asked what i
participate in while i told him i think
the full board would
of course participate in law soon
uh in regards to
uh the way that our current
state our governor and the way that
they're
doing we want to redraw the lines in the
redistricting now let me tell you
something
we're possibly could lose a senator and
a house deadly member and virginia beach
would add
somebody
now
we can either sit here and talk about it
or we can take a stand and do whatever
we gotta do call ring their phones off
the hook to make sure
that and i'd like to put this in a form
of motion to send a letter in regards to
the way that the senses
i know they didn't come to my house
and you know we filled out the form
online
but
we're possibly going to lose millions of
dollars
probably going to redraw the lines lose
seats and that's their hole
that's what they want to do
i mean that's everything that they want
to do and that's what they're behind is
to make sure they can continue to force
not only policies but now to try to take
you know these open seats away from us
so i would like to send a letter in
regards to
having the census redrawn redone
here in uh west county
secondary motion
we had what a 43
response rate
43 percent of our people respond
and that was probably once
we lost what over 2 000 people
you look around and tell me i mean we
lost really lost that many people i
don't think so i mean housing was hard
to find
i just i just think it was
people didn't respond and it was ill
times
we're going to take a beating on it if
we don't get it if we don't get it we
lose
okay
all those in favor
i want to uh mr doughty the mayor of
leopard is having a
hearing on a public hearing on gliding
running toward a downtown historical
lighting project for the cleveland road
and um just to state that he will be
having a public hearing monday september
the 13th at six o'clock
he just asked that we announced that it
will be going out of town toward
cleveland and i also would like to
say that we got a letter from kelly
mcbride with the library
thanking mr terry lowe and
alonzo for
sending out
help
when the back door of the public library
there was a drainage problem and all
that differential downpour we had last
week a week four
and
they went in and they helped clean up
and
she is just writing a letter to thank us
for our support in health
all right i guess that's all the next
thing is uh
i will take a motion to adjourn
now our next meeting will be
oh yes that's right correct i'm sorry
i'm glad you mentioned that we need to
reconvene
with our workshop on our uh
committee selection process
and peggy
you'll be back what is your schedule
we'll be back on the 20th
yes i have court all day that day though
okay
all right the 21st
is that good with the
folks on the 21st to
come back and do our um
workshop
okay
one first okay oh
madam chair what time were you thinking
were you thinking in the evening
i do have a psa meeting that night that
starts at 6. all right what if we did
three
or four
would that give you time to get back
yeah yes our meeting doesn't start until
six so it'll be here
four o'clock does that give everybody
time
21st on tuesday we'll work on the
uh our workshop to work on the comedian
okay
we shall reconvene
on september the 21st that's a tuesday
at four o'clock
is that do we have a motion for that
i'll make this one all right david
second
p.m all right
all those in favor aye
needing
yeah yeah
because we
it'll just be to work on that all right
thank y'all
[Music]