Good evening. Welcome to our June 4th, 2024 meeting of the Ashton Town Council. We usually start with a moment of silence and we'll do that this evening and we're getting into warmer weather and sometimes that plays when people's emotions or patients. And if you've been driving around ash on you may have been affected by a closing because of real work or you may have been affected by closing due to some film work or in my neighborhood you may have had an issue with work from Dominion Power telling you to find another path. But anyway, I think it's good for us to spend a little time and just consider our ability to be patient with one another through the hotter weather and take those moments when you have to sit and use it to contemplate other things rather than impatience. All right, please join the moment of silence. Thank you. Mr. Vice-Maria, would you lead us in the pledge? As you are able, please stand and join me in the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and review our agenda for tonight. We have our consent agenda, which includes minutes from our previous meeting. We have invoices, and then we have our proud month proclamation. And our vice mayor will read that after we get back to and vote on the consent agenda. We have our citizen input time opportunity for any individual to come forward, speak to council on a matter that isn't part of a public hearing. After citizen input, we do have a public hearing. Erosion and stormwater management code changes brought to us by Mr. Jennings. We have three action items. We have appointments, appointment to the planning commission, appointment to the board of zoning appeals. The second action is fiscal year 25 downtown national association memorandum of understanding. So Mr. Farrell will bring us that. second action is fiscal year 25 downtown Asheville Association memorandum of understanding. Mr. Ferrell will bring us that. And then we have fiscal year 25 budget resolution also from Mr. Ferrell. Discussion items. We have data center review concepts. This is to review in general data centers. Questions that we've had, and I'll say four thinking forward thinking about applications that could come, and what it isn't specific to any application that we do have. This is just general conversation. Second discussion item proposed, noise ordinance revision, brought to us by chief Aaron Holt, and then we'll have reports from council members, mayors report, public works report, again Mr. Jennings and town manager report, Mr. Farrah, do we have consensus for the agenda as presented? Yes, yes. All right, is there a motion concerning their consent agenda or any questions. And the consent agenda. Well, Mr. Mayor, I move to approve the consent agenda as presented and pay the bills. I second. Ms. Barnhart. I miss so Paul. I vice mayor Hodges. I, Dr. McGraw. I may your expect. I. All right. Thank y'all. All right. Mr. Vice Mayor, if you'd read the proclamation for us. Thank you, Ms. Mayor. Whereas the town of Ashland stands for the acceptance of all its residents, regardless of gender, gender, sexual orientation, age, beliefs, color, disability, ethnicity, identity, race or religion, and whereas the town of Ashland celebrates diversity within our community, recognizing that each individual's unique contribution can make to our community or can make our community stronger. And whereas all members of our community and visitors are to be saved, welcomed, valued, and supported by their peers, other citizens and community leaders. And, whereas as a community, Ashland honors our country's founding principles of equality, liberty, and justice for all people, and, whereas dedicating time to recognize pride bud, sends a message of tolerance and compassion to the LGBTQ plus community that all Ashland, that Ashland stands against discrimination and hate of any kind. And now therefore be it proclaimed that in recognizing June as Pride Month, the Ashland Town Council strongly promotes equality, liberty, and justice for all people. And we call upon all residents and businesses to work together in a community of mutual respect and the honoring of everyone's lawful right to individual differences and values. They did the fourth day of June 2024. Here we are. Thank you very much. Thank you. All right. That brings us to our citizen input opportunity and invite individual to come forward and just give your name and address if you would for the record and give you opportunity to share. Yep, thank you for your time. I appreciate it. My name's Doug. I'm a Hanover County resident and live in Hanover for since 2001. Very pleasant place. I'm here tonight to give a shout out and praise to the Ashton Police Department for honoring my first amendment, Sarah. Certainly appreciate it. I know it starts at the top and comes down. I appreciate it. Thank you. And what I'm talking about is the Bill of Rights. It was ratified 1791. I was using the first amendment at the time. At your parade or at the festival, strawberry festival. And on their first amendment, there are five liberties. And this is going to my new friend Daniel that I'm at the festival. And I is going to my new friend, Daniel, that I'm at the festival. And I'm going to enter the five liberties. The first one is religion. The second one is freedom of speech. The third one is freedom of the press. The fourth one is the right for people peacefully to assemble. The fifth one is the right to petition your government for grievances. I was using four out of the five. The fourth, the four I was using was a freedom of speech, freedom of press, right to peacefully assemble, right to petition my government. I appreciate everyone, let me do that. Even though there were some people at the festival that were trying to get me expelled. So, thanks again. I appreciate the National Police Department, the honor of First Amendment. That wraps up my comments. All right. If you would share your last name with a clerk for the record, if you're willing. Oh, you're probably just a good by dog. Okay. Yep. Thank you. Thank you, Daniel. Welcome back to Daniel. Thank you. All right. In the way of citizen input, I'll interject something that I guess about a little bit less than a month ago, I was walking down a sidewalk and was approached by two citizens who said, oh, you're the mayor, I'm sure you could help us with the question. And the course of conversation, what they wanted to really do was praise one of the planning staff members and just said that they had left a message. They got a call that night even though it was all flowers and Great follow-up from a staff course In another way of citizen input. I had a voicemail yesterday And someone said I'd like for you to give me a call I called them and what they wanted to do was praise someone from Public works or department of public works, one of the engineers and they just wanted to make sure that the town knew how much they appreciated. They had an issue to neighbors. With drainage, said the folks came out to care of it, very organized, and they just re-interrated that we know when things go wrong, y'all probably hear a lot about it. When things go right, you probably don't hear about it, but certainly that y'all, your staff is great. So, just wanted to say that publicly. And I've let the staff members know, but my wife advised me, you better not call out names because you'll get in trouble for not naming everybody all the time. But they know who they are. And we know that's generally, as the gentleman said, it's from the top down. And so it's a good culture. There's a long ways. Yes, sir. So anyway, that takes us through citizen input and brings us to our first public hearing, erosion of the only public hearing, erosion and stormwater management code changes, Mr. Jennings. Good evening members of town council. Bring forward to you tonight a request for approval of ordinance number 2024-07 to first some code changes to combine the storm water and erosion sediment control sections in our code. I didn't put a presentation together because it was really nothing to show you. We discussed this item at our last town council that I was there, the May 7th meeting, and you may have noticed in your packet there's a red line version and what that red line version was that are new town attorneys they reviewed it and just made a few tweaks and assignments of who did what and stuff like that to go with state code and the way it should be that we didn't catch. So like I mentioned last time what it is this is pursuant to an act of the General Assembly. It's actually 62.1-44.15-27 to integrate the stormwater management requirements with the erosion and sediment control requirements in a town. This was mandated with the latest General Assembly. Basically what this does is the storm water, the erosion storm water management program is intended to facilitate the submission and approval of plans, issuance of permits, payments of fees, and coordination of inspection and enforcement activities for all land-disturbing activities in town. As I, we kind of talked about last time, we're combining all this section into 4.1 now, both of that what used to be in 4.1 in chapter five. Chapter five we're actually gonna leave as open or held in reserve. This ordinance was advertised in a local paper on May 15th and May 22ndnd and we did not receive any comments, questions, concerns or anything about this ordinance change. So like I said, this one's pretty straightforward. It's just really combining the two sections as required by state code. But I'd be happy to answer any questions if you have something. Any questions for Staya? After the public? Yeah. Okay. Thank you, sir. All right. Thank you. All right. At this point, we'll open the public hearing and invite anyone who would like to speak to this er, erosions stormwater management code changes. Invite you to come up at this time. Seeing that one come forward, we'll close the public hearing and bring the report. I appreciate the report. I appreciate the report. I appreciate the report. I appreciate the report. I appreciate the report. I appreciate the report. I appreciate the report. I appreciate the report. I appreciate the report. I appreciate the report. I appreciate the report. I appreciate the report. I appreciate the report. I appreciate the report. I appreciate the report. I appreciate the report. I the red lining of the attorneys' changes, which appeared significant in that for hearings, the circuit court is not where we're going first, we're going to the town manager, which I think is a great addition, and then appeals to the circuit court. So thank you for that, Chang. And I was thrilled to see that the town manager has the power to issue subpoenas and subpoenas because whatever. Give power to those who don't want it. As I told him, as Barnhart, the acronyms in this ordinance are create a target rich environment. I look for the program manager who's basically going to run it and I found it under the VES MP administrator which I found to be the Virginia erosion and soil storm water management program. Sorry, can't read my own notes. Anyway, it's a good ordinance. I intend to support it. I appreciate the information. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions? No. It's not perhaps a motion. Okay, Mr. Mayor, I move to approve ordinance 2024-07, erosion and stormwater management code changes as proposed. All right, thank you, sir. Is there a second? I second. All right. Dr. McGraw. Aye. Ms. Barnhart. Aye. Ms. Soapall. Aye. Vice Mayor Hodges. Aye. Archbeth. Aye. All right. The motion passes. Thank you, sir. All right. That brings us to your action item and we'll start. We have two appointments and generally we have We have opportunity these are both reappointments for individuals who have been serving and we have reappointment interviews The same as we interview folks before they're pointing the first time Just to make sure that the individual is interested in continuing and also to refine the process if we need to in conversation. So we'll start with the planning commission and with the planning commission, the liaison is Ms. Barnhart and so I'll pass the ball to you. I'd be happy to. I move to reappoint Brent Chambers to the planning commission for our term ending in June 30th of 2028. Second. Vice Mayor Hodges. Aye. Dr. McGraw. Aye. Ms. Barnhart. Aye. Ms. Soapall. Aye. Mayor Trevett. Aye. All right. Thank you. And we also have a Board of Zoning Appeals reappointment. And so that will go to Miss O'Pall. Okay. I move to recommend to the Hanover County Circuit Court, the reappointment, a Penelope Boyd to the Board of Zoning Appeals for a term ending June 30th, 2029. Second. Miss O'Pall. Aye. Vice Mayor Hodges. Aye. Dr. McGurough. Aye. It's Barnhardt. Aye. Mayor Trevette. Aye. All right. Motion passes. Thank y'all. And we thank all the citizens that serve all the different committees and commissions. Certainly value their input and their work. All right. Next action item. fiscal year 25, Downtown Ashton Association, Memorandum of Understanding, Mr. Fair. Yes, thank you, Council. Bring to you tonight, as mentioned, the Memorandum of Understanding between Downtown Ashton Association and the Town of Ashton. We got it. Good. This is actually an annual process, but we've changed it a little bit so that it happens every three years. We've just finished a three-year MOU negotiation and have undergone this one to get another three-year memorandum of understanding. But this process is actually required for DAA as part of their requirements to fill the National Maid and DHCD requirements to be a full participating Main Street program. They have, and I believe you have it in your packet, a national mainstream MOU that's included that they have to meet all those obligations, and they are also required to create one with the local governing body that sponsors the mainstream. And so that's what you have in front of you. I will share that largely the focus of this particular MOU is to create common goals that we shared and share and that we work on collaboratively. It's not just saying what DAA has to do on a day-to-day basis and what their mission is, but it is certainly a partnership between the town and the downtown Asher Association. This particular process, I think, was very effective and we appreciate the support the DA was able to provide in that. From I believe it was February or March till June, I believe it was recently as last week, town staff were meeting with what members of the DA board and the former executive director. It was a little bit of a monkey wrench thrown into the process when she accepted a new position in the middle of it. But went through a process of kind of evaluating what went right, what went wrong over the past few years, how the MOU was functioning over the past few years, and then trying to make sure that we had a better MOU going forward. I will share from town's perspective, and I think DAA felt that as well, as much as we were all very sad to see Ms. Longus go, it did provide a little bit of a refresh in our mind of, okay, we're actually starting fresh with a new person. This isn't an ongoing relationship, but as it is much a new version of this relationship. And so I felt it was pretty helpful, and I think Ms. Amos and Ms. Pranky in our office also felt it was helpful. So really think of this in a way of, if you were the new executive director and you walked into DAA and you were handed this MOU, how would you feel about it? And so I think we were really able to make this one a more future oriented MOU than looking back and trying to correct things that maybe weren't working perfectly in the past. And so I'm very pleased with what we have here. We intentionally, in this particular MOU, moved from a focus on the four main street points which are still important and incorporated throughout it but structured it around, make sure I get the phrasing right, the main street accreditation standards and there are five standards that the DA now has to meet and we've structured it and you can see it through the headers there, each bullet is goals for those particular headers. As I mentioned, the main street points are incorporated throughout. You will be able to see largely if you're able to interpret it. All the points which include economic vitality, promotion, design, and organization filtered throughout the entire MOU. And that is certainly intentional because those four points are what make a successful main street and endocassessful main street organization. So I am not, wasn't planning to go through bullet by bullet through this entire thing. So staff are certainly here to recommend adoption of this particular MOU. Representative of DAA is here to either answer questions. I'm not gonna put you on a spot to make a presentation, but we'll happily help me answer questions I may not be able to answer. So with that, I will teed up for you. Any questions for our town manager? Yes, go right here. Following a long role of acronyms. Cat me. Yes. I will not need your help without actually. Yeah, please, if you would, just coming up. with Alex actually. Yeah, please, if you would, just coming up. Introduce yourself for the record that we know who you are. Sure, I'm Christine Holsum, and I'm the treasurer for in the Board of Directors for Downtown Ashland Association. So, Katni is, or the equivalent, is a standardized human resources tool that allows teams that have to work together to measure how well are they working together. And it involves individual surveys as well as group surveys and discussion points that are facilitated by a coach. It's something that VCU uses and I'm an adjunct professor at BCU. And so I just wanted to give it a name so that if people wanted to know what's the equivalent that something like Kami. All right. Sounds good. Is it an acronym? Yes. I have no idea what it is. Thank you for being honest. It is the first thing that shows up if you Google. So we could. Yes, it does. It is up if you Google it. Yeah, I have a question. I'm looking at page 77 in our book, but it's on 6, which has to do with considerations of working collaboration. It said letter A, the town contributes annually the funding per fiscal year. The DA must demonstrate fundraising. And it has a figure of 150% which of course doesn't add up to 100%. So I'm wondering what the figure means. Sure, it's 150% of whatever amount the town allocates that year. Okay. The DA also then has to match that. Okay. Thank you. If you'd like to know last year, if you'd like to know last year, please. We contributed 250%. This year we're contributing 318%. So you want that big return on investment. Thank you. And our contribution is last year with 88,000 I believe and we have the budget resolution. And this year is 91. 91. Thank you. 91. Thank you. Wow, thank you. Okay. Go ahead, then. That was just one part here. I see that personal interactions with, I'm sorry, on page 77, under 6B. And I'm happy to see that there are personal interactions with downtown businesses to solicit feedback and encourage revitalization and business development initiatives. So that's good. Just seeing in contact with the businesses and getting their feedback and encouraging the businesses. I was glad to see that. And we also have to survey the businesses. I was glad to see that. And we also have to survey the businesses and property owners annually and make sure that we get a 40% return on our survey responses. That's part of national accreditation. Great. Great. Thank you. Thank you for being here. I'm not grilling you, but are there any comments? Other comments you'd like to make about this? Memorandum, we'll understand. Only that it was a pleasure to go through this process. Josh and his team were very welcoming and easy to work with. And other members of the Board of Directors were very willing and positive to work as well. So we really all feel jointly that this is going to really be a healthy next couple of years together and continue to build on your return on investment. Thank you. And if there are thanks to go around, Christine is do a lot of those thanks. Her leadership on getting this document done were absolutely crucial. I'm sure we'll be humble and say it was the team but she was a very critical factor to this. Thank you. It was the team, but she was a very critical factor to this. Thank you. It was the team though. Mr. Mayor. Yes sir. For the vice mayor's edification, Katme stands for Comprehensive Assessment of Team Member Effectiveness. And I had to get to the third Google page to get the actual acronym. Could we put an ask for it on the email? That's what I was thinking. Okay. All right. Any other questions? Comments on this? If not, then let's roll it forward. Really daft? Yes, there is a vote. That should maybe be... Mr. Mayor. I moved to adopt representative of the our liaison. Oh, okay. Okay. Good point. All right. I move to adopt the memorandum of understanding with the downtown Ashland Association as presented. Hi, second. Sorry. Miss Opal. Hi. and the members of the committee are going to be able to introduce the members of the members of the committee. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Next action item. Fiscal Year 25 budget resolution. I know that our town manager has stressed with all the different meetings that There are good dates for public input and then later on it's Very hard to change things But as we spend millions of tax dollars We see that we haven't drawn a crowd for such a thing so yeah, every gently people are greatly satisfied at what we're doing So I hope that is the correct interpretation. Yeah. Well, yes, tonight I bring you the final act of adopting a budget for the next fiscal year, and that is presentation and potential adoption of the budget and appropriations resolution. I will hit only highlights. We've presented this budget many, many times over the past four or five months. So, the total budget that is not necessarily actually written specifically here is $23,990,000.5. That is made up with the funds that are included in the appropriation resolution to include the General Fund, our Capital Project Fund, our American Rescue Plan Act ARPA Fund, and then our CBTA Fund Central Virginia Transportation Authority fund. There are, I will make very clear, no tax increases or rate changes of any type included in the budget. There was, I do the only real point I want to make here on a change or at least a note to discuss from prior presentations is you'll remember at the public hearing we had a discussion about the Saturday soundtracks that Mr. Ray wanted included I had originally recommended not including that and was received instructions from count council to include $4,000 for that. While I said it at the public hearing I'll say it again tonight it doesn't necessitate a budget change to do that I am quite confident that through vacancies we will have salary savings of $4,000 in a $23 million budget. And so there are no specific changes to the budget, but I can reassure you your direction to me will be executed. And upon Mr. Ray finding a nonprofit to manage that program, he will receive that $4,000 to continue this Saturday SoundTracks program. All else has been presented over the last four months and so staff recommend approval of the budget and appropriation resolution as presented. All right. Questions or comments? Yes, sir? I have perfect confidence in the town manager following through on council's requests to find $4,000 and a $23 million budget. My question was if you go to the page, I think it's, let me see, Page of the budget. Yes, I'm sorry. The actual. I don't expect you to actually go there. But if you did, on page 19, town council, 5600 contributions and other payment that list origin beer labs request for $8400 but it shows non-recommended by the town manager. So I guess my point is someone looking at the budget would assume we didn't follow through, even though we have confidence and know that it will be done. I will correct that page. We'll just publish the budget to the website. Thank you, you answered my question. Great. Just for the sake of transparency, you know, we did make a change in how council re-numeration is handled from the past and it was kind of hit or miss every so many years. That sort of thing and recommended by staff, the manager, was to go ahead and handle council payment, the same as with the staff payment, whatever percentage of increases recommended. that hides that discussion in that it's part of the budget now. And that council, when we're gone from here and other people are, council won't be deciding for themselves, but it'll be part of the budget process. And like every other part of the budget process, that means it'll be public input opportunity for people to speak to that. But anyway, I just wanted to say that, I wanted to bring it up publicly again, that that's where that is, if people are wondering, into this or critique, come talk to us in the future, there's more opportunity for that as well. And I think there was a nice compromise there of, well, no, you're not doing an ordinance to change town council salaries. You are still getting the full budget presentation, and then I can show you they are specifically listed in the budget appropriations resolution as well and so not only do citizens get the opportunity to comment at the budget public hearing at all our work sessions on this because we do present that information. They also have a chance while it's not necessarily a public hearing to let you know individually that you should not vote for the resolution if they are unhappy with those salaries that are included there as well. Very well. Any other comments, questions or anything on the budget? No. Mr. Mayor. Yes, sir. I moved to adopt the FY2024-2025 budget and appropriations resolution as presented. I second. Ms. Barnhart. Hi. Ms. Soapall. Hi. Vice Mayor Hodges. Hi. Dr. McGraw. Hi. Mayor Chvette. Hi. Thanks for all the work that's involved in that, all the different meetings and public input that brought us to this point. Thank you, Council. All right, action items are dispensed with and we'll move on to discussion item number one. Data Center review concepts. Yes, I will try to pitch this one to you a little bit so that it makes sense for you and the public. I just want to give you a little bit so it makes sense for you and the public. Honestly coming up with a title for this conversation was one of the more difficult things to do. But really all we're doing is talking about data centers generically, not necessarily the application that you will have in front of you in the coming months. But data centers recruitment of data centers to communities, their impact on communities when they do locate the positives, the negatives, and then how town staff and how our town code dictates that we review those. Because there are some things that citizens may have a concern about that the town doesn't have control over. There are other things that they have a concern about that we certainly do have some level of control over. So I'm going to give you a little bit of history. And then at this time I am going to go point my point, at least to the headers that I have here of the topics. And then really the point of this is to open it up to all of you so that you can ask me, share with each other, concerns that you have. And if you have concerns that you've heard from your neighbors and friends and those looking at applications, tell it to us now so that we can try to give you how we think it would respond to it. But if we don't have the answer, that gives us a chance to prepare for when we do get an application. So, in this staff memo, you did see my notes there of how we've gotten here. Data centers are not new to us. This is not just, oh, we suddenly have an application landing in our laps and don't know what to do with it. As early as 2017, I can remember having conversations with the prior County Administrator and Hanover about adopting data center specific tax rates once the general assembly gave us the authority to while this county was not ready to do that at that time obviously you can see in the timeline as well we did get there in 2023-24 where we both individually adopted those data center specific tax rates 2021 we also Mr. Renell was specifically focused on having discussions with some local data sets or advisors. There are those in the industry who will help advise localities about how to respond to these big picture issues. So we've had that conversation. And so this is something that we've been specifically recruiting, trying to get applications in front of you. Obviously it is your prerogative entirely whether those applications meet the communities needs, meet all our code, or in the right location, but from a general use perspective, we have most certainly been interested in these particular uses. Some of the more attractive things, and we'll talk about it a little bit later in the revenue, for communities and local governments, the thing that is so attractive, obviously A number one, I'm not going to shy away from it. They generate a lot of local government tax revenue. They really do. But what the real benefit there is they do that with a really low impact on the community. So you might be able to say that about maybe some heavy industrial users. They might generate a lot of machinery and tools tax, but you get the offsetting maybe a negative environmental impacts of a heavy industrial use or the transportation impacts. Many of those are really non-existent when it comes to data centers. And so that's what kind of initially makes them so very attractive. You all were here when we had the presentation from RVA 757. They gave you a better overview of what the data center kind of ecosystem in Virginia and in the country is. They are obviously the experts on that. That is not necessarily my area of expertise, but it really tells you that the demand and the wave of demand for these is coming. It's here already, northern Virginia obviously got hit with that wave a long time ago, and now it is moving from Virginia Beach, Norfolk where the Atlantic Sea Cables are coming in along 64, up 95, up to Rustin, and we are right along that path. So, whether you like data centers, don't like data centers, or if you deny the application that we get maybe in July, I think we will get more applications over time just due to location. Right, frankly, we are in the path for data centers to be a very attractive location. Some of the other things that make communities attractive for data center location, we have quite a few of them. The existence of power. So the electricity is one of the key ones. High-tension power lines. It's not just do you have the power. Can you do you have land available near those power lines so they don't have to drag the high tension wires to a far away location that is you might imagine is incredibly expensive. We do have that. We have areas right around the power. Water is the other major utility that's needed. Hanover County obviously manages water for us. Just like Dominion does the power. Our understanding is that we do have sufficient water to handle these types of uses and even with that water use is going down because they're becoming far far more efficient. The other factor that is important is fiber availability and there is a ton of long haul fiber optic cable going right up and down I-95. As I said, locationally we are really right in the sweet spot for this and then the final one is something that you have some local control over and that's tax rates, right? So that's the kind of final fourth stool on the, or leg on the chair there is the tax rates and you all took at the initiative to adopt those tax rates. So that's kind of the background and what we're trying to accomplish. I will share with you that I am also going to go have this conversation with our planning commission on June 12th as well so that they can have the opportunity to have this conversation before having a real application in front of them get some of their concerns out. But unless you have questions before I jump in, I am just actually going to jump in and start talking about each individual item specifically. And please interrupt me and say, oh, that's not what I'd heard, Josh, or look at caveats to it, Mr. McGraw. Can I just talk ahead of time? I may be stealing some thunder, but I just feel anxious about it. So why would somebody be looking at the town of Ashland or Virginia or any of these localities? And I just want a quick answer for it. I have the answer for it. So Northfoot brought in two small fiber-aptic lines, transatlantic from Europe back in 2014, 2013, somewhere around there, and one of those cable lines, which is smaller than this pinky, can hold more data than all of the lines that was going into New York City. So just to give you a breakdown of that. So our location to that is important. And then two, they changed the way that light goes through where they learn that you can use the same cable line with different colors. And so more data can travel in the same line because the technology has not finished yet. And so it's not something that's dying, it's not a dinosaur, it's not cable. So, and if you, and then I just, this is one I don't know the answer to, so I do want to ask, is there any, have you found any evidence of places where a data center came in and then vacated? Not many. If it is, it's usually due to some local government action, most of the time, like pulling the plug halfway through or something to that effect. You may see the user's change, right? We had some of that happen here in Richmond a little bit, but if it's built for a data center in Virginia right now, it's gonna get filled. Okay, thank you. Thanks for sharing these points. All right, I have more, but I'm going to wait. Sure. Yeah. All right. Oh, wait. So first item we have here, and I'll just, like I said, going to go down the list, noise. This is one of the biggest concerns I will hear as we, our application comes in front of you and that others receive with other applications that we've watched go through. In my reading and understanding of this, there are two primary noise concerns, or two primary issues that generate noise that concern the community. The first is HVAC units, right? So HVAC units, you heard some of the mention of this, if you were at the meeting last night for the iron horse proposal. To reduce the water use of data centers. Usually they used water to cool, do some cooling. They are starting to use more conventional commercial HVAC units. And that does significantly reduce water usage. But to the data centers generate so much heat that you really have to have multiple commercial units to be able to actually cool those facilities. And what you'll experience is when you have a lot of those HVACs on a roof or adjacent to a building, it's this rare. And so I don't want this to be seen as though it's the common concern because the next one is actually the more common is you'll get all the fans potentially to turn on at the same time and at the same speed and it'll create this little kind of vortex experience that is a real sound issue and actually can even be kind of a silent sound that can really disturb people. The good news is there's an incredibly simple fix to that. Good engineers can go in and time the fans either come on at different times or for the fans to spin at different speeds and it really can largely completely eliminate that particular concern. The other one that is a bigger concern is the turning on of the backup generators, right? These data centers, continuous power supply is utterly critical to them. That they cannot go down, they have to be able to make sure that those stay up because you all know the fun things we do on them, you don't want your Netflix to skip. But they're also the brains for autonomous vehicles, for those kind of GPS systems. Those are run out of data centers. And so if the power goes down, and suddenly people don't can't connect to the internet, there's a real issue there. So the generators, yes, they can certainly generate a lot of sound. The good news about them largely is that they're not on constantly. And so that's not a constant issue. It's more of a matter of when they're tested, which they do have to be done once a month at the very least. Or if you have the power go out and they have to rev up and actually run to maintain the power. So yes, there is potential negative there, but it's more infrequent, and they are certainly working on ways to improve it. We can do some things. We can encourage the developers if they have multiple data centers to put the back of generators in locations where you use both natural vegetation and the buildings to screen the sound from other adjacent uses. So there's some creative things you can do to mitigate that issue. I don't know that that's an issue. You're going to be able to 100% solve, but you can certainly make an impact on it. All right. Any comments, questions about noise? Yes, I had one. I know we have later on the CDN, did we're going to discuss our noise ordinance? So I was wondering if the noise ordinance in action would then limit, because one of the concerns people had was the size. So it certainly would have a bigger data center than you'd have to have more cooling systems and it would be louder. So would that perhaps limit the size? I mean, I'm referring to our orchids. Without being in it, well, I know it's theoretical, but not being an engineer, there is a possibility it could. I think largely they're going to work on ways to get what they need and reduce the sound before they are probably going to limit the size of the data center. Okay, so in my point though, it would still meet our ordinance. Well, they would have to meet our ordinance. So it might, it could. There's a possibility. Okay. That was a question. And really, there's conversations you can have too. And again, this isn't something we're necessarily telling you to ask the next developer for or that we have asked for yet. But if you read Prophers that other developers have given to data centers, they are oftentimes willing to do things like regular sound checks of their own. So that doesn't just put it all on the local government community. You kind of force them to get their certificate of opportunity. They have to already meet certain sound standards. And so you can, with the correct proffers, which you can't request, you can only take. It can, there are mechanisms by which you can limit it without it being the town that has to be the last resort. And they would still have to meet our ordinance. Yeah, okay. That might help. Yeah just want to, excuse me, endorse Ms. Barnhart's comments. I had the same sort of concern. We heard last night that they're test one once a month, they're up to nine hours. And it would be helpful if they provided information so that we knew if we proved that it would meet our ordinance. Right. Yeah. So that the setbacks are something that, as you say, will help buffer it. Right, right. And in a theoretical world where someone were to develop a campus of data centers and not necessarily have that layout in front of you, we're gonna have to rely on some theoretical, do some testing before you get your CEO type discussion because we aren't going to know exactly how many buildings there are when you potentially adopt it. And so you will want, you're not going to be able to say, well, there's only three. So we know it won't be an issue because you really don't know how many there will be if you just approved the zoning. And so we are going to have to get created with the mechanisms by which we kind of build in regulation to the process. Okay. Thank you. I would think that just like we have design standards, you know, for other things, other applications with the town, that any application that it's not, they might, they might satisfy our ordinances they must satisfy our ordinances and So at least that's why I'm looking at it So through the discussions any application as it goes through planning commission or town council It's on them to meet the demand of the ordinance But it's certainly opportunity to ask all along are you familiar with our noise ordinance? and But it's certainly opportunity to ask all along, are you familiar with our noise ordinance? And between configuration, like you say, whether the noise is on the inside, if it's a circular thing or whatever, but anyway, I just wanna say, I'm looking at this, like they must. Certainly, they must, but one way to think of it is, the noise ordinance sets the lowest bar and maybe Proffer's can set it even higher. Right. Right. So yes, they have to meet the minimal standard, but there's a world in which they might be willing to voluntarily put upon themselves higher standards in the Proffer process. All right. Thank you. Anything else will noise? I just remember something that the gentleman said last night as far as noise is concerned. He said, I don't remember his name, that the noise on the interstate from 95 might possibly drown out the noise from the data center. Having not stood over there, I'm not even going to speculate whether that is true or not. I don't know. You just said it. Yeah. It all depends on the decibels. The they're producing and what's going on in the highway that. OK. Yeah. Well, I have done a deep dive in a lot of this stuff because I did take to heart a lot of things I saw in social media. And so I'm just going to go through my experience with data centers thus far. So in 2018, I toured Pixel Factory. I think some of you toured Pixel Factory at different times. The only noise could be heard when you're standing next to the machine, not outside. And the concern then that the owner at Pixel Factory had was he couldn't expand unless he had more cooling. And so that was a big concern, but he promised that these data centers, they're always upgrading and upgrading. And then not too long ago, many of us went to V.comand center that has its own public issue, well, public private data center. They run their own data center and we could hear nothing outside of it, but once we got into the room, yes, it was a lot of buzzing. And again, cooling was a big concern. And then I went to Meta and I think a couple of you went with us as well. And again, you could hear the buzzing when you're inside the facility, but their technology has gotten to where this geothermal cooling can, it can be like 80 degrees in there and it's not a problem. So I saw the evidence of the technology growing with that. But again, noise was not of a concern unless you're actually in the building working it, that might be of concern. Then I saw that there was some concerns that counties outside of us were changing their mind about data centers. And so I went and watched Prince Williams for a long time, a lot of their meetings about this topic. I went and watched Fairfax's, Louisa's. And aside from a council, aside from a supervisor or two raising a concern, the councils themselves were not showing evidence that this was a problem. So I did share that with Josh and I don't know if he's shared it with any of you, but it isn't an email where I just have the links to that. And so really the concerns I saw were setbacks, appearance, and noise. And I believe as long as somebody comes with us with an honest, like, good faith that we've looked at setbacks, appearance, and noise, then I think that's really the only concerns. I didn't see anything that warranted where this was harmful to the communities. And I want to add one last thing. My future son-in-law, he works as an inspector of coolant systems. And the new 690 geothermal cooling system has yet to show any evidence of fracture. And that's been going on for close to 20 years now and that's unheard of in the industry so anyway it just gives me really good comfort in knowing that we don't have problems with leakage and so forth in the industry that doesn't mean individuals won't. Okay, because that was a question I had. Yes. I would agree with Dr. McGraw's assessment. I went to both the Pixel Factory different visit and I went with you to Mehta in Henrico County and you couldn't really hear anything outside. But the Pixel Factory where town manager was with us and Linda Wright from the Planning Commission, he charged up his generators and that does make noise. Town manager was with us and Linda Wright from the Planning Commission. He charged up his generators and that does make noise. And so I think this policy speaks to that and hopefully will mitigate impact. One other point that Mr. Councilmember McGraw made about the changing of technology. I'll say this very generally. Sometimes I think it's healthy for local governments to be skeptical of what developers promise them. That is the experience tells me that over these years. But following up with a lot of my local government peers just kind of going in and saying, hey, the promises you were told when you brought that data center in, did they come true, whether it be just from a revenue generation perspective or have they turned around the equipment, have they been replacing it as often as you thought? In this particular instance, they are really progressing significantly, turning over the equipment, and as best I can tell from my understanding of the finances, the data center operators really do in these instances have an incentive of their own to upgrade this equipment because they want, these things are incredibly expensive. They have a ton of investment in them. And so it is a little bit of a different experience for us that I really do believe that the technology has been and is going to continue to get much, much better. And that will help mitigate a lot of these kind of concerns that we're hearing, whether it be the water, uses the electric usage, the noise with the generator fans. I think all those things are gonna get better. I will keep trucking along here on the list if that's all right with you all. All right. Location, while there's a long paragraph there, your big opportunity to address location on a site is with setbacks. You obviously do your location choice through the future land use map and zoning. Our data centers are allowed in the M1 category of zoning, which is light industrial. I believe there probably are also allowed in M2, but we don't have all that many M2 locations throughout town. The concern is always going to be adjacency to residential, right? That's going to be where you get location concerns. And so there are a balancing factor that you have to do there. You heard the factors I shared with you earlier that were important to data centers, being their high transmission lines, being their fiber optic cables, having water availability, the bad side is if you're near a residential. And so you kind of have to balance that. You may get some of the good and some of the bad, but location's gonna be an important factor. I think there's a world in which for the town's perspective, if you wanted to continue to look at data centers in the future, we could maybe narrow the focus to adjacency to the power lines if we really wanted to review that in the future. That is not part of our current process, but I think there's a logic there that you can certainly evaluate. But when it comes to site specific and once you have an application in front of you, set backs and kind of location of buildings on a site are your best opportunity to address neighborhood concerns, right? So can you, we've talked, we've talked about this before. Can you put the larger buildings farther away from the residences or in the middle somewhere so that the visual impact isn't as bad? Or quite frankly, can you take advantage of topography, right? Is there a low area where if you're going to have a tall building, put it in the lowest area so it remains the same view shed that you would have otherwise. So location again is going to be a concern. Right now the town code in M1, the setbacks require anywhere from 35 to 100 feet depending on what the adjacency is, right? A residential may require 100 feet, 35 feet may be in the front if it's at the front of the building. So, you know, this is a summary, but setbacks are going to be where you can play a little bit when it comes to the application. Yes, I distinctly remember hearing 150 foot buffer. I think you did say something. Oh, for the application that you might receive or you have received. For an application that you already know that we heard about last night. Yes, and that's again kind of like the noise ordinance that I was sharing. We have a relatively good standard, but the ask is always, hey, can you do a little bit more? Is are you willing to increase that standard voluntarily? It does sound like in this application, they are voluntarily doing that with the data center application. I know one of the concerns that people had last night, obviously, was the location of the substations near the road. And when he made the comment that the wall could be 20 feet tall. Okay, so like the lady that was speaking last evening, Mrs. Hubbard, I'm a visual person. So in this, I'm thinking how tall is that? Because that room list, that was probably about 25 feet tall at the very big front. so that's a very large wall so being able to put it back and and located in such a way that maybe we can buffer around it or whatever I just can't imagine driving down there and seeing a 25 foot wall that might be something that would be. Yeah, it's very creative landscape. And also obviously the location, making sure that they're far enough in from Meachem's Creek in that area so that, you know, because people are concerned about that. And if I may, when I jump back to something Dr. McGraw said, I know that they talked a lot about the cooling agents and that water is not like one of the primary cooling agents that they like to use now, but you said something about not leaking because that was a question I had about environmental concerns. Yeah. 690, I did research on that and I sent a copy of that to Josh as well. There is the federal government document on the 690 geothermal coating has shown no breakage in a leaking and also talking on the water metas as it will be in the positive of water generation by 2026. So, my future son-in-law, he checks them out and they have to either recode them or stop using them or so forth. But when he goes into the nuclear power labs and they have that particular coating, he says there's just no leakage. There's none that has happened in 20 or 15 years. However long it's been going on. So is it a coolant? I know someone was asking this last evening evening. It's a coolant more like a refrigerator coolant on air conditioning coolant. Yeah, the cool because the cool comes out and the cool and the water drops out and then they collect the water and recycle the water. Or however the coals work, I'm not into nuclear science. I don't know all of the... I just listened to some of the experts and then I verified. He told me that at a soccer match and I'm like, well, let me go check this out and so I went and I did a little digging and I found some government documents that proved what he had said was true. And I saw no documents that proved otherwise because I tried to say, you know, 690 hoax and try to find stuff to, I tried to find things that undid by thinking and I couldn't find any. And just to give you a perspective and maybe in this document we can give pictures of what things look like if it's possible. 25-foot setback, if we go down route one heading south and we look at the distribution center that is there. I don't know if you'll know that a distribution center is there, and it's in my opinion large distribution center, and it's only 25-foot setback. It's a 25-foot. I'm sorry, where is this? Down one. Yeah, go down route one, still in Ashland. Oh, oh. You go on route one, go down, go south. It's in our town. We approved expansion of this distribution center. Setback. The setback is 25 feet. From route one? Yes. I thought it was further back from that. So if you're looking at 100 feet, 35, 100, this is significant and okay, I think it addresses concerns that our neighbors have. Maybe you can tell me the address afterwards because I'm not visualizing it. If it's the Johnson road, something? Yes. Yes. There aren't any buildings up in the front 25 feet from Route 1 that I'm aware of. Okay, I weeks in go for a drive. We should. Well, I can, it might be nice if we were to have some visuals for people. I think though, you know, like from town hall to, you know, the grocery store, I mean, what you might be seeing, that would be how long it would be, or 25 feet is, because people are real concerned about that. They were really trying to get their head around that last evening sizes. I can appreciate it. I think we can go around town and do some pretty good examples of, you know, safely park along Route 54 where there is a screen to buffer and we can measure how far it is it to a building and actually tell people, yes, you know, that building there is X feet away but with this buffer that's what you see and then give them the opposite example, right? If it's only that distance away, and there is no buffer, what's the experience? We can do a little bit of a visual. It'll try to pick some of the distances that are already included in the application so that we can do the best we can do. Yeah. Also, just onto this water and concern, I did have a conversation. I don't want to name managers, because I don't want to get into that. But I did talk to three different leaders, if you will, that have data centers. And I asked specifically, what harm has happened since then? What have people complained about? What are the concerns? And each time, with the exception of Fairfax, which has it because they have homes that are right next door to the data centers. With the exception of that, I've heard that none. They get no complaints. They don't hear any concerns. There's no damage to the water because of them. There's no damage to the wildlife that I've seen. I mean, I'm not saying they can't happen. I'm just saying, I haven't seen any evidence of that having happened. And also, in some of the places, there was no infrastructure. And yet, the data center brought the infrastructure and did not significantly raise taxes or electricity cost to the citizens. That was specifically in the William and the William Prince William meeting. The council members were asking those questions and that was May 14th meeting. I think the May 14th meeting. It's four hour meetings, a warning, like if you want to skip through, you can. But because I wanted to know, I wanted to know, and luckily they were asking those exact same questions, and they're looking in the past, they're looking in the review mirror, what has happened, and I haven't seen any evidence that it was harmful. But I do think it would be nice to have pictures and like little grass that show like real. Yeah, I think that'll be helpful for whatever application comes in front of you so you can kind of get a sense of, this is what they're saying, they're offering. This is what that looks like in an adjacent location. Yeah, yeah. Yes, sir. On setbacks, I just want to respond to the person that said last night she'd prefer to move the substations away if they were moved to the back towards where she is, moving the 85 foot high data centers to the front, I'm not sure it would be a good transition. Right. I'm not sure they could move the substations too far because of the location of the public. Right. I think they do have to be in that location. I was just saying when he talked it was going to be a 25 foot wall as I'm thinking here we are going out of town and then we hit this 25 foot wall. So I was just asking about that a little bit. Yeah, thank you and I'd love to see the data center. We could make a perfect, we could paint We can pay them or something. Thank you. Next on the list is runoff, which is environmental concerns. You can cut lump things into a big grouping there. And I will probably look to Mr. Jennings, if you have actually questions about this part. But we talk about stormwater all the time. And that's where I'll focus this particular part of the conversation. Regardless of whether it's a data center, it's a distribution center, it's a house, it's a subdivision, it's a retail business. We have code that addresses how we have to manage storm water. No citizens are often maybe scoff at what the regulation actually is, but the regulation is intended to make sure that the water relieving the site does not exceed pre-development conditions, right? And so that's, you may need Mr. Jennings, that's kind of both the quantity and velocity of the water coming out, right? So the reason, the way you deal with that is you create retention ponds and you hold it for a period so that you can release the water over time so it doesn't exceed the pre-development rate. At least that in theory, did I do a layman's decent job of explaining that. Yeah, exactly. Can I take care of quality and quantity and making sure that water leaving the site is less leaving the site in a slower rate to make sure that it doesn't cause damage downstream instead of releasing it all at one time if it was all impervious area, that would happen if you didn't take care of it. And that's a mix of both local and DEQ regulation that we have to deal with. Exactly. Virginia Department of Quality, we have standards that we have to follow. And that's part of our code and part of our ordinances that we talked about earlier. All right. Any questions on that particular? Mm-hmm. No. All right. I'll keep on moving then. Again, water usage, I bring it up somewhat similar to electricity usage, even though maybe water has some cooling impacts that we could talk more thoroughly about. But, Hanover County Public Utilities is the manager of water and sewer utility, so we don't necessarily have a decision making role, but we certainly want good information from Hanover. And at this point, they have shared with us that there is sufficient water capacity to handle the applications that we've received for in the future. On the, we already discussed, so I'll broken record it a little bit. The improvements in efficiency and technology are leading to direct reductions in the amount of water used. You can possibly have the concern about environmental impacts if you're going to use more coolant, but as Dr. McGraw shares that, again, technology is making it better so that the chance of that being a concern is going down in the future as well. I don't intend to pick on the applicant from last night, but I heard that East Ashland had an estimated 20 MGD, that's million gallons a day of water usage for their residential development that's already on the books and they were going to limit it back to one million. Both of those numbers sounded very excessive to me. And Miss Amos, when we talked about it after the fact, so we've called Hanover to try to get accurate numbers on that that actually reflect our memory versus what the developer was sharing. So more to come on that. Great, thank you. And again, electricity, Dominion is going to be the decider of whether electricity is available. They have said they can certainly build those substations and work with the developer to build those substations to make it available. If you have questions and you probably will receive questions about what the impact of approving data centers does to your individual residential electric rate and maybe not even rate but bill. I would refer you back to the conversation we have with RVA-757. They brought the engineer from Dominion who is the guy who does all the data center installation and I think his answer is about as accurate as you can get. The answer is yes, bills are going to go up but you can't pinpoint it to approval of that data center led to this three in-cent increase. And so it's an odd, I don't even know what the right answer is to say to a citizen when they say my bill is going to go up, well I think you're probably correct in that but I don't know that you can point to this specific data center for that concern. What I remember from the presentation the Dominion gave us earlier this year, everybody who's on Dominions will go up. It's basically going on in one part. Yeah, there's no geographic fence around it. Right. Yep. Any other energy or electricity concerns? When it comes to that? You've heard or have questions about? Who are you? Right. Well, I do, but I don't know how to address it as a town council, because it is true that if they're using more energy that has an impact on the environment, but I don't know if we as a town can change that, but that's a fact that we can't get away from. So if anything, if we can encourage them to be more efficient, but I think they already are efficient. I just wanted to address that that is something that is a negative that all we can do is mitigate. Right. And so availability is certainly more to address that that is something that is a negative that all we can do is mitigate. And so availability is certainly more of a state and federal issue than it is a local issue unless you have your own power generation which some localities actually do. Oh, and yes, I'm sorry because this is a this is a really big concern and some of the localities do is in here I didn't see, but I just want you to tell me, is there any incentive package inside embedded for data centers or any other tax code or any, okay? They haven't asked and we haven't offered. There we go. Okay, so. All right, then I think all of my questions and concerns are addressed. Traffic, I'll just kind of wrap up these final two. Traffic data centers are usually quite attractive from a traffic perspective. From a traffic generation, per, let's say, square foot of building or type of use, they really do have incredibly low traffic generation once built. I will make the caveat and it's important to know. During construction, there can be a lot of traffic. I think in some of our locations that might be attractive for data centers that may not present as large a problem being directly off the highway so you have even the access to them. If it was a location that was more interior to the town to have all that traffic, remember when Lord that was being built, how frustrating that was to the neighborhood. This may be an area where location is most important for reducing any traffic impact, but once built they really do generate incredibly low traffic counts because they have few employees as you heard last night very low to no deliveries. So you're not getting those trucks coming in and they only have very few employees. So relative to other issues, traffic is probably a net positive for the data centers. And then finally, one of the ones that, again, I'm not going to shy away from, is very important for local governments, is tax revenue generation, data centers in my estimation. I don't know that I can say this officially, but in my estimation are most likely in Virginia because we all have different taxing structures. The single highest per square footage tax revenue generator of any use you could put on any piece of property. They really are just the way that tax Taxes are structured in Virginia and the ones that localities have the authority to enact and charge really does make data centers a very attractive use. And that's the tax that it generates is really business personal property if you're looking for it. So much like a manufacturer would have equipment in there that gets taxed. Data centers have a similar scenario where all the servers that Are in there, the switches, the ports and all that are taxed at their rate. The good thing about data centers is because they're high tech, they have to turn over that Equipment regularly, which keeps the assessed value very high. And so that, whereas in other types of uses, you see a huge depreciation over time. And so you get an initial bump, bump, a revenue. And then it flattends and lowers off, data centers it maintains its consistency over time which again another very attractive revenue for local governments. The good thing for the town in this instance with the revenue I will share I have been speaking to you for quite a long time about revenue diversification. We maybe have too many of our eggs in the meals and lodging off of Route 54 basket. And this would really provide a completely different source of revenue that is probably recession or negative economic in turn impact resistant compared to our other high sources of revenue. And so it's kind of like your investment portfolio. If one goes down, you want others that maintain. And so having a data center does provide us that opportunity to diversify our revenue sources a little bit too, to ward off against negative instances in the future. And I think I shared this earlier. I'll just say it again. I'm sorry if it's duplication. But I have reached out and we've checked with peers across the state and twofold. One, the revenue that it does keep going is true, that they've confirmed that. The other concern, I think we have even heard from a citizen when we were doing the future land use stuff for Iron Horse was the estimates that the developers throw out. Are they in any way accurate? In this instance, largely they are, because it's not all that complicated of a calculation. It's what your investment, what's your assessed value of that assessment. You apply the tax rate, and because there's not a lot of depreciation, you really hold it pretty steady over time, and so it's not all that hard of a calculation to do. But they do confirm what they come in saying, if you do good revenue estimates, it's in the ballpark. And so I've started to do ours for the application we are going to review. I am not finished, so don't take this as gospel, but it is largely looking, especially for the data set of version, the estimates that the developers providing are in line with what our independent and assessments would be as well. Yes. The question is about the business part of the economic which is harder to do anywhere. Yes. Very much so. Yes, me. Well, I really appreciate the applicants and the staff that willing us just to hold those public meetings. I know a lot of weeks, but a lot of time talking to the public about the business park and allowing them to have an opportunity to ask us questions. So I really appreciate the fact that they gave us an opportunity to talk to them about the data centers. And one thing that struck me, I guess, is about I don't ever see a data center have an empty building. You know, and we know how hard it is in Ashland to have empty buildings around town and take six, seven, eight years for them to be filled. So that was one thing I thought about. So I really do appreciate the fact that everyone has been working with us on that. And I was surprised that when they said it was gonna be roughly a four year project. And I can't imagine that in that late of time, the technology isn't gonna to change tenfold. I think about going to the computer with my box of cards when I first started doing computer science classes. I can't imagine that things are going to change rapidly in a four-year timeframe. So again, I'm just really grateful we had that opportunity and had an opportunity for our public to chat with us. And that brings up one good question. I actually heard last night from one of our planning commissioners kind of looking at it through the opposite lens of yes, we know where we've been, but there's also a world where technology kind of goes so far that you don't need these giant spaces. And everything gets smaller. So the question would be do data centers become obsolete because you just don't need all that space. So we built all this capacity. So I've talked to a few folks I know in the industry and have a few other calls in just to confirm and get their perspective. It's all speculation because it's the future. But largely what their perspective has been thus far is yes, the chips and the components are going to continue to get smaller, but our collective want and desire for data and the use of data is going to go up so exponentially more than those things can get smaller. That even if they get smaller, they're going to be more and more and more of them. So the use of those data centers is going to have quite a long road ahead of us, I think. So I just want to make sure as we have been having this discussion tonight, we're also referencing meetings of an application that the town has received, but I hope everybody understands our comments are in general about the subject and not specific to the application. This is a general discussion. Exactly. Yes, sir. And thank you, Mr. Mayor and Josh, or Mr. Manager, which, if it's not a policy, what is it? It's a platform for discussion this evening. It'll be a platform for discussion with the Planning Commission. I don't know that there's a world where actually adopting this has all that much effect because it's not a policy document. You have your zoning ordinance, you have your state code that we have to follow all that that kind of dictates how we review these things. This to me is just a good platform for discussion. If you wanted me to kind of, or directed me to put it out to the public, I'm happy to do that, or at least maybe not even the document, but publish the conversation. Like, hey, go review this, this is good information as we get to applications. But again, I don't know that it doesn't have teeth, so I don't know the purpose of actually adopting it would be. Well, I kind of have an answer, because I remember asking about this process and I see this as us doing due diligence. That's, I don't see it in the other way of then when it comes before us, if an application comes before us, we can at least say staff has looked into this, staff is prepared, staff doesn't have to spend more time on stuff that it's already looked into. And so to me that's what this document is. In fact, thank you, Dr. McGraw, that helps. Welcome. And if I may piggyback on that, I know that when we watch the, or at least when I watch the Hanover Planning Commission chat about the data centers and discuss someone stood up and said, some of the public said, why don't you have, how come you have it? And so I feel like we are being a little bit more proactive. Proactive, yes, we're not there to be proactive, but I appreciate that. I think that our public will be appreciative of that also. Yeah. I could add something to this. I'm a contractor of those data centers. Oh my goodness. I'll speak to you after this if you would. Yeah, Mr. Mayor. Thank you. Appreciate that. Thank you. Appreciate that. Thank you. Mr. Mayor, and if I can, if I don't mind just add some context here, I believe one of the comments we're publishing the discussion. This will be, this meeting will be published as about 830 to Mom Warning and this discussion. We'll have a hyperlink so folks that are interested in watching the entire discussion, not just the summary of the minutes, can watch the minute by minute update. And I know all of us aren't social media advocate or what is it? Attics. But the town tea I'm sure will share something about this on Instagram and Facebook as well. Miss Miller will do a wonderful job trying to summarize this somewhat rambling conversation. Well to that can I share with you then the email that I sent to Josh so that can become part of the public so people know what I was referencing. Is that appropriate or? That so that can become part of the public so people know what I was referencing. Is that appropriate or? That's a discussion for you and the manager. You can try to think if there's a way. I would be interested in seeing it, but I was planning to forward it to all of town council. I'm trying to figure out the best way to make it part of the public record. Okay. Well, you referenced it tonight. So forward it. I'll forward it to Mr. Goodman for you. And then I want to add the submarine cables. There's a website you can go to look at where all those cables are so that you understand like what that means. Okay. So you'll forward it. Yep. I've got your cover. Then I have another email coming to you in a few minutes. Thank you. Imagine everybody gets the similar emails. But RVA 757, they've got a tomorrow at noon, a webinar. My impression is the same presentation or similar one that we saw. Thanks a lot. Certainly, Mr. Blackwell from Dominion is going to be involved in that. But I would just invite folks if you want to dig in there and just hear more that's certainly available tomorrow at noon if you need that email forwarded to. I'm happy to do that. Also at a previous meeting, Dr. McGraw made a reference to this is my plug for Virginia Municipal League to a recent Virginia town in City Magazine. It has an excellent article in there about data centers in specific to Virginia, you know, locales and usages. As I looked through that article, I was just curious where they included their 2014 zoning amendment definition of a data center. And so I wondered whether or not that we're even at the point where our staff do we have a definition. And so it talks about planning for the future as far as zoning and all that. So anyway, I just recommend reading this article. It's a lot of helpful information to hear about histories and what people have liked and not liked before. So I just want to put those two plugs in again for the sake of us educating ourselves. You don't know what you don't know, but it's worthwhile to know as much as you can about what you can know So anyway, just recommend that. Excuse me. Is there which article are you referring to? Yeah, and this is the April magazine and the article in the back toward the back is power surge Okay, the benefits and challenges of data center development. I read that. I did get that. And I read it. Good deal. And my question is a data center? Is it data center? Oh, the correct. It's a mayower, tomato. That's good. All right. Are we done with this discussion? That's good. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Appreciate it. Yeah. thanks for all the all the effort all the work and all the self study as well Thank you all right Second discussion item proposed noise ordinance revision chief air at home I think he was gonna talk to him after If you don't mind, hanging around there. Yes. We won't be too much longer. We might be. They might be my last words. Yeah. I'm hoping I'm not gonna break the computer. I'm not to go back to the other. That worked earlier. There we go. Mr. Mayor, members of town council. On this evening, up for discussion is a proposed change to the noise ordinance Just give you a little background of why I'm requesting this change. I'm in the past. We've had some calls for service involving loud noise One of which the most recent was because of a dumpster to a local business Obviously before we take any action with any business or anyone else, we want to give them the opportunity to make changes in the room. We'll speak to them and hopefully they can make the changes and we don't have to take enforcement action. That was a case with another business in town, some pallets that were being dropped. We're able to communicate with them and make those changes. We may have been successful with this business and the dumpsters. However, it has been going on for a while. We speak with the business and to come back at it again. So I would like to make sure that I do have an enforcement option at my disposal. If it becomes necessary. So the complaint that this, this citizen was having was because of trash being picked up at 5.45 in the morning on a Saturday when most of us are trying to sleep and don't want to be awoken. The reason, the other reason was when we started looking at it, there wasn't any definition in the code of what a residential use was. It says in the code, noise, you know, the interval trace of residential use, but there's an indefinition in the code. So we started looking at it. What exactly was that is it from the house, from the property line. So we wanted to get some clarification from council. So we spot that opinion from council and we found out after doing so that we revised that our code is unconstitutionally vague. What that basically means is that when you look at it, it's subjective. It's subjective for both the property owner and it's subjective to the law enforcement officer that's enforcing it. So the citizen doesn't know exactly what they're violating and it could be subjected to abuse by law enforcement. That's how the Supreme Court looked at it and that's how they looked at it in these two cases Those two cases were Santa Tanner and Souter one dealt with a loud noise Tanner did with a coming from a nightclub down a Virginia beach And it was determined that it was just unconstitutionally vague on they need to be more specific and what exactly led to the violation of the state law In this instance the Virginia Beach is code code suited dealt with a loud barking dogs. So in speaking with Mr. Talley, it was the term that we needed to change that language. It needed to be changed to plainly audible in the town code. And that's any sound that can be heard from your residents with unated faculties and not without a bionic ear or something. But if you're in your house and you're hearing noise that is not subjective that is a defined line so that would meet the standard that was set forth in both of those cases. So if you don't find an interruption. So that would be the standard hearing it in your house. Hearing it with unated faculties at your house in your yard yes that's. That's going to be what it was so yard not necessarily in the house. No, okay. So in this instance, we also had some duplicative language. It was unnecessary that needed to be removed as well as well some antiquated codes. There was a mention of 46.1 which is the traffic code from 1996 that needed to be updated to reference Title 46.2. Also in this code there were some inconsistencies. If you look in a red line version some instances working on your card 6am was allowable but not having trucks delivered until 7. So I didn't quite understand and looking at it why 6am is fine to make noise for some things, but 7 is fine for others. So to make sure that we were consistent, we want to make 7am the time at which work could begin. Also the distance requirement was removed. When you start adding extra steps like distance to law enforcement, it becomes more cumbersome. And for some folks where you have, you know, trees and other types of obstructions, you can, you know, stifle sound better than you can in others. But it also becomes difficult because now we're having to measure. And how do you do that when you're going through woods and other So the determination was to make plainly audible the the language is necessary and also this removes Location where's being the sound is being emanated to where you're actually having it be heard So those were the two those were the major factors that Led to the request to change this code. The next steps we'll take is we'll doly advertise on June 17th and we'll also hold a hearing on the fourth and the 12th with the additions held in the McKangxville local and the clerk will have a copy of the ordinance for any initiative party that wishes to review it. I'll be happy to answer any questions anyone may have at this time. Is there? Sir. We mentioned earlier the night in our data center policy, a 77 decibel measurable at the property line. How does that relate to plainly audible? So we have a separate portion of our code that deals with decibel meters and the noise that's created by them. That would not be applicable. And that code will not change. I don't have that. So one is a sound that occurs that people can hear and the other sort of over time. Correct. Measurement. So this would be like dealing with, you know, if you have someone who's working on machinery, you know, where you set it up, not violing zoning, that would be one thing. But this would be like quality of life if you're living in your house having a dog that's barking too loud or living in an apartment building where you're two doors down and they have the music blasting and you're trying to sleep. This would be more along those lines, not the desk will meet. We do have those, but that would be something we've used for like music events That's one for example if you have a loud party or something we can bring out the desk We'll meet over this this that's set in code so we can do that during like daytime hours or something because there are provisions for like motorcycle noise for example or Working on cars or machinery that's separate from us. Thank you. Yes, sir I think this is means to say July for it or machinery that's separate from us. Thank you. Yes, sir. All right. Yes sir. I think this is means to say July 4th. It says staff will do the advertised June 17th, and then the public hearing will be June 4th and 12th. We've already advertised. Yeah, these advertisements, not the public hearing. We'll be June 17th. and it was held in the June 4th and 12th. So our public hearing will be correct? I'm sorry, I was misreading it. Sorry. No, I misspoke as well. Okay, it's quite fun. No, that's all. I was just trying to understand the time. That's good. Anything else? I would just ask you, when we do the presentation for the public hearing, I think Vice Mayor Hodges points a go on, try to be able to articulate pretty well what the distinction between one a decibel meter would be used versus when, just so it's in the public presentation and when the public sees the public hearing, that information will be available. Thank you. Yes sir. All right, thank you very much. Thank you. Yes sir. All right. Thank you very much. Thank you sir. Thank you. All right. That takes us to reports, council member reports. Okay. Mr. Barnhart. I'll start with art. The art committee. They have met and they've selected a possible artist and design for our gateway arch into Ashland. They're going to be having a meeting July 1 for some discussion on that. If anyone has any comments that they would like to make, please share with that committee. And then they will be bringing the design to us to for a final approval. Yes. For comments that people would like to make, how would they do that? I would suggest that you contact our Martha is. So Martha or the talk of the town? Yes, the talk of the town. Probably the easiest thing to do. Yes, you can certainly email me and I will pass all that along if I, or anyone else, it's on the committee. All right. Are you ready? Parks and Rec, the pool is open and I know there's lots of folks that have been enjoying that. They did not meet in May but there is a survey out on survey monkey and it is on Dr. McGraw's website. I mean on his site on Facebook if you can't find it I think it'll be up and running tomorrow on the town page but I couldn't find on town page but it's a survey about our bike and pedestrian plan. There's seven questions that they would like you to please answer to give them some information about how you'd like to see our bike and pedestrian plan improved and changed. So again, that will be June in May, but they will be meeting in June 12th. And I did attend the celebration honoring the fallen police officer, Mr. Schmiemann, which was very moving. I know the family really appreciates the fact that we do that every year here in town. I went to the CLA graduation. It was nice to see folks taking an active part in our community by attending that program. And I did attend the presentations, both at the DPO and at the theater for the Iron Horse discussion, which again, I'm very thankful that we did that for our folks. And even though it wasn't in May, Strawberry Festival was fun. And one last thing, congratulations. So all the graduates of Hanover County, there's all the high schools graduated June 1. The teachers and students and staff, I know they long deserved much need to rest and the moving of Henry Clay finished yesterday in the library so those people are getting ready to move their schools, Henry Clay and Gandy. So I'm happy summer to them all. Pardon me. And I'm finished, thank you. That's you. That was not your time. That was it. That was the only time. That was the economic time. Supplementing as Barnhardt's presentation tended ribbon cutting at Maddie Kayla's boutique on Route 1. Also attended at our, excuse me, Richmond Regional Transportation Planning Organization may meeting in which $70,000 was approved in the Unified Planning Work Program to analyze and catalog at-grade rail crossings with the emphasis on safety and freight impacts in the region. This is, I think, a significant change, and hopefully will help us not hurt us. Met with the mayor and the town manager and liaison meeting with Randolph-Macon, discuss need for modular housing. For the incoming fall class, it tended to open house and presentations at the Iron Horse, along with Ms. Barnhart. And I've been asked to make this comment once again. Randolph-Macon has put Ashland on the National Sports page. The Randolph-Macon baseball team won the Superregionals and Division III National Championship Series. What a year. Gratz also to Randolph-Macon football and basketball that also had huge successes this year resulting in postseason play. Thank you, Randolph-Macon. Unfortunately, RMC did not go further in the World Series. They're an East Lake Ohio, but they've certainly shown themselves very, very talented. Dr. McGraw. I attended the EDA and they're discussing their strategic plan. And if you're interested in how a strategic plan should be implemented, you should definitely go to their link and the notes because the gentleman from Randolph-Macon who was running the meeting is spot on. It's a great presentation and please reference him if you use his material, but it's a really good way of thinking about how to go through a strategic plan. I was at one of the iron horse meetings. I was not at the other one because I was out with my wife. So I wanted to do my due diligence today. And so that's why I took that deep dive into all that information because I do appreciate people's concerns, and I'm still willing to listen to them. Even if they haven't called me directly, I still hear their voices and I look out for that. And the Asham Theater has a major fundraiser coming up September 8th. It's full steam ahead. It will be at the iron horse. I think it starts, it goes from 6 to 9. I think the cost is going to be $100 for a participant and they're going to max out at 120, but I do not have tickets available yet. So all I can say is save the date and be ready because once they go on sale, they're likely to sell very quickly. And so that's just something to consider. It will be a huge fundraiser and lots of opportunity to win really cool prices. Date again, please. September 8. Thank you. And as was reference in citizen time, I came prepared to tell you directly what had happened with with me and a gentleman at the strawberry fair. One of our citizens was concerned about a sign that was outside of one of the events since I went and spoke to the gentleman and I think I was respectful. I feel like he was respectful for me. We had a difference of opinion about where to stand and so forth and officer Watts came over and and clarified that we have a public space, what public space means and what people's rights are. And he was fantastic. Most professional I've ever seen. You see these things on social media where there's an interaction with law enforcement and sometimes emotions get involved. But Officer Watts had no emotion at that moment. It was just like here the facts. And then he went and investigated other instances around the event and he said, hey, there are other things that people could interpret different ways. And so it was just, it was a good lesson on public space, free speech, and you have the right to express yourself. And so I was appreciative to see you come. And I was prepared to speak on this anyway, because I didn't want there to be what was happening. Dan, I'm just talking the town, talk about the tea. You know, it wasn't really that much of an interaction, to be honest. It was just people talking. And so, yeah, I just can't say enough how professional officer Watts was. Like it was just fantastic and I was really proud. About a constitution. Yeah. And so anyway, with that, I can see my report. Miss Soko. Okay. Last month, I attended the Richmond Region Tourism Meeting and Awards Program and that was a lot of fun, very interesting meeting and eating with our regional partners. And Jack Berry was celebrated as he is retiring. Also last month I attended the Planning Commission meeting for Council Member Barnhardt and I wasn't just sitting in the back of the room so I did participate a little and I enjoyed doing that. Also I attended the Parks and Rec community input meeting, and that was about the 20, 24, 20, 45 bike and pedestrian plan. Also, I realized last month I've seen shows that Randolph-Macon before, we have a lot of talent on that campus. I attended the show choir performance and then I attended the choir concert the next day, very talented students. And I have to say I am in the midst as a new council member visiting different businesses and people are sometimes a little shocked when I come inside and say that I want to see the manager and sometimes they want to run away. But I did get a very warm reception from Mr. Daniel Manning at Manning Memorial Services. It was an exceptionally warm reception that I received from him and I really appreciate that. Also, downtown, I am the liaison for Downtown Ashland Association and I attended a board, the last board meeting and they have posted for the position of the new director. Also, I attended the community meeting for the Iron Horse development that was held at the Depot and at the Ashland Theater last night. And one or two other things, I attended the APD Memorial Service for Officer Smirman. I think I'm saying it correctly. And then last thing, Maddie Kayla's ribbon cutting, I attended that and that was very nice. Thank you, that's it. Hi, thank you. And I can repeat a lot here that, and I certainly appreciate how involved town council members are. I know that we can't do everything, but at the same time there's a lot of attendance. Maddie Kayla's ribbon cutting. I was able to be there and Sergeant Smeeman's Memorial Service. That was a wonderful thing the town does on a regular basis. The citizen leadership academy graduation, that was good and Mr. Manning was one of the graduates as you were as well. And so that that reception was was really good. Tended to meetings there on the iron horse application though I wasn't I didn't stay the full time at the one last night. I went to the Randolph-Macon ballgame on that Saturday morning. I stayed till they got ahead, but I left before they lost. So I have to make sure I stay the whole time next time. Also attended the May Richmond Region Tourism Board meeting. At that meeting, obviously, there's been a lot of celebration for Jack Berry, the chair of that president for ages and I passed the torch on to, and now I'm drawing a blank on her run. Yeah, Kathleen O'Donnell. And so she's been involved this for a long time. She'll do a wonderful job. One of the things we discussed was the tourism improvement district. And it was only about a year ago that this whole thing came forward as an idea, a perspective about what's going on. And I have a little bit of just some detail on that that year to date for Ashland. This is the 2% fee Ashland Collective but this goes straight to greater Richmond Bureau there. And so anyway for Ashland through for Ashland through April 30th was $154,181. And so Ashland certainly is not, you know, in competition of Henrico County or Chesterfield, but we punch above our weight and we have a seat at the table. There's a lot of initiatives going on that money is used to go ahead and promote the whole region in a lot of different ways. Marketing updates, online approaches. Just this general information that I received that they top origin the markets for a lot of the hotel bookings that in state bookings. Washington, D.C. was 13.8 percent the highest of these comparisons. In Philadelphia, 6.4, New York, 5.4, Norfolk, 5.3, very well as a region. They did a SWAT test, strengths for the TAD campaign. $4,456 bookings, 76, over $7,600 room nights, over $902,000 room night revenue, $5,800 plus and $1902,000 on room night revenue, 5800 plus for total travelers, 1,500 and 1,500 on flight booking. So this includes Richmond International and the airport's doing very well. Opportunities, they have a group, North Star meetings group, that's doing a little deeper dive and statistics to help the money be spent even more, I'll say efficiently, effectively. And weaknesses, say there was a great march for all the events, but in hotel rates were up, but occupancy was flat compared to 2023, but 2023 was outstanding. And obviously if a SWAT to thing, you end up with the T as threats. And so Raleigh, North Carolina, recently had a press release announcing funding for a new Omni hotel in downtown Raleigh. The Raleigh City Council approved about 500,000 for certain pre-development work that'll give Raleigh an additional 550 room hotel in 300,000 square feet of median space. And that's about the area that Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool. So I'm not trying to promote Raleigh. What I am saying is this group, Rich and Regent Tourism, the staff, they're doing everything they can to keep a head, keep up with competition, and make sure their maximizing dollars spent. So anyway, I'm pleased to be on the liaison to them and more good things ahead. I think that's more than enough from the mayor, so I'll stop at this point and we'll do the Public Works Report. Invite Mr. Jennings back. Good evening again, members of town council. You have the May 2024 Public Works report as part of your packet. I talk about a few things. One of the things you probably noticed is there's one vacancy shown in the department. That was due to unforeseen. We had an employee need to resign due to health reasons. We've actually advertised, it's actually a maintenance operator position out in operations. We actually advertised that position today, and we're hoping to review applicants on the 18th of this month, and maybe hopefully get somebody in here in July, that's what we're shooting for. Few other public works operations, highlights. Obviously with the nice weather we've having mixed in with rain, there's been a lot of mowing. The grounds and grounds have done a lot of mowing and weed whacking in our parks, and our streets crews have done a lot of mowing and weed whacking in our parks and our streets crews have done a lot of mowing and weed whacking on the public right of ways that we maintain. They've also finished getting the pool ready for the season to just open last month. So that was exciting to get all that work done. And crew also repaired the fountain out here right in front of town hall. We have issues with every once in a while with that to repair the pump and get that wired properly. So that's prepared and working now. One of our stormwater projects, the swanney drive drainage improvements in stormwater management project is now complete. All that landscaping was installed last month. So that one's now done. Italian Armstrong also completed a construction of the Maple Street sidewalk project. That's the installation of sidewalk on Maple Street between Myrtle and McMurdo streets. It's done except we're gonna pave the road now because of some of the utilities and some of the cuts we had to make. We actually were waiting for one. There's one resident that's having a waterline issue and we wanna make sure they're not gonna tap into the street before we pay the, so we're waiting on that, but we will pay the street shortly. The other project I'd like to highlight, the Route 1 Arboroke to Ashcake Road Project, V.Avertise that project on May 14th. They're expected to look at the bids on July 24th and if all goes well and the bids come in as they expect they're hoping to give the notice to proceed with that project this August so they can start the construction can start this fall and considering we had a moment of silence for part of this with my next topic earlier on CSX work I wanted to touch on that I'm sure you've getting a lot of questions concerns complaints what's going on in town and the interesting thing is the CX actually CSX work, I wanted to touch on that. I'm sure you've got a lot of questions, concerns, complaints, what's going on in town. And the interesting thing is the CSX actually has two projects going on right now in town. One project is to come all the way through town on both of the tracks, replacing all the railroad ties. And then they're also going to upgrade all the vehicle crossings and the pedestrian crossings to meet our pedestrian agreement that we made with them two years ago almost. November of 2021, I think. So yeah, I might even most be over three, over three years ago. So that's part of the work. The other projects that are going on are a project that V.D. helped initiate and help get the funding grant for, but some of our, the signal arms, the ones that actually drop on the roads, they don't meet current spacing standards from the tracks, so they have to be bumped out a little ways. And they're actually, the two projects that have been, they're moving forward, are replaced those mast arms, those signal arms at college avenue crossing and in England street crossing. So that's why you see a lot of these crossings closed right now. I think there was actually three close at one point today. So obviously we're hoping that the good news is it's going to be painful for hopefully this just this week and they'll finish the main corridor through town. They finished Ashcake Road last week as I'm sure you all saw. And what they'll do is next week on its own they're going to replace the work on the Vaughan Road Crossing. So right now it's going to be a painful week in town. So we're going to try. They've set up some closures and not great detours. We've been trying to help facilitate some of the movements around some of these crossings and get them back open as quickly as we can. Yes. Only with good planning could also glow fiber be closing the England street. Yes. So there's a combination of things going on. And of course, dominions on his street. So there's a lot of progress going on in town. And you know, and then we had that, like Mayor Chvets said, we also had the, they were gonna do the CSX work. Yes, or two is a Monday. And we're like, no, no, no, you can't, because they're filming a movie on Monday. So there's been a lot going on in town with road closures and traffic, interesting traffic alternatives this week. I didn't mean to imply it was planned. It happened. Well, no, it's, yeah. Unfortunately, I wish we had a little more heads up of when they were coming, but we've worked that out. And with that, I'd be happy to answer any questions, any additional questions. Yes, sir. Can you, I know you said it, but I just want to reconfirm, to the best best of your knowledge CSX is going to accomplish all the pedestrian crossing upgrades that were outlined in that agreement that we signed on November of 2021. Yes, Mr. Manager. Part of this work with replacing the ties is to upgrade the vehicle crossings and also redo all the pedestrian cross crossing. They're gonna make them five foot wide asphalt and have nice little crosswalk striped on them. And this doesn't cooperate, relocating a couple of them slightly and eliminating a couple and like a myrtle putting, you know, putting some of them just separate from, from where just a few feet away from the vehicle crossing. But this will accommodate the best of our knowledge, the agreement that was in place almost three years ago. I had to give you that out. Yes, that's the pure knowledge. It will be completed. If CSX and I own the same page, yes. No. All right. I had a comment or a call from a citizen. In this case, it was one positive one, and another positive one about the Maple Street sidewalks, the someone who lived on that street, and they just said it was outstanding, working with the contractors, the look of it, the flexibility for detail and changing the media, I guess I'll call it from concrete, more of a pavor, and that sort of thing, working with roots. So that was good. The other one was, I don't know who's supposed to put up the detour signs or the crossing signs, but there was no warning for people when you turned on Smith Street to go across Patrick. He didn't know to you got there that Patrick was closed. So there was a line of traffic turned around and the college is parking a lot to have to go back the other way. So again, I know you're not getting heads up. APD is not necessarily getting heads up, but it is really difficult and we have to give as much warning to folks as we possibly can. Thank you. Yeah, matter of fact, I don't even realize that Patrick was closed today. Yeah, last I talked on they weren't going to close that when you had, but okay. And I guess you probably don't know whether Vaughan Road will not be worked on until Patrick is operating because that's where I told someone to go today, we'll go to Vaughan Road and it was open today. So what I was told is they're not going to touch Vaughan Road until all this is done with the five that mainly through town from Hattrick down to Francis. Okay. Those are all going to be done this week and Vaughan Road won't be done. It will be done on its own next week. That way, while this is, it does stink through town for a few days, but Ashcake and Vaughan will still be maintained, be open this week. That's terrific. And again, no, no, this is your fault. But at the very least, I think, and Mr. Jennings and I can get on this tomorrow is we'll take the trust but verify approach of Trust that they are going to have detours, but we'll go maybe have Mr. Evan check tomorrow morning of verify that they are actually Logistically correct detours and don't put you down a rabbit hole. You can't get out of right is it? Yes, we when they closed ash cake CSX directed people up, or people were going up center street and keeping going up center street even on the one-way section road to get to the crossing and fortunately the police department, APD, changed so that people would know to use Hanova Avenue as an alternate but it was a strain on the neighborhood for a while. So thank you Ash and for bearing up under this. Yes sir. I feel silly for being late to ask this question but listening to all of y'all maybe consider this. Is there any plans for CSX to put tubing underneath of those tracks for potential future broadband expansion lines? Not that I'm aware of. We did that project when they did the platform project. So we put our own condo underneath so that we have so we are connectivity if we do municipal or we wanted to rent it out to someone who needed to get across. Yeah, all right. Just do that, Cordo. But not nothing additional for the rest. All right. That's all I needed to hear. That's good. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Andrew T. Mr. Manager. Yes. So you have my report in front of you. And as with many of you, you all have stolen most of my thunder. So I will be relatively short this evening, and that's intentional, and that is wonderful. So a few quick updates I do wanna give, again, Kudos to Mr. Goodman, as well as public works. We had a discussion with you all about the I-95 landscaping a few, maybe weeks ago, maybe it was a month ago, and it turned out great. We got the initial cut done, and then there was, you gave us some budget authority to move forward. Due to their good work, we were able to find a contractor to do that for a very reasonable price that will allow us to, I think, keep it to the standard that you would expect. So again, Kudos to Mr. Goodman and Public Works for working on that. I think I'm personally very excited that we're going to be able to keep that looking really nice throughout the year and not have to kind of go back on what was a very big initial investment. With the data, I realize it really is striking now. Yes. I hope Miss Martin is absolutely thrilled. Sure she is. Yes. And it was mentioned earlier but we did have a movie being shot in downtown Ashland yesterday. All reports thus far, and I will share it with you later in the week. We received confirmation and some emails from the production team, and they were absolutely thrilled with Ashland, not only our staff and how responsive they were, but the citizens were actually very respectful, even though they were very interested in what was going on. They were very respectful. And it turned out to be actual wonderful experience for want them. And one that I, again, I think helps to build our reputation as a nice place for these types of endeavors. And then my last one in here is just a look ahead. Both for closures as well as opportunities. So June 19th will be June 10th. So town offices will be closed for that holiday. But on June 22nd, the Hanover County NAACP will be holding an event at the Randolph-Macon campus. It's at the fountain area. It would encourage all of you to go to the Hanover NAACP website. They've got a nice flyer there that will give you a little bit more details. I believe it's 12 to 5 is the time frame. The town is a sponsor and it should be a nice event for everyone a new location That I think actually is going to suit everyone really really well not necessarily right in the middle of the the town wedge out here Near a bunch of cars, but on the campus. I think it'll be really nice With that I'll take any questions that you may have anything I just want to mention because you have it in your notes and The public art Commission and their decision on the final design. I just want to share this, because it was beautiful the way they came to their conclusion, because I surveyed my own students, and said, hey, what do you think? And they had a different one that they thought would have won. They thought, for sure. And then they said, how did they get to that position? I said, well, let me show it to you. So I pulled it up, and they got to hear the logic. And after they heard the logic, they said, it makes perfect sense. So I just... I should have that. People who had no skin in the game really, other than just looking at it. And so I just thought it was cool. I thought the process was put in place perfectly. And I heard really good stuff from the artist didn't get selected and they said that was, thank you, the way it happened was good. I think art is gonna be one of those items as we get further down this road. We all have to accept art is very subjective and we're all gonna have very strong opinions either way. We have to make sure that we get the process for selecting that art right and then trust that the process leads to the result that we want. Mm-hmm. Thank you. Mr. Mayor, before you adjourn I just want to remind council that the next meeting is not on Tuesday But on Monday because we are hosting the congressional primaries here in this room for the Hannah report of elections on Tuesday the 18th so we'll be shifting counsel to the Monday the 17th. All right. Thank you very much for that reminder anything else come before us All right, we're adjourned Yeah