Good evening all. Welcome to the December 19th, 2023 meeting of the Ashton Town Council. We start our meetings off with a moment of silence and you know some people refer to this time of year as a season of giving. There's a there's a lot to that but I'm thinking on a smaller scale. Maybe we just take a moment of silence and reflect on giving. It doesn't have to be real expensive. We can give our time, our attention, our respect and our kindness to people around us. So we will spend a moment reflecting on that. Please join me. Thank you. Our vice mayor Mr. John Hodges is out of the country. He's not with us tonight. He's generally the gentleman who leads us in a pledge of allegiance to the flag, but I've asked our National Police Department chief chief Aaron Holt if you'd come up and lead us in a pledge sir. Yeah, whatever spot is good for you. I pledge allegiance to the fire of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands. One nation under God, individual with liberty and justice for all. Here in the children's voices in that was a nice extra one. Appreciate that. All right, well, before we take up announcement of Council business, next thing on the agenda, I just wanted to make mention of Mr. Allen Abbott is here with us tonight. He's Ashland Citizen and our Ashland District representative to the Hanover County Planning Commission. And also, I wonder why he's here more as we go through the evening. But anyway, thank you for being here. All right. Going over the agenda, we have our consent agenda, which includes a minutes from our December 5th, 2023 meeting. We have our invoices, a resolution accepting sidewalk easement for 702 Maple Street, next referral rezoning 23-1103B in ordinance of 2023-16 Cali Commons. We have a proclamation honoring the service of our economic development authority, Chair Tim Schelton, similar proclamation honoring the service of another EDA member, Mr. Charlie Martin. We'll have three presentations. The first one, proclamation honoring the service of our council member and friend, Kathy Abbott. We have a presentation from divine assist and update. And we also have a presentation from Ms. Halk on our Carter Park pool performance report. We have citizen input time after that. If anyone was coming forward and speak to council on a matter other than, well, we don't have a public hearing anyway, but any matter. Matter that someone was come up, that'd be at that citizen input time. We have two action items. They're Route 54, median landscaping project, IFB 2020306, and we have appointments to the Economic Development Authority and Park and Recreation Committee, where reports from our planning and community development department, Ms. Amos, and our police department from Chief Aaron Holt, and then a discussion, some farewell sentiments, and farewell for however long with anyway. You're not leaving the country as far as I know. Do we have consensus for the agenda as presented? Yes. All right, thank you very much. All right, well that will bring us to our consent agenda, and I ask whether there's any questions, comments, or a motion concerning our consent agenda. I motion that we pay the bills and approve the consent agenda as presented. And I second. You're here. Question, Mayor Hodgson, this action, Dr. McGraw. Aye. Miss Abbott. Aye. Miss Barnhart. Aye. Mayor Trebert. Aye. McGraw. Aye. Ms. Abbott. Aye. Ms. Barnhart. Aye. Mayor Trebet. Aye. All right. Thank you. All right. So that brings us to our first presentation here. Proclamation honoring the service of Councilmember Kathy Abbott. I want to read the proclamation here. It's long, but it's due. Whereas Kathleen, Kathy Kennedy Abbott, was elected to town council during regularly scheduled municipal election with her term commencing on July 1, 2016 and was reelected overwhelmingly in 2020 by the citizens of Ashland to serve a second term on council. And where has Miss Abbott represented Ashland in the town council with grace and the highest levels of advocacy on such local and regional groups as the Ashland Theatre Foundation, the Downtown Ashland Association, Plan RVA, Richmond Regional Transportation Planning Organization, Richmond Region Tourism, and most recently was a driving force behind the creation of the Ashland Public Arts Commission. And whereas prior to serving on the town council, and in some cases currently, Miss Abbott served such community organizations to include the Ashland Community Theater Foundation, the Hannah Ver Arts and Activities Center, the Ashland Museum, the Ashland Main Street Association, Train Day Committee, Ashland Musical Variety Show, and countless years involved in various parent-teacher associations. And I know there's more. Whereas Miss Abbott brought a wealth of knowledge to her duties from being a 20-year resident of Ashland holding a bachelor's degree from John Hopkins University, growing up in White Plains, Maryland, and preparing for a time on council by attending the Aslan citizens academy in 2016. And whereas Miss Abbott leveraged her digital technical acumen to start one of the first, if not the first, digital newsletter, the town helm. And more recently brought to life the Ashland Railfan in such a way as to put Ashland on the international map of train enthusiasts across the globe. And whereas during her tenure, Miss. Abbott's leadership was highly valued by staff and fellow town council members, and was always the voice of diplomacy and advocacy, her ever present calm strength helped lead the town through the COVID-19 pandemic. She advocated for the rights of all and strive to ensure that Ashland would fulfill its potential as a great regional tourism destination. And whereas Miss Abbott continued to pardon me, continued the longstanding tradition started by then Vice Mayor, it says back to Billy Martin. I thought it was Ned Henson and continued by Vice Mayor Ned Henson of moving to approve the consent agenda and pay the bills. And now therefore be it proclaimed that the town council of the town of Ashland, Virginia does this day express and record its appreciation in respect for the outstanding service and contributions of council member Kathy Abbott and desires her every success in her future endeavors. Data this 19th day of December 2023. All right, and at this point we'll go ahead and have the official vote and then we'll stand and ask the audience to participate in their support and favor of this proclamation. Very good. Is there a motion to approve this proclamation? So moved. Second. I'm sorry. Aye. Thank you. I'm sorry to hear you. Vice Mayor Hodges is absent. Miss Barnhart. Aye. Dr. McGraw. may your trivet. I All right, please join me Now we've got a we've got a presentation of the plaque and yori, I think, have one brick that this is a... Another brick we want to come down and take a photo. Someone else may carry the brick. Yes, that would be good. Can we carry it? Yes, ma'am. Carry the brick. They have to be good. Hold it away from me. That's what you're saying. Is that a view? Yes. I'm holding away from you. That's what you're saying. All right. You all come on around here. Maybe one of each side. Whatever works. There we go. All right. So, yeah. There we go. Make it official. One, two, three. Oops. All right. Did you have this by the side? All right. And, um, this is where I present. Yes. Dr. Moore. We've got an apple of the Richmond plan and, uh, the plan RBA, the Richmond Planning District, or all 17 jurisdictions, coming together. This is where I present. Yes. Dr. Moore. We've got an apple of the Richmond planning, the plan RBA, the Richmond Planning District, of all 17 jurisdictions come together and you've been working with me on that council. They want to present what we all present you with recognition of your service. So for those who don't know the Richmond Regional Planning District overseas or just advises or councils, if you will all of the different locations they don't make decisions about localities but they're there to assist localities so we've been able to reach them and just feel Hannah and you know our our small town gets a voice at the table it's nice that to have participation in Kathy and Pinnett Bigheart. part of it. Thank you. There you go. There you go. This is it. This is it. This is it. This is it. This is it. This is it. This is it. This is it. This is it. This is it. This is it. This is it. This is it. This is it. This is it. This is it. This is it. This is it. This is it. This is it. This is it. This is it. This is it. This is it. This is it. This is it. I'm going to give you a hand by hand. Thank you. Thank you all. Thank you all. All right. Now, we get that presentation, and that was very pleasant. Now, we move on to another pleasant presentation from Devine Assist. Miss Wandafara? There we go. One last. Good evening everyone. Good evening. Such a pleasure to be before you this evening. We come before you this evening, the divine assist, our board members and some of the you from the U Center are here today to acknowledge the talent of Ashwin, talent council, all of you guys. We want to thank you for just supporting us with the youth center. We're coming up on our year anniversary of being in the youth center and we've done so much, the kids have done so much and we couldn't have done it without you guys. So we just wanted to show we can't not repay you but we want to show some type of appreciation to you guys. So we have a small clip we would like to show to you guys and then we'd like to present you with something else. Okay? Thank you. I'm so nervous, I'm so nervous. You turn the ass in for the new season. Thanks to Asperger for inviting the game from the other front-end to the back of the house. It's the whole world. It's not going to join the game. The emphasis is really putting our team forward to the show. I'm gonna have to shoot. Ah! Yeah! There we go! I'm gonna die here, I'm gonna die here, I'm gonna die here, I'm gonna die here, I'm gonna die here, I'm gonna die here, I'm gonna die here, I'm gonna die here, I'm gonna die here, I'm gonna die here, I'm gonna die here, I'm gonna die here, I'm gonna die here, I'm gonna die here, I'm gonna die here, I'm gonna die here, I'm gonna die here, I'm going to sing it again. I'm going to sing it again. I'm going to sing it again. I'm going to sing it again. Wow. I'm not a real man, I'm not a real man, I'm not a real man, I'm not a real man, I'm not a real man, I'm not a real man, I'm not a real man, I'm not a real man, I'm not a real man, I'm not a real man, I'm not a real man, I'm not a real man, I'm not a real man, I'm not a real man, I'm not a real man, I'm not a real man, I'm not a real man, I'm not a be a part of it I'm going to be a part of it I'm going to be a part of it I'm going to be a part of it I'm going to be a part of it I'm going to be a part of it I'm going to be a part of it I'm going to be a part of it I'm going to be a part of it I'm going to be a part of it I'm going to be a part of it I'm going man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm They are a few cherry on, you're not there for it won't be long So, I went out like we were at the know that we know that we know that we know that we know that we know that we know that we know that we know that we know that we know that we know that we know that we know that we know that we know that we know that we know that we know that we know that we know that we know that we know that we know that we know that we know that we know that we know that we know that we know that we know that we know that we know that we know that we know that we know that we know that we know that we know that we know that we If you guys would come forward, we would love that. Hi. You too, darling. Driving a couple of ships up here, one. Okay. Driving a couple ships up here one. Well on behalf of divine assist we would like to present this plaque to you all to the Ashland town town government because without your help we wouldn't be where we are today. You guys have gone the extra mile to help us. And what I really liked about it was that you were a steady hand and making sure and helping us to go down this path the right way. If there was a mistake, if there was something all to kill to, we met together, there was no animosity, We set down and together We saw that that's how we solved the problems in our community Not by arguing and yelling at each other but by talking to each other By sitting down with a lot of love and a lot of understanding and that's what we need That's what been so proud. That's what makes me proud about being a part of this I want to think why don't for asking me to do this. You know, because I was sitting there home doing nothing. And taking care of mom. And I tell you, it's been a real trip. I can't be there myself a lot of life, because I'm a caretaker. But what Wanda and the committee have done, and with the help of the U-All, it's just been tremendous. In one year, in one year, we have put together a program, we found a place to lease. It's been up and running. We got people to come in, we did remodeling. We fixed the place up, and the kids are coming like crazy. And this is one year. One year. I mean, it's just been tremendous. And so on behalf of the Vinocists, I'd like to present the Ashrin and Town government with this plaque as a token of our appreciation, sincere appreciation to what you all have done for us. And oh yeah, yeah, I want to say read it. Yeah, you're right, because I get up here and start talking. You know what I mean? Excuse me. Let me get my radio voice. With our greatest appreciation presented to the Ashland town government in recognition of your outstanding commitment and dedication to divine assist. Thank you. So how are we going to take this picture? We'll come over to you guys. There we go. One, we'll get on the other side there. Yeah, so, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah All right. Thanks for the thank. Thanks for what you all do. Thank you. Happy holidays. Well, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Happy holidays. Oh, sweet. Oh, no box. I think it's the spike. Wow. And this is also going to be a pleasant presentation. Yeah, yeah. All right. Car park pool. Thank you. Miss Hope. That's not good. Are you plugged in? Yes. The adapter. Are you plugged in? Yes. The adapter. Here? Sorry. I'm a millennial who doesn't understand technology. Thank you. This is why I should have tested it before. It's all good. All right. Let's see if it comes up. Here we go. You guys are going all the way to the end. All right. Good evening. Thank you so Good evening. Thank you so much for having me here tonight. I am in the House of Parks and Recreation Manager, and I am excited to talk to you about our 2023 Carter Park Pool season. The season was phenomenal. There are lots of great additions to the pool. Attendance was great. And so with that, we'll kind of jump into what was new at the pool this year. Well we got a slide yay thank you guys so much for your support in purchasing and installing the slide. They were such a hit and I really think that you'll see that in the numbers when I talk about kind of getting into the nitty-gritty but aesthetically too, they just added so much to the pool and to the experience and to the vitality of the facility. So, yep, we have the lap lanes. The, you know, not pictured here is the Kitty pool, which is also really popular than the zero depth entry. So, our participation highlights, we had a total attendance of just over 15,000, which was a 13% increase from 2022. But this is despite being nine days shorter of a season than 2022 due to the Hanover County public school schedule. So we had less days that we were open and yet we saw increase in about 2,000 people at the pool. This is individual visits, not individual people just to clarify. The average daily attendance was 202, which is an increase of 42 from last year. Our total membership sold stayed pretty consistent between last year and this year. We sold 308 this year, our last year this year was 293. And our total members relatively the same. Last year we had 1073 members, this year we had 1111. And then we gave out 52 scholarships. The scholarships are a partial or full financial assistance to either an individual or a family membership to the pool. And 18% of our town residents were scholarship recipients. And then out of our total members, 71% were not Ashland residents. So we had 28% of our members were Ashland residents and of that 28%, you know, percent, the 18% that was, were resident members. And then our total 10 pass packs, so that's where you purchase 10 passes to go to the pool. We sold 149 this year, which is consistent with previous years. And you'll see the graph is our daily pool attendance. Our most attended day was July 4th with 470 people coming to the pool in one day. Not all at the same time we do have a good time. What is the capacity just why you're giving that one number? what you're giving that one number? I'm sorry. I think it's around 250. Okay. So it's on a sign. Yeah. Yeah. So our revenues and expenditures, our revenue was up by 18,000 from previous years. But then our expenditures were also up as well. So some of the reasons we saw an increase in expenditure was because of our staffing needs. With the lovely addition of the slide comes the need for risk management and to pace children going down the slide and to monitor and test for height at the top of the slide and then make sure that kids have cleared the bottom before we send another down requiring an additional two life guards to be on stand, which increased our cost. We also had some additional personnel cost by paying for certifications for our lifeguards, whether that was a certification for a brand new guard or a re-certification. We did that as a recruiting piece, which ended up being very successful. We were able to recruit a lot more staff, and there were no days that we were had to close for not being fully staffed, which was great, including having extra staff for parties and some other additional events. So with the debt pool debt taken into account, our cost recovery for the pool was around 54% being a public amenity we're not really looking to have a massive cost recovery since this is a great service that we have for our residents but it's nice that we're able to offset a lot of our expenditures through the revenue that we make from the pool. And working on a regional and national scale, very involved with our regional and our state and national organizations, and we often share how much you have for your pool passes or how much are your memberships. Ashland is doing a great job in keeping our pool memberships really low and Affordable and feasible for our families to take advantage of and have a great place to go in the summer So it makes me really proud to say well, you know, Ashland can do this so On the revenue side of things I just want to note that our day passes we note that our day passes, we made most of our revenue through day passes. So our revenue from membership stayed relatively the same because we sold about the same, but so our day pass revenue was up by about $20,000. As for staffing, we had 36 total staff members. This is more than last year because we had to account for those two additional life guards on stand. We had 24 guards, five assistant pool managers who kind of serve as a supervisor on shift. Five gate guards who are our access and entry and our credit card, you know, in cash handling. One head gate guard which kind of helped manage those guards and then one pool manager who worked full time over the summer as kind of the point person for the pool and managed all the staff. For programming and events, the Ashland Barikutas returned for a season. This is their team photo from this year. They had 176 swimmers. Unfortunately they went 0 and 6 for the season. However, they're very very hopeful for the next season. They won the Lenn Everett Award for the division one, which was the team showing the greatest sportsmanship in each division. And it's actually voted on by other teams. So I think that's a lovely testament to the Ashen community that they won the Sportsmanship Award for their division. The team's 22nd annual Jamie Hess swim marathon raised over $3,500 for cancer research for the Jamie Hess Fund at MCV. And then in addition to the barricutos who practiced in the morning and hosted three swim meets at the pool, we had the YMCA who held swim lessons in the pool. They had 80 swimmers and they ran lessons mainly in the mornings, which they are returning to do next year. We had two dive in movies with over 170 participants. One was sponsored by a local organization, local church, and then the other was a Lual themed party, which was a lot of fun for Parks and Recreation Month. And then finally, we hosted five after hours pool parties. So that's parties from 8 to 11 p.m. when the pool has closed to the general public. And they refer things like birthday parties, a graduation party. So it was nice to be able to offer that to our community. So looking forward to next year. Our pool will once again open from Memorial Day to Labor Day. We will be open seven days a week beginning Memorial Day because that is when school gets out. They get out earlier so we'll open a seven days a week and then move to a weekend schedule. Once school goes back in session we're anticipating another very exciting season. Looking forward to the Bearcuda's NYMCA joining us and just having a lot of fun. Can't wait to go down the slide again. So this cold weather has a swishing for those sunny pool days. Any questions? Anyone? Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I like having a fun job. Excuse me. That brings the citizen input time. Just invite anyone who would like to come forward and speak to council on any matter. Just come up at this time. See in no one coming. We'll go ahead and close citizen input time and move to our first action item. Route 54 median and Landscaping Project, IFB 2023-06, Miss Amos. You didn't say mine was going to be fun. I'm excited. It's fun for me. It's fun for me. It's fun. Okay, so I have this, for the record, I think this might be the first one of these I've brought to you. So I got some lessons from Mr. Jennings. Hopefully this goes well. It's for the project Route 54 Media and Landscaping Project. I'm very excited to present this to you this evening. What we're requesting is that the town council review the proposal and authorize the town manager to enter into a contractor in agreement with James River Nursery to perform work as outlined in that official IFB 2023-06 for a total budget not to exceed $119,281.98. So just to give a brief project summary, this is for the Route 54 median along on 54 between Route 1 and 95. If you all are anything like me every time you drive by or like, er, I don't want to look at it. But it's going to be gorgeous soon. So we're going to remove some of that aging vegetation that was probably some of it was put in for a similar project back in 2008. So it's over 2007, 2008. So it's over 15 years old. A lot of the Hollies in particular at the intersection have lived their lives. There's some juniper out there that its main purpose right now is collecting trash. And so, and then the grass just needs to be receded, so all of that will be taken care. We're going to come back and replace it with new perennial plants, some stones similar to the ones out here at Town Hall that have the different colors, and bring in some railroad ties just to give it a little bit of railroad feel. And also, again, our idea is ideal is to bring people in from the interstate into downtown. And so just carrying that story along 54. There'll be some new trees and shrubs, and we do not have irrigation here. We looked at getting irrigation. It's just not possible in this little median strip, but we will be installing tree diapers, and they have a version that goes for shrubs. And so any of our new shrubs will have tree diapers, as well as any new trees that get planted. So here's a picture of some of that existing area. So again, the Hollies here, which again, are pretty attractive, especially during the summer, but they've just outgrown their lifespan. And then the junipers here, and all of this will just be cleaned up, new grass put in, new mulch down the rocks. Here's an overview, not much detail to be seen here. Don't try to look at the detail here, but just to show the scope of the medians from Route 1 all the way down to 95. So that's our project area. Here's a zoom in of what one of those medians could look like with the new plantings at the tips, grass, maintaining those trees. These dark lines here are the new train ties, railroad ties, and then the new stone. Just again visually trying to make that attractive coming into town. So the budget for the project, the capital budget is $127,000 that you have in the budget. The base lump sub bid that we received was $105,617 and then we asked for two bid alternates, just not knowing exactly what the bid would come in. So the base bid came in a little lower than we were expecting. And so those alternates were the tree diaper shrub mats and a larger stone for maintenance, the larger stone. Not only will be more attractive, but it has a better chance of not coming out to the road. And so that's, we'll definitely put in, make significant efforts to make sure the stone doesn't come over the curb, but having the larger stone like that is out here will help with that as well. Again, with the total cost of $119,281.98, we are recommending that you grant authority to the town manager to approve the agreement with James River Nursery, which I should point out they were the only one to place a bid on the project. In that amount to perform the work outlined in IFB 2023-06, we had originally thought that was start in January but with the timing of planting and being able to get access to the perennials that we desire, it'll probably get started in March. All right, any questions? I'm happy to answer any questions. What impacts on traffic? Do we anticipate while the work is going on? So there will probably be at least one lane of traffic closed just so they can get their equipment in. Possibly two, but we're going to try to keep it to one. And they do have an company that will handle that for them. And in terms of duration, do we have any idea? It should be done in less than a month, hopefully. If they can get all of the supplies, hopefully within two weeks. The signs that are out there now, any changes to them, staying the same place? So the banner sign will stay the main street sign we've worked with downtown Ashland, that will probably go. Okay. And then there will also be a sign clutter cleanup if there are signs that we can take out. Okay. All right. And the other side. Yeah. Do we have a motion concerning this? Well, I'm ready. I move to grant authority to the town manager to approve the agreement with James River Nurseries and corporate it with a total budget of $119,281.98. Interesting figure. To perform the work as outlined in. 2023-06. Zero second. Okay. We'll motion the second. Dr. McGraw. I miss Barnhart. I miss Abbott. Vice Mayor Hodges is absent. Mayor Chavette. I. All right. Thank you. Thank you. You. All right. thank you. Thank you. Yeah. All right, next action item, appointments. We have two gentlemen who will use the word, our retiring from our economic development authority. Mr. Tim Shelton and Mr. Charlie Martin, between the both of them, I guess I'd say decades, a lot of years on that. And anyway, we're wanting to thank them for their service. And we will have a little celebration with them in the near future, but just want to express our appreciation to the two of them. They let us know in advance what their plan was on retirement. And so we put notice out and ask individuals in the community. There was any interest in serving on the EDA until let us know. And there was a number of great applicants. And with those applicants we interviewed a number of them and we are vice mayor joined with me and with staff and doing the interviews and with vice mayor Hodges agreement. I want to move to a point, Mr. Denise Watkins and Mr. Sean O'Brien to feel the unexpired terms of Mr. Charlie Martin and Mr. Tim Shelton on the economic development authority with terms ending December 31st, 2026. Second. All right. Ms. Barnhart. Aye. Dr. McGraw. Aye. Vice Mayor Hodges is absent. Ms. Abbott. Aye. Mayor Tavett. All right. Thank you. And we have further. Yes, we do. The Park and Recreation Committee has two members that are retiring. Excuse me, one is Mr. Rob Dull and the other one is Miss Judy McKenna. Their terms will be ending at the end of this month so we needed to fill those seats. And I'd like to just say that we too had some incredible people who applied for these positions just really happy that people around town are very interested in serving in our parks and the rec committee. I want to make sure that we before I make the motions I'd have two of them. I just want to extend our appreciation to those two citizen leaders for their dedication to our town. They they have served two terms and we are very happy for them and we're very grateful for their time and efforts. The first motion I'd like to make, I'd like to move to reappoint the following Park and Recreation Committee members for a second term that will end December 31st, 2027. And that is for Ms. Chelsea Frakes, Ms. Carolina Lugo, and for Ms. Annette Schott's. And so that's my first motion. Second. Vice Mayor Hodges is absent. Miss Barnhart. Hi. Miss Abbott. Dr. McGraw. Hi. Mayor Trevet. Hi. You know? I second. I want to move to the actual parking recreation. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. That's right again. I have magic. I'm sorry. That's right. Magic. I like to move to a point two new members to the park and the commission committee pardon me for a term any December 31st, 2027 and that will be Ms. Joyce Smith and Mr. Drew Maloy and both of them are graduates of our Citizens Leadership Academy as well as obviously being very interested in the Park and Rec Committee. All right. All right. Second. Miss Abbott. Aye. Miss Barnhart. Vice Mayor Hodges is absent. Dr. McGraw. Aye. Mayor Trevett. Aye. All right. Thank you very much. Thank you. Yeah. And as you say, always appreciate the citizens that volunteer their time on different commissions and boards. So thank you very much. All right, that brings us to reports and we invite Ms. Amos back for some more fun planning and community development departments and reports. Thank you. It will be fun, I promise. Department of the Department of the Port. Thank you. It will be fun. I promise. We've had some fun business openings the past couple months and so I apologize I haven't been here in a couple months my son played football and I appreciate the opportunity to be able to see him play And then also to give some of my staff the opportunity to come and present to you all. I know they did a fabulous job, so thank you for welcoming them. But so I do need to catch up here on some updates. So from the October meeting, which I'm the October staff report, management report, we received approval, approval of our community rating system, recertification. So again, for a reminder, this is the program that gets a discount for our homeowners who have flood insurance through the National Flood Insurance Program. They are able to get a discount through the certification. And so we are renewed for another year. Ms. Cornelia Spurnedette Cornelia's, who was our administrative assistant, has a new title as the Planning and Pre-Development Clerk. She's been going through the process to become a clerk through the state system. And I think this title is more fitting with the role and position that she has taken on here. We're also excited that she and a few other staff members have entered into the new career development program. And so she's looking forward to moving up through that. The comprehensive plan, my update for the month, is that the Planning Commission made a recommendation to you all after holding a public hearing at their December meeting last month. And so we got a really good presentation from Miss Ragland about the updates and what has changed and had some feedback on the land use, but really not much other than that from the public hearing. And that will come to you all at your second meeting in January. We held a neighborhood cleanup for the Star Corridor back in October, I believe, and we've had all positive comments. When we've done this in the past, there were a couple people who weren't thrilled I could clean up for the Star Corridor back in October, I believe. And we've had all positive comments. When we've done this in the past, there were a couple people who weren't thrilled with a few things, but so far, unless you all have heard anything different, everyone was really pleased with the efforts. And so we partnered with Randolph-Making College to make sure we were promoting their big day event and then, or their big event. And then also with Habitat for Humanity they have a program for housing revitalization and renovations and so we made sure we were sharing that information along with providing a dumpster for neighborhood cleanup And then we held an opening for Mary Ann's Wigs and toppers back on November 14th Thank you to all who were able to attend that. And then the root modern dentistry of ribbon cutting was held on December 19th. I'm sorry, December 9th. Let me go back here. The next one. So the November Manager Report. And we've had several new businesses come to town. So if you have any questions about those, they're always included. Our new business licenses are included within the Manager Report. But if you have any questions about those, just let me know. Five guys opened in November, and then Popeyes opened last Thursday with a grand celebration. That's been a lot of years coming, probably at least seven or eight years coming. I feel like since Burger King closed, and so we're happy to have that property reopened. And then I'm also excited to share that Carrie Ragland, our principal planner, passed her certified zoning official exam. And so as now, I certified zoning official through the Virginia Association of Zoning Officials. Yay, so happy to answer any questions. I light anything else that I missed. Anything else? Any comments? Yeah. Great, thanks. A lot's going on. One thing I noticed when you report, and I just noticed know. Great, thanks. A lot's going on. One thing I noticed on your report, and I just noticed the number itself. And I guess that's the October one. Let's say this is November, but midway down your report page. Yes, sir. And it talks about zoning and planning inquiries. 1,938. You know, understand that, you know, that's every phone call that comes in. Not probably every phone call, but yes, sir. But just the volume, because if you're in, and you all do provide good customer service, somebody calls with a simple question, you can't really give a quick answer about a zoning inquiry. And so appreciate that staff gets as much done as you do, and then you have almost 2000, just the phone calls themselves if you add up the math, there are a couple of minutes each on those. So anyway, thank you, thank you, and you're staying for that. Yes, sir, and I promise you, we don't count every phone call, nor do we count every email. Just some ones where we are actually having to provide information and responsive on zoning type questions, planning zone type questions. Because I know, I guess for myself and my peers, I get a few phone calls from time to time from the community, but nothing like that. So anyway, hats off to y'all. Thank you. All right, thank you. All right, Our next report, uh, police department chief Ann Holt. Mr. Mayor, members of town council inside your pack. All right. I won't have to keep happening. Oh, you'll have your, uh, month airport from the police department for the month of November. PAPER CLICKS I drummed a little. Almost stand over here a little bit from the case that goes up. I do have to admit there was an error in my month airport reviewing it. It should have just showed that there's a year to date difference of 30 positive incidents over 2022. This was because it did not register a negative for the homicide that we had last year. We have not had any this year. So I just wanted to indicate that that was there. Just in case there's any discrepancies that are brought up. So I'll submit a amended report to Chief Goodman indicating that the correct numbers. As I said to you, the last meeting, we did have an increase in part one crimes. We would have been only up one, but unfortunately, as any case in the last meeting, we did have an individual who had done a historic amount of shoplifting at a local grocery store. And because of that, that did skew the numbers. So if you look at the report, and if anyone has any questions, I'll try to clarify further. But if you look at the report you'll see that we actually had eight fewer incidents this month than we did when compared to last year. But because of the fact that 29 shoplifting shoplifting's happened in previous months that did skew the numbers and that's why we had the increase. We should have only had an increase of one. However, given the fact this individual did the shoplifting that did skew the numbers. We did obtain 29 warrants so our clearance rate as I'd say in the last meeting is abnormally high as well. Also this month we did attend the valor wars and I would like to thank the manager and you, Mr. Mayor, for attending us. With us, it was great to be there. I'd be all support. It's not you, Chief. There's something else. It's not you. It was great to have that support and recognize the accomplishments of local police officer. Honour to be there. Thank you so much for attending. great to have that support and recognize the accomplishments of local police officer. Honour to be there. Thank you so much for attending. In that line, we also had some exceptional work from three of our officers, Sergeant Sterneman, Officer Grot and Johnson, assisted in life art at the YMCA and doing life-saving measures and individuals having some problems that the pool do their actions. This mail sub-bict to survive and they were recognized by the Henter-Fired Department for their for their accomplishment. So we will follow up with our own awards a later date but there was some some publicity given so I just wanted to give a give some accolades now and we'll follow up some more later. This month with thanks you see me last month with thanks, excuse me, last month with thanks for the promise. We assisted with delivery of turkeys for our adopted seniors, officer chipwats spearheaded that, so very appreciative of that. Also, we had the light up the tracks. Very tense was very high, but we did not have any reported problems, so happy to report there were no issues. Also, we had the Christmas parade, it was a great event, no issues there, other than I think we had an acocard, it's stuck on the railroad tracks, but I don't think it warranted a report or anything, so we were good. On the hiring front, happy to report that Officer Lodell has successfully completed the Academy and her state certification exam. She will begin her eight week field training process, so looking forward to getting her out in the field as quick as possible. Also in that line, I do have to say that we also did have one of our officers, Seminter Resignation, Officer Lance Bell has taken a position with Virginia State Police, and today was his last day with us, so we were sad to see him go, but on a positive line, we also have three recruits that are getting ready to graduate to the police academy in March. So even though this was a setback, we are definitely making strides moving in the right direction. So with that, I'll be happy to answer any questions you may have about the month or four. Questions or comments? Always wonderful. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for everything you've done for us. From behalf of the members of the police department. We appreciate everything and all the support you've shown us. Oh, thank you. So thank you so much for everything you've done. My pleasure. Thanks, Larry. Thank you. That's sure what Grimmlin is bothering us tonight, but we can, we'll endure that, not a problem. Now we just had a note there about farewell sentiments for Councilmember Addett and just wanted to have opportunity whether you want to say more. I think Dan, you had some things you wanted to read as well. Correct? Yes. I was thinking I would write a speech of thank you and gratitude. And then I said, well, let me just do a Christmas card of thank you and gratitude. And after I did one, I wasn't enough, so I did a second one. It's incredibly awesome how you and your family as a whole embody Ashlyn. And everywhere I go to events, I see you, I see your family members whenever I need it help. I kind of look forward not. I'm trying to respect the rule etiquette, so it's hard. No, I'm not looking at you. But it's just you embody what it means to be Ashlyn. When people say what makes Ashlyn Ashlyn, it's the businesses, what it means to be, Ashley. And when people say what makes Ashley and Ashley, and it's the businesses, the people, the service, the gratitude, the lights, the creativity, the quirkiness, everything. And I really feel like you and your family embody that. And so I'm going to read some things I wrote. And I don't know if they're going to be teary-eyed or not. I just wrote just the way I felt. I said, dear Kathy, I hope you and your family have a lovely, Ameri Christmas. It has been a pleasure and honor to serve alongside of you on the council. I appreciate all of the time you answered my calls and helped understand so many of the tasks, slash decisions we've had before us. I appreciate the time Alan has given me as well, and I adore seeing your amazing children taking part in the community. Your role in the virtual ran tail is amazing. Not only have you been able to help solve mysteries and sleuthing up things, but you've also almost brought, you've almost created an entire own community within that. There's even a greater community that extends worldwide now. Always felt that I learned a little more about the town, how business supports each other in the community and the best ways to get involved from your comments at council. Thank you for being such a strong advocate. You are what makes Ashlyn Ashlyn. That's the first one. Oh. I'll put it back in here so you have to open it again if you want to read it again. Second, when I don't start with deer because I already did it before so I just start with Kathy. Kathy, I want to say thank you for the many years of community service. Every time I need to cover a jet of meeting, you are always saying yes. Every time we need creativity or leadership on a unique project, you are always ready to help out and lead when necessary or follow when that was needed. Honestly, I don't know how we are going to do the parade. I don't know. I do not know what the future will bring, but there is no replacement for your spirit and enthusiasm. I hope that you will be back on Council in the near future. I love your vision for parades over the years. I admire your deep understanding of how various parts of the town fit together. And I will miss your motion to approve the consent agenda and pay the bills. Honestly, you're the only council member I know that has her own tagline. So thank you. Thank you, Pam. You're here. You're here, it's quite excellent. Well mine is not nearly as long, certainly as heartfelt. Council member Abbott, I too would like to thank you for your service to the town of Ashland and also to your dedication and your concern for all of our citizens. You can rest assured that you have definitely made a difference, a positive difference in this community. And I have no doubt that you are going to continue to find ways to make further contributions to our community and I'm appreciative of that. Thank you. Thank you. I have talked so much in the past. I have a little to say tonight. And I expected. I'll be talking to you again. I know that I approached you about considering and being the mayor a number of years ago. And you said, no Steve, I think you should be the man. It caught me off guard, but it really encouraged me. You helped put wind in my sails. That way I really appreciate that. I've got friends and other parts of the world now through your rail fan, 92-year-old gentleman in England at Penn Pound Hall, and he speaks about you and tell Miss Abbott such and such. So you have worldwide fame from this. But anyway, as has already been said, a lot of respect for you. And it isn't always easy and the issues we face shouldn't be easy because they're serious at times as well. But I've never seen you flustered. Now sometimes you come in the door like you know about a minute for the meme but I've never seen you flustered or haven't any kind of attitude that wasn't always pleasant. So just thank you for the wind and my sales, the wind and our sales. And we wish you well. And all the other things you're going to be doing with the time you spend here, because we know you're not going to just sit. So our hats are off to you. Thank you very much. No, thank you. Thank you very much. And May,? Yes. So it's hard to split between, I want to say a lot personally to you, but I want to speak on behalf of the staff, of course. And so I tried to narrow it down into a few things, but largely it's thank you. You've been in so incredibly supportive to us. Two of the things I found most valuable, and as I reflected on your service to the community You're great at making your point but you're really really good at understanding other people's points And that as a council members really really important your ability to kind of take that public input synthesize it understand what the town schools are the community's goals were Really helped through some of our most difficult times. So I really appreciate that. And then this one's a little personal, but I've really valued over the years, especially as a new manager. I mean, this is my first time doing this. And you were one of the ones that hired me, is that encouragement to hire the best and let those people do what they do. That simple little thing of, you know, go do this. Get the best people. Make sure that you have the best people and let them run and we won't hold you back with the creativity that those great staff will be able to provide. That as a new manager has just really allowed me to kind of fill my sales as well and do what I'm supposed to do. So, very much appreciate that and from the staff we have a little gift for you as well. Aw. You can choose whether you open it now or at home it doesn't matter to us but... I think the people will want to see. You're right. Aw, that's lovely. You probably can't see it, but it's this wonderful little map with Ashland necklace. I love that. Thank you so much. It'll be to the center of the universe and then the other one in there is more your other endeavors. It's like Christmas. Because I do. Thank you for everything. Thank you. Please tell everyone on set that this is just delightful. Now, if you don't have to, but if you'd like to. No, I do. It's just kind of getting through it without getting terri-eyed. Obviously, I've absolutely adored my time on council, spend an absolute joy and honor and privilege to serve with you all. I value all of your thoughts and consideration of everything that we've come before us. And I've had the blessing of working with, you know, two very extraordinary councils, you know, I think. And it's just made everything so delightful, even when decisions are tough. I think we always had each other's backs. And I think the fact that we had so few dissenting votes on things speaks tremendously to our ability to kind of work through and come up with solutions that work. And I'm incredibly grateful to you all. I'm incredibly grateful to Mr. Farrah. He's an extraordinary town manager. And I remember we nearly had to beg him to apply because he wasn't sure he was ready. We knew that he would be an amazing town manager and you know we were right. And you know it's not just his business acumen and his personal creativity. It's his ability to pull together an amazing staff. And I'm so grateful to staff. The folks who've been here for years, in some case, decades, and all the new talent that Mr. Farrah has brought on, they made my job. They're so thorough and so innovative. They've just made my job. And're so thorough and so innovative. They've just made my job, and I think all of our jobs so much easier and let us focus on policy and decision-making and vision. And so that has been so delightful. I guess I want to give a shout out to Pam Sappal. I think she'll be an extraordinary counsel person. She was incredibly dedicated to learning and was very committed to this job before she even had it. And I think she's going to be a terrific team member, so welcome Pam. And lastly, I just want to thank my family. It's been, you know, over seven years of missing me at meals and going to meetings and they've always just been hugely supportive and encouraging. And I love that my kids have been involved with Ashland since they were little and continue. You'll see two of them at the theater on a lot of nights. So with that I just want to say thank you. Thank you. Back at you. Back at you. Thank you. I held it together pretty well. Yeah. Did you know why we do a journalist? Oh, thank you. And with that, my term in this meeting is adjourned. Excellent.