Good evening. This is our second budget work session for the 2526 budget year. Thank you for being here. Before we get started, entertain a motion concerning remote participation for our vice mayor. Yes, pursuant to Virginia code section 2.2-3708.3B&D, vice mayor Hodges notified us this morning that he would not be able to attend tonight's meeting in person and would like to participate by electronic means remotely. I'm assuming this is the motion you're talking about. Yeah, there's a motion below that, but go ahead and finish it with the sentence below. Okay, through the power of the technology, vice-merchered, Hodges will be joining us tonight from his home in Ashland due to medical necessity. This remote participation meets the requirements of Council policy, COU-114, electronic participation in town council meetings. All right, is there a motion to confirm that this request is within council policy, COU 114 and is approved? Yes. Yes, all right. So, we're so moved. Miss Barnhart moved, Dr. McGraw second? Yes. Yes, I heard. Okay. Miss Opal, aye. Miss Barnhart, aye. Dr. McGraw. Aye. Vice Mayor Hodges. Aye. All right. Mayor Turette. Aye. All right. Thank you. For a second. Thank you. Well, there we have a full team here tonight. And we'll get on down to business. I'll turn it over to Mr. Fair. Sure. We'll kick us off this evening, Mr. Mayor, as we work into our second budget work session. First thing we're going to touch on is just a little bit of where we've been and where we're going. So we had our unofficial budget public hearing in February. That is a time for anyone to come speak to us before. We've even started putting ink on the paper of what the budget might look like in the future. Make sure that their voices are heard loud and early. We are now in the next two sections, which are our budget work sessions. Tonight we will do the second of those. And as we move further down the line, in April I will present the town manager's budget. That is basically the department heads of middles with council guidance, community input, and then getting it to a balanced budget that would be presented to you then. We would then do the public hearings in early May and wait for adoption until June because we cannot vote on the same day as we do the public hearings. I will make one note in the red sections that you see in the wording here, the earlier citizens or anyone can provide input, the more valuable it is. It just allows us more time to operationalize those changes should anyone have them. So now is a great time to still come and talk to us. We're going to start putting the town managers budget together probably next week but still time to have your input really heard and then next opportunity would be at the public hearings in May. So tonight we are going to touch on a number of things, what we call outside organization funding applications and that includes DAA, DEICC. I will stop using acronyms, downtown Asheron Association, Dominguing Energy Innovation Center, the Asheron Foundation, and a new one which I'll be presenting to you moments of hope. But as a slight change to the agenda, we would like the opportunity for anyone from fire or ambulance to speak to us at this time, just to give them the opportunity to not have to necessarily sit through all the budget presentations and get their voice heard early. We will then move on to planning community development, economic development, public safety. Doug will give you a very thorough presentation of our American Rescue Plan Act and while there are some budget carri overs into the next fiscal year, this is very much a retrospective look at all the ways we spent that money over the last three years and is a really great comprehensive report on that. And then at the end we obviously want to ask for Council discussion and guidance and thoughts that you may have. You will see throughout the agenda interspersed our opportunities for citizen input and so we will make sure that we have those opportunities as well. But as we move forward, I'm ready to jump in unless council do you have any questions or anything before we start? Good to go. All right. So we are going to move on to outside of organization funding requests and why don't we start with downtown, Ashland Association, if you want to make... It was a fire. Either, I mean, I don't know that either I'm going to take so long that, yeah. Good. The remainder of the three there will actually be presented by staff and so we'll move to fire next. Good evening, town council. Greatly appreciate your time and your ear. First like to thank you guys for hearing our budget request. Also we, after a little bit of negotiating, consulting with Josh, admitted our budget. We made that budget at a time where we were very optimistic. We have since seen some things happen in the overall economy that may affect our request. So we submitted an amended budget. And do you all have copies? I have a copy of that. They were sent to get this morning. OK, excellent. All right. So I wrote down my thoughts just to make sure it goes the way I needed to. So thank you. DA is a request for town fund that's critical to the organization's vision and mission. Mission, more specifically to the organization's operation as it allows for the employment obviously of the executive director, but also help support the organization's financial foundation. Sustainable Foundation will help provide continuity and foster further growth of the organizations endeavors. The investment allows DAA to seek corporate private and grant funded initiatives that contribute to the vitality of downtown Ashland, but also drop tourism to the town as a whole, equally important and helps provide further funding for vital contractors that drive everything from community engagement on our part to fundraising and also extensive marketing that continues to grow an exponential rate, especially throughout the region and beyond. So, our budget request for this year was at 135,000, which would be an increase of 44,000. And that increase was mainly to support the transition from a costly contract labor to a full-time operations lead, which would be providing a year round strategic coordination, previously to me being onboarded for different events or just different endeavors we would seek outside contractors. And what I've found in my first eighth and odd months is that the lack of continuity or if we lose a contract, we lose that institutional knowledge and the things that come along with having someone in place full of time. And also in that time we've discovered that one of our contractors is extremely gifted at what she does and has tremendous value. So what I've done in the first eighth to nine months was kind of consolidate those contracts that we were sending out to two or three people and to kind of one role, so to speak, contract it role. And what the aim is is to kind of solidify that. So that from year to year, as we continue to grow as an organization, grow our events, grow reach, our marketing, that it's the same person that's developing these relationships throughout the community, which balances my administrative and my executive role because I'm able to go out and fundraise and build relationships with stakeholders, things that are nature, which kind of makes us a whole organization. Unlimited promise there with downtown Ashley Association. That couple with our board with just amazing and just gifted board. I mean, I said not think about what it would take to pay them consulting fees, right, just the brilliance we have. So we have all the ingredients that kind of push forward over the next couple of years and really represent Ashley in a real way. So my goal over the first eight to nine months was cutting down expenditures so you guys can see that we're financially responsible with the funds that we do raise and that you guys do invest in our organization but also show that it is a real need for that full-time person there to handle the things that Lou has been doing as a contractor. So with that said, obviously this budget was crafted in late December to early January and as you all know there's a little bit uncertainty that has come across from the economic standpoint at the national level all the way down. And so I took that into consideration, especially with Josh's guidance and just let me know what it's on is financially. And with the help of our board, proposed an alternative request of just a 10% increase just for cost and production increases to do events, marketing things that add nature. And also a one time, $18,000 allocation for contractor staff augmentation. And I wanted to present both of those because just to be completely honest, high contractor, Lou has done a phenomenal job and I didn't want to do her a disservice. I'm not actually coming and asking for her to be a more integral part about organization, but understanding real world consequences of not being financially frugal in these times. So I wanted to give the town council an option to look at both of those things. But the alternative still shows, still allows us to maintain the momentum that we're building to also, you know, continue our events, continue generating the impact that we have and expanding our reach. There's a lot of interest there, not just in town, but across the region. And that's reflected in a lot of our numbers. So the justification for that increased talent support in FY25, we've already spent roughly 32,000 on contract services. And a good part of that we've actually fundraising internally to offset or cut expenditures without really losing the quality of any of the things that we do as an organization. But that 32,000 is 31% roughly of our expenditures. So it just further shows the picture of the need for just making the second person official. And also the second part of it, which is outlined in the budget request, is that it reduces legal and financial risks associated with contract misclassification, co-employment. So you know, just having the same contract over and over. And I would also think that it goes a long way toward morale. Some of the strategic benefits that I highlighted here, and I'll just go over a couple of them. So from fiscal year 2004 to 25, just in eight months that we've been at this, we've seen our business sponsorship increase here locally from two to 13. Obviously there's a small number but a 550% increase nonetheless. And that's at all through levels, gold, silver, bronze, which are a thousand, five hundred two fifty. So there's a buy-in to what we're doing in the marketing and us being able to show that that market is worth the dollar amount that people spend on sponsorship and the engagement. Our efficiencies much better when you're dealing with multiple contractors obviously you have to keep up with all of them and what they're doing but being able to suggest work with one contract on multiple things it's easier to keep that communication streamlined especially if they have a great relationship with the town and with the board. You just, you really don't find a contract that would all of that, our contract that brings at this moment. And also that contracting role right now, I mean drives tourism and boost business activity activity locally, definitely and helps with the town's effort to increase Ashland's brand awareness throughout the region. So the benefits are there for, and let's see. So, all right, so I won't take up too much time, but that is our budget request of the town investment at the alternative level would be $100,100. I posted it $135,000 from our original request. So if I could pair the analysis with $20,000 of that being staff augmentation. I'm sorry, it would be 120,000, 120,000 being staff augmentation. So, I'd love to open it up for questions or any clarification. You guys should also have the line items in our budget that we sent over if you would like to go over any of that. Or if you have anything further, you would like for me to explain or discuss. Yeah, it's a work session, so feel free to ask and call it as you feel, Ed. Okay, so I think we see if I get the page number right. Page six or six? Correct. It says Downtown Ashland Association, increasing the town's financial contribution towards blah, blah, blah, blah, and then it has one, two, three, four, five bullet points. Okay. I'm on bullet point number five. All right. Better positions downtown Ashland Association to fulfill its commitment to fundraise 150% or more in terms of rate of investment or return on investment, return on investment to the town's contribution. I'm assuming this means that if you're expecting the town to contribute 100,000, you're generating an additional 200,000 in revenue. For FY26, roughly 265,000. That's what you would be, the DAA would be generous. Let this fiscal year, we're on pace with 282,000. And the last two previous fiscal years, we've really exceeded that by, it was a little over 200,000 I think in FY 24 as well Previously to me so numbers like that would help me a lot when I look at this document And though this this is pretty I like the way it's done. I like how simple it is I believe it may be reflected in the second document. I forwarded this edited document, but also our Charger's budget. And at the top, I think it reflects that. But if not, I'm happy to forward it to Doug. Right. So that Antonio did forward the budget. That was one I didn't forward along. I thought that might just be for me. I didn't know that that was going to be something you wanted publicly available. But we'll ship that Okay, that's fair. It just, when I saw the 150% hard to square that with just words, that's all. That's. And just for clarification, that's equivalent. So that's in kind, that's money, that's, that's, uh, actual dollars, et cetera. Okay. But we've been able to not hit those goals but really see those goals. And that's a huge thank you to the board and to lure our contractors in. Previous contractors as well that didn't make it to this budget year. But in also community engagement as well, we have a ton of businesses that support us consistently so yes. Well one the questions I have you do so many wonderful things for our community but I don't think anybody has any idea what those things cost and I don't know if that was included or not you know I don't know how much it costs for light up the tracks or for Halloween or whatever I think it would be really helpful information as well if you give us a ballpark figure. Absolutely. I should have just pulled up the laptop and but I didn't know how much lead way I get to just talk to you guys heads off. So in my 10 years since July light-up contracts cost $3,000 to produce and actual cash. And through sponsorships and donors, we actually ended up generating about $23,000 in cash for that event. And so what we've done, what we've been able to cut expenditures across the board by roughly 30%. And that includes how we pay for events. So more community engagement, more incond donations, more partnerships, and less dollars out the door because dollars are obviously available. But those community partnerships and engaging allows us to do a little bit more with a little bit less on the dollar side. Light up the tracks is one example. Just, and we don't have final numbers yet, but Ashland Train Day is well on the way, and we've received so far a tremendous support. Donors are up across the board, and condinations up across the board, and I would dare say that we won't just be at cost of production for Train Day. It may be a positive fundraiser for the A.A. But I don't have wood in knock-ons, so don't quote me on that, and I can't predict the weather. So, with that said, I hope that answers your question. It doesn't have to be too far. I don't think the community has any idea what it costs, not just in manpower, but the dollars to put those events on for people to enjoy. So, nice for everybody to know. Just a kind of a rough estimate last year is about $29,000. We expect to be significantly lower than that this year. And again, I don't have, is that wood? I feel like I need to walk up and knock on it. But we have work to be very mindful and frugal with our resources because we understand that money doesn't grow on trees, that you have to get out and engage your community and make sure they fill a part of it so that when they coalesce around the idea of train day or anything else, it can be done for less and then people can also get a chance to be a part of it and not just show up to it. Right? So a lot of our businesses are stepped up to either man sections of train day. Of course our first responders, the police and everyone else has been instrumental in planning train day to make sure that it's safe. That's key considering some of the things that have happened over the last few months with large events. So, Train Day is really a community event for the town of Ashland and it draws a large number of people here. And, you know, I was just sitting there thinking about it. Yes, it is an event that brings people to the downtown district. But before they get to the district, they have to come through the town to see the rest of the beautiful parts of Ashland and they have to hopefully stop get gas by snack You know visit some other businesses So it should be a community effort. It should be a community buy-in and that's what we Try to do with these events not just train day, but light up the tracks and anything else that may come down the pipeline All right right. Thank you very much. Thank you. Yes, Mayor. We should. I had a question. Oh, excuse me. Yes, sir. Vice Mayor Hodges. Thank you, Mr. Miller, for the presentation. You all do a great job. This probably is for the town manager. In our MOU is there a percentage of the VA's budget that we try to accomplish or support the town of Ashland. I think the numbers actually work in reverse is their percent of amount raised is based on the amount that we give And so kind of what our base funding is determines how much they have to at least per MOU There's good reasons to raise other amounts of operationally per the MOU though that does dictate what they would have to raise so our In our Contribution is not dictated in the MOU It's a we want to partner we want to continue to invest and make progress on all our goals, but there's no set. We're going to invest this in a certain amount. I see. Based on what we contribute now as a percentage of their budget and you may not have this number available but I would be interested to know if with their amended request which I understand is 121 is that for town contribution is that right? I believe that's about right. Yeah, there's a 10% general increase and then an $18,000 one-time increase. So, $121, what that would represent as a percentage of their fiscal year, 25, 26, a hundred. Based on the spreadsheet that I am going to forward to you shortly, and Tony, I'll have you double-check me, but looks like they've got a calculator in there of if we had, we contributed 121, looks like they could potentially have an investment of 286, which would represent 236% of the budget. You want to take a look real quick or sound about right? 265% I believe. But yeah. yes. Oh, sorry. My apologies. So did you hear that Mr. or can you just say that? Yes, I do. 45% of vice mayor. Yes, that helps me put it in perspective. And so presumably, if I understand it, the downtown Ashton would establish their budget, and we would consider, or we would consider going from that amount, what to contribute. They do put their own budget together and make a request to the town based on what they would need to do for the coming year and then we always have the balancing act of can we afford to do that or not. And so, yes, there's a little bit of a back and forth as they develop their budget to determine how much they need, but they also have to fundraise a component of their own budget based on how much we end up contributing as well. Yeah, and just the relative percentage that we're contributing now versus what they're proposing to raise would be of interest. And I think Mr. Miller has touched on that and I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you, Vice Mayor Hodges. Yes, please. Yeah, if you come forward. Prior here. You would introduce yourself, so the record will show. Hi, I'm Christine Holesman. I'm the treasurer on the board of downtown Ashland. And I thought it might be helpful just talking about all these percentages is that why would we want to increase by 10% or why would we want to augment staff? Because in the last two years, what we've achieved is a tripling of our in-kind donations. What that means is that the businesses in Ashland are paying to put on the marketing, the events, but that's not cash flow for us. We can't use that to pay contractors. We can't use that to pay Antonio or other employees. And so we're looking at a rebalancing of since we're getting so much more in-kind donations, we need help with our cash flow to make sure that we can keep those people involved. And whether they're contract people or full-time people, that's the mix that we're willing to be flexible with and I thoughtenio would give great explanations of the pros and cons of full-time versus contractors. But it's that tripling of in-kind donations that is allowing our overall cash budget to go down while our budget itself remains at, it is growing. We were right around that 250 to 265 year over year the last couple of years. So I just wanted to give you that perspective. That's right, I hope. There's a mix of cash flow versus not cash flow income. All right. Any more questions with that? Mr. Vice Mayor? No, I'm fine. Thank you. All right. Thank you. All right. Thank you both. Thanks. Fire? Yep. All right. Yeah, come on forward, sir. Yep. Good to see you. All right. Thank you both. Thanks. Fire? Yep. All right. Yeah, come on forward, sir. Yep. Good to see you. Good to see you. Thank you for having me. My name is Philip Hutchison. I'm the president and the honorary volunteer district chief of the Ashland Volunteer Fire Company. Mr. Mayor, thank you for having me tonight. Council members, Mr. Town Manager, I appreciate that opportunity. Before I go into any further, I wanted to give you a quick recap of Hano-Wafire EMS and where we fit as Ash and volunteer fire company into Hano-Wafire EMS. So Hano-Wafire EMS is, covers the entire county. We're comprised of 17 stations. The last, the 17th station is currently being finished up in construction and supposed to be occupied somewhere around the middle of April. That's how that works. Because right now we have two stations housed in one building in mechanics bill, so that's kind of tight for them. To focus on the volunteer side because that's where we fit as a component, our station has roughly 18 active qualified volunteers where we are able to respond to calls for emergency and provide services. That represents about 10% of the total volunteers that the county has of 171 active trained volunteers. Those volunteers, those 171 volunteers across the county contributed 53,000 and 44 hours in fiscal year 2024 and that was across operational duty training and community events and stuff like that. So the volunteer component makes up a big piece of Hanover County as well as a big piece here in in the of Ashland. As our patch says we've been around since 1890s, so quite some time. As a whole, the way the town is kind of divvied up within the response districts, the town and some of the, you know, touching parts of the county make up two response districts station one which is us as the fire department in station 16 right over here which is the ash and volunteer rescue squad. They don't have fire trucks and stuff like that so anything that would be like right here at this building this is in station 16's district but if it was a fire call it would be our fire call. So you kind of have to combine some numbers to look at that. But between the two response districts last year, there was roughly 6,329 calls for service. There were 2,319 calls for an engine, a fire engine, to come to. So that's what we responded to. That number, thanks to our community risk reduction group, was down slightly from the previous year. That's been the case across the county except for in one district for 2024. The calls for service were down in most everywhere. So that's a good thing to end over as a whole. They do break out structure fires. So within station 1's district in station 16 there were nan structure fires. The highest single district as a point of reference had 7. So you So that's pretty consistent, pretty average, across the board and stuff like that. So that just kind of gives you a quick recap. I'd be more, if you didn't see it, or you haven't seen it on Hanover's site, something like that, I'd be more than happy to forward to whomever Chief Anderson's report that he gives to the Board of Supervisors on an annual basis, if you would like to preview it and look at it and stuff like that and all those things are in there. I wanted to take the opportunity to thank you for the support that we received in the past. Last year, you all funded us with $5,815, which consisted of three pairs of duty boots, which would be what I'm wearing tonight. We have a specific type that we provide for our responders. That is on the county, the county department approved list that the career staff would be issued in things of that nature. And they're special because they are resistant to blood-borne pathogens, where a traditional boot might allow blood-borne pathogens to soak through just as, you know, your shirt or something like that would. So, we utilize specials through there. We purchased two LED lantern lights, so kind of think of them as a handheld flashlight, if you will, that they're LED, that we needed to replace on our first response vehicle, FR401. They had the old-style bulb and old batteries that get to a point where they don't recharge anymore and things like that. So it only carries two. So we wanted to get those replaced, which we were able to do. We purchased a whole group of various fitness equipment because that's an important part for all of our responders to stay physically fit. So we got things like a stationary bike, wall balls, kettlebells, complete weight set, and a jump box. That's just a box that sits on the floor and you jump up on it and also it just helps you with agility and everything else. We purchased a herst which is your jaws of life. We purchased a device that will take that battery powered device and it's got a plug that's attached to the battery. So if your battery runs out, you take the battery off, you put this device on it and then it's just got a plug where you can plug it into the generator off of a unit. We purchased a training laptop and the mapping software that would go with it so that we could take and better create our pre-plans so that's where the units go out in the district they take a structure our facility and we pre-plan it where the entrance doors where the exit doors where the target hazards that are in that building where are they located So we could take you know just like your architectural drawing or something like that we can take and create one and two and three dimensional pictures of a structure and say that you know okay chemicals are stored over here the kitchen area is over here the predominant workforce would normally be in here during you know work hours or something that. And we also use that for command simulations. So what that does is we can pop up your building here and we can put a fire in there and it's on the big screen TV. So we're using kind of, you know, cinematography, I guess, if you will. We can put a fire in this in a room and then the engine would come in until what they see what they would do how they would attack that fire and then Like everything else you can throw lots of different curve balls adam and say oh, it just did this Which could happen in any real life situations? So it helps train our people who are on the up and coming side and becoming new acting officers. So it gives them some more realistic versions of what's going out there. Think of it kind of like what I guess the military goes through in some of the heads up type training that they have and things like that. And we also purchased a piercing nozzle. So that is a nozzle has got a point on, it's a very heavy metal. And you can actually poke it through the side of a semi-trailer if it was on fire, a box truck. If you had a roof collapse with the town and some of the metal roofs that we have here, if the roof collapsed in, there's going to be a lot of fire underneath of that where you can't get to it because the roof is packed down on top. So you just pierce right through it and that gets a water flow under there to help extinguish some of that. So some of these are specialized pieces of equipment, some on-board day-to-day uses, but it's things that you need to have on board because you have to be prepared for just about anything that could happen. So that was what we used last year's money for. So we greatly appreciate that. I sent to Doug earlier today a group of items of some of the things that we're looking to do for this year. This year we are focused on how Equipment Committee has met and forwarded to me a group of items that we're focused on replacing some of our older equipment. Some of our equipment, believe it or not, has a useful life in it. Like things like Rescue Rope, it has a useful life. When it reaches a certain age, it has to be taken out of service and can no longer be used for the intended purpose. So there's some things that we've got there that we're replacing on a cycle replacement. And those terms usually are 10 years type of thing. So we've got some rescue equipment that will go on our truck that we're replacing. And then we're replacing or adding to really some of our saws and equipment that we carry like that to battery powered type items. Battery powered items are taking over pretty much everything over the tool world and things like that. So we standardize on the default brand that we use and we're trying to convert most of those kind of hand tools. Drill, saws, grinders, cutters, anything like that, the chainsaw, trying to convert those things over to the battery power so that, you know, we meet some of the standards. Plus, if you're in a smoky environment or a hazard environment, you can't use a combustion engine in those areas anyway, you would need something different. So those are kind of the things that we're looking to do this year. Prior to y'all kind of going to the format you're using now, we appreciated for a number of years the $5,000 that the town had previously granted and we would like to request that hopefully we can stay in your funding and your budget request to the level of $5,000. All right, comments? I mean questions? First of all, I just wanna say that we appreciate all of our emergency responders. Thank you. And the paid staff, we need them, appreciate them and the job they do. But for the volunteers, they just think about 170 volunteers across the county, how much savings that is, and how much just that's free time and effort, and there's risk involved as well. So I hope you take that message from across the county and from everyone, that really makes the difference. We do, thank you. The way I calculated it, it looks like that 53,000 hours that the volunteers contributed back adds about 20% more man hours to the workforce of annual workforce. For people who are actually responders who ride the units, not counting our training staff, not counting our admin staff or anybody else, just the responders themselves. It adds about 20 percent manpower hours to do that. And what we try to do is we try to supplement each of our crews with an additional volunteer which then gives us four people on a fire truck which is much safer than running with three people. Plus it's a division of labor when get to different types of calls. You sometimes you just need more hands, more manpower, more muscle. So, adding, you know, going from a 33% per person to a 25% per person workload is a big difference. I'm sure. Any comments, Mr. Vice Mayor? No, I'm fine, thank you. Okay. All right. Yeah. Thanks to you all, Nate. Thank you. All right, thank you. I appreciate it. Excuse me, because I need to go to another meeting. Thank you, I appreciate it. All right. Yeah. As some volunteers, if you don't have anyone here, I can do that now. We can do it a little later in schedule. It's up to you. Well, if they're not here, I guess we can wait on that one. Yeah, but we can do the other three in the outside organization. Mm-hmm. Miss Miller, do you want to start? Good evening. So I'm going to touch on the proposed contribution to the Ashland Foundation of $50,000, which we discussed a couple council meetings ago in the Ashland Foundation proposal first came to play. So as a reminder, the proposal at that time was there would be an initial kind of pilot two-year contribution, $50,000 per year for those two years to enable the Ashland Foundation to manage all of the community organization requests with the help of the Community Foundation as the administrative partner. A quick update on that process so you know where things stand there. Applications are currently open. They close on March 31st. The Ashland Foundation has already entered into an informal agreement with the Community Foundation who is actively receiving those applications. I've probably had at least 10 consultations with our nonprofit partners, making sure that they understand the new process and are prepared to submit through that. And we've had great feedback on that process so far. And then on the other side of that, the Ashland Foundation Board has met a couple times now to hammer out some details. And we're working on a formal fundraising plan for that to grow the fund as promised in our kind of verbal agreement with the Ashley and Town Council. And then of course we welcomed the mayor to the board, which was wonderful. So we have great representation and oversight by the town with the mayor's seat and then Mr. Farah and I sit by title as well as officers on that board. So that $50,000, there are, I know there have been some questions a little bit about the criteria for releasing those funds. I've included in the packet, is to show, yeah, there it is, it's a screenshot. So this is taken from the Ashley Foundation's website. This is the criteria established by the board for submitting for funding. And you'll see, I'll call out a couple things specifically that may be of interest to you all when it comes to donating to the foundation that $50,000. So the organizations have to be registered 501C3 or other charitable organization. That other charitable organization pieces in there to make sure that places like churches or schools are also eligible. They may not hold that 501C3 but they're considered charitable organizations. They must provide services to the town of Ashland. So that ensures that that money that is given to the foundation by council directly benefits town of Ashland residents and services being provided to them. You'll see the two things that make an organization not eligible is any request for funding around political advocacy as well as anything that stands to benefit an individual rather than a community or group. And then under favorable criteria, you'll see that second bullet point under project alignment is project goals aligned with one or more of the town of Ashland's strategic plan objectives. So they get a weighted rating for calling out and there's actually a piece on the application that asks them which of the town's strategic plan objectives are you addressing through this project. So that's additional kind of accountability as well. And then under project impact potential for long-term sustainability as well as measurable outcomes. So there's a clear reporting structure on the back end. Once the funds have been granted, they are going to have to submit a report of direct impact in the community around those kinds of things. And then obviously under organizational capacity, this is just to ensure everything is above board with the organizations. So you want to prevent track record of implementation, as well as strong management. We hit it the same time, too. Strong financial management practices. And then as well as if you look specifically under less favorable criteria that first one. So this was a specific call out based on feedback we received the board received from town council which is general requests for operational funding meaning kind of administrative costs especially those that lack specifics around building future capacity, diversifying fundraising streams to ensure financial stability for a minimum of three or five years. So basically that's a long way of saying, we're not just looking to fund administrative or staff costs. And so they're really looking for programmatic delivery of services, which is in alignment with how council has given funding in the past. And then the last caveat I'll add to that and I spoke with Mr. Farrer about this today. If there are specific strings that you all would like to put that are more narrow on the funding that comes from the town, that is possible. So all that would require is kind of as part of the budget process, I would come back and we would go through a kind of a quick staff process that would outline specifically the town funding is to only be used for programmatic projects. And then that would mean that any money that is fundraised outside of that $50,000 would be kind of up to the discretion per this criteria of that board, but that $50,000 given by the town would have very specific parameters around how it was to be used. And with that I'm happy to answer any questions. Anyone? No, thank you. Yeah, sure. Mr. Vice-Mayer? I'm good, thank you. Okay, thank you. Sure. All right. All right. I will jump into the other two pretty quickly here. We will start with Dominion Energy Innovation Center. Did receive apologies from both Adam and Braden, who lead that organization. They are both out spreading the gospel of DEIC at a conference all over the country somewhere. So sitting on the board, I felt like I could do it some level of justice. But the DEIC is a partnership between Hanover County, Town of Ashton and Dominion Energy. It's been in existence, I believe, since 2008. So quite a track record, but it has gone through many iterations over those years. And I can genuinely say with my town manager hat on, and not my board member hat on, it is at the the best place it has ever been The staff we have there are doing absolutely outstanding things and I hope the report that we shared with you Charges some of that with you but in addition to those three partners the board of the EIC is largely made up of entrepreneurs and people in the Energy space so employees of Dominion Energy, employees of Rapa Hannock Electric Company. So those who have some level of expertise in that world, the services that they offer, and they would do a much better job of this, so I'll be very high level. The first one that is often interesting to town council, even though I think it's probably a smaller portion of their portfolio, is that they do offer a co-working space over there. So that isn't necessarily energy innovation. It's a business support program that they offer. We let them reside in that building for relatively low to no cost. And so they're able to offer a service to the business community. Basically have office space, common copier, those to internet, those types of things. Or folks can sign up, have a place to go do a meeting, get some internet, and network with others. When you maybe wouldn't want to buy a retail space on your own or be able to afford a retail space on your own. I did look at the report, looks as though they have over 20 local firms organizations that are using the co-working space right now. But the primary thing that they were developed for is to be an energy-focused incubator of early-to-mid-stage companies. And so part of the discussion of that is when you're anytime you're dealing with early-stage companies, you're not going to have a highest of hit rates. And so the yes, the long-term goal of DEIC for the town's perspective is to land these companies back into the town as fully functional businesses, But at the very start of it, they really need incubation and they need a lot of expertise. And that's exactly what Adam Braden and all the board members and our partners on their able to provide to these companies. They do some really great incubator programs and acceleration programs. DEIC accelerate being one of their primary ones, small to mid-sized companies. They bring them in to a series of trainings. And then the big payoff for the companies is that they're able, they're introduced to Dominion Energy and those people, our companies that will eventually be their clients, right? So they're able to build business proposals and business products that are specifically targeted at an end user rather than just saying, I think someone might this is great in the long term. And so that's been a really valuable program. They also do a green tech navigator, which is fun words, but is largely the fact that they have become genuinely a regional, and I don't just mean Virginia regional, I mean mid-Atlantic regional hub for energy, innovation, and incubation. Department of Energy at the federal level uses them. They've applied for many grants and been awarded many grants. I've shared that with Council here. They have a conference that they do where they bring in all the energy sector incubators and partners and do trainings there. And then the last one that is again a small piece of their portfolio, but really tells you that we're in hand over is they do AgX. And that again is a program for agricultural based companies, ways for them to market their materials, learn how to produce products out of what they may have there, and just genuinely try to come up with a good idea and improve their agricultural industry. And so in my perspective, DEIC has been nothing but a huge success, especially over the last three years. And this year they are asking for flat funding of $30,000. Is there any questions on that program or that company? I just wonder, how do they market the co-working space? Really they haven't had to because they've been full so long. And so word of mouth travels quick. Usually when a spot comes open, they have a line of people who are ready to go in there. And so there really isn't that much marketing of it. But either way, I would still encourage people to go talk. If you know people who may be interested, send them there. Not only are they just a great resource for other things in the region, but there is a world where they may have a membership opportunity that if you didn't need a lot of space and you just wanted to come in and get some internet, they'd be happy to work with you. Thank you. Page 7 of 24 it's not really a page. It's a I don't know Prezen on the presentation It has a list of stats 206 mentor hours 85 events 32 so we jumped down to, 374 million. And I can't help but ask the question, why do they need 30,000 from us if they've raised 374 million? Those are the companies they've incubated have raised that level of capital, right? So we're a young startup company and they're helping them generate all that capital. That is not necessarily just the easy way. Okay, that's a very good point. Okay. Good question. Good question. So, all right. So thank you. I do like that stat page though. It's it's quite informative. They do a great job. Yes. One could ask the same question. Similar way for the 412,000 in grants, but another grants are specific. There are specific programs they had to build to get the grant. Right, so I don't say that with any kind of doubt, but just recognition of what the great job they're doing. Yeah, it's really a feather in the town's hat to have them here. They've been doing great. All right, with that, I will move on to the last one, which is a relatively new opportunity for us. But I know town council has been monitoring and hearing from community members who have concerns over the number of homeless folks they're seeing in town. I will say that that is a tough one for the town to address because largely a lot of the services that would be provided to those individuals is provided by Hanover County. And so we're left in a little bit of limbo of where do we step in what's our role and what where can we augment but we town staff had a great conversation with members of Handover County staff who provide these services they gave us a really nice overview of what they do have funding for the federal programs that they participate in and even their honest assessment of where there are some gaps and And so after we had a little bit of time to think about that and understand where the gaps may fall, I know that with our town council we have one that cares about all of the community and so even though it may not be a direct responsibility, it is the town that makes us so attractive to homeless, right? We are walkable, we're convenient, we have services, we have restaurants, we have shopping, all within a very close knit area, and it makes it very convenient. And so we know this problem is going to perpetuate itself in Ashland and show up in Ashland. So, Pannabra County already as part of their services, not through DSS and social services, provides a grant to this group, moments of hope. They are a third party provider who have a outreach center down in North Richmond. And basically, they're to fill the donut hole of folks who don't aren't met by the federal programming, right? Largely, in Hanover's description, it's able-bodied adults. They have money for seniors, they have money for families. It's those who just fall into that. You could potentially be out there if you had a little bit of help, get a job, and get your life back together. There's just not funding for that direct need. And so, Hanover goes with these folks to provide those services. And what we really heard was that it's not enough. And so, the thought I had was knowing that this is an issue in Ashland, knowing that we would like to make an attempt to help with it, that the town could supplement the county's donation to moments of hope, make our own donation. I'm recommending $10,000 in the budget this year. They would go to this group and largely the way it functions is they used to be very outreach focus. Send people to where people are, try to get them services. Wow, that is largely good practice, it doesn't result in repetitive success. When you go to outreach, those folks are much more likely to lose contact with them. And so they have reoriented their service where they require people to come to their outreach center on Chamberlain Ave. And originally, maybe a year ago, even, that might not have been a good option for us, because how do people get there? But very clearly now, you can get on the link, transfer it Virginia Center Commons, and go directly to Chamberlain Ave and get dropped off, I think, a block from their outreach center now. And so there is a free way for anyone in need of service to get to the center should they need assistance. At that point, when they get there, moments of hope offers the typical things you might expect. Night stay, those kind of services there, but they also, their biggest thing in my mind is that they get you into that Richmond network of service providers to try to put you on the right path to continue not only get help from others but help yourself. And that's a requirement that they have. It's not just going to be, we see you once we give you something on your way. There's a requirement that you are invested in yourself and you want to make things better. requirement that they have. It's not just going to be, we see you once we give you something on your way. There's a requirement that you are invested in yourself and you want to make things better. So we feel, at least I feel comfortable recommending to you that we support this program as to help the folks who don't hold it, the Hanover County services don't have the ability to, or finances to do, but also as a means of really trying to help those who are really willing to help themselves. This is a great way for us to be able to supplement some services and offer additional services to the people who are genuinely in that situation of hard luck, struggle, they want to get out, they just need a path for it. And so that's the request that's relatively new. I'm sure Mr. Parker, who I've been discussing with at Moments I'm just a little bit more focused on this, folks. We'd be happy to come talk to you, but I felt like we could just do this quickly tonight. That's the request that's relatively new. I'm sure Mr. Parker, who I've been discussing with at that moment's hope, would be happy to come talk to you, but I felt like we could just do this quickly tonight. But if you want a full presentation from him, I'm happy he sure he'd be happy to do that as well. This man, I don't need a full presentation, but you did go through it quickly. I think you might have said what I'm going to ask. Yes. I'd have said what I'm going to ask when someone wants or needs something like this. Who are they contacting first? The first call should be to handle our social services and they will direct them, especially if we have additional funding to the right funding based source of resource. Okay, second question. Social services check them out to see if they're eligible for any other kind of funding before going for this? That is what they always do. They always start with the primary sources of funding and this is, I hate to say last resort, but it is genuinely in the continuum of care. That last part of it. Okay, thank you. Yeah, not quibbling on words, but you started out by saying that we're noticing more people, more homelessness. I just want to make the point that I don't know. I see more people out, but I don't know whether it's homelessness or whether it's just they're out, you know, looking for funds. So I just wanted to say, you know, publicly, I'm not making an assumption that everyone I see who may be on a corner is homeless though a lot are. But that's part of the challenge is to try to know the situation. It's hard to help when you don't know what the need is. So I appreciate moments of hope with their position of, I guess, challenging someone that if you're serious about improving your life, then all it takes is a free ride after you've been through the process with social services. Can you serve as the board if that's part of this. But to be able to get with an organization that will help you as you help yourself, because it's really hard to help people that aren't willing to help themselves. We're not ready. Yeah, not ready. Need strengthening. But the challenge I think is for people in trying to meet whether you want to call it rules or whether we'll call it schedules but it takes some support to get our lives into a mold. They can work with rules and schedules so I appreciate moments of hope and I think that's a good starting tally there. Great. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Mr. Vice Mayor, since I can't see you, I don't mean to bug you every time. But did want to give you opportunity. I appreciate that. Presentation answered my questions. I try to wave a dog if I have a question. Okay. Good to you. However you want to do it. Yeah, we'll go that way. We'll trust the dog on this. Thank you. All right. Next is one of your citizen input times, Mr. Mayor? Yes, sir. All right. Have that opportunity. Do you want to recognize We've got two of our planning commissioners in the room. So appreciate y'all being here as well. And since you're here, we know your name is for the record. Thank you. Brent Chambers, 9-1 South Side of Street. And I'm here speaking not as a planning commissioner, but as a citizen. A couple of quick things, I have to say that I really appreciate the town managers process and your process of iteratively taking in a lot of different input and looking closely at things to arrive at a budget over the course of a couple months. It gives opportunity for feedback and it shows the diligence that needs to go into a open run that has budget. So it's much appreciated. Thank you. I also, especially given tonight's topics, the organizations that, these outside organizations that contribute to the success of Ashley, they help make Ashland Ashland. And I'm very much in support of all the different things are all, they're all sound really, really good. I think what the main thing I wanted to mention, which I think is already front and center for you guys, but there is pretty good reason to believe that we ought to at least be cautious about the economic outlook. And as you're well aware, most of our towns' income and therefore the sources to help pay for all these things is driven by travel and people going out to dinner and staying at hotels and passing through Ashland and finding it charming and coming in and seeing the Secretary's statute and all this stuff and spending money here and in an economic downturn when travel slows down, that will significantly impact the money we have. So my main purpose this evening is just to make sure that, and I think I speak for my fellow citizens that the way you're approaching this is to be as cautious as possible about spending and particularly things that taken on in this budget would have implications for future year budgets. My sense is it's always easier to allocate some more money if things turned out better than we thought than it is to try to claw back or cut things if they don't turn out very well. And I just want to encourage that thinking to continue in your plans. So, appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you all. I'll speak very quickly to Merrill 318. He'll be right here with my citizen hat on. So it's fun to learn, again, still collecting information. And I think going first, the level of detail in that report, maybe it was because it was the most, the biggest ask. But it was very clear to me where all that money was going. And Dan, you were asking some of those questions like how do we get at as doing our due diligence, right? How this money, most of it, works its way back into the community, which is fun to see. And then of those, the only one that stood out to me was the DEC ask and being curious about how do they plan on using that? Clearly to generate, clearly to encourage more development, the foundation and the downtown Ashland. Those all were very logical to me, the hope. Like that's coming right back directly into the hands of the community. The DEI C1 was the only one of the ones that I heard was like, well how is that coming back? And maybe through generation, maybe through, and if they were here to present, I could directly ask them, I know Josh was filling in for them. But just excited to hear the process, thank you for being so transparent and so curious about how this money supports the town and supports the citizens. So excited to be hearing it and part of it. So just wanted to say thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for sharing that. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Moves as to planning and community development here. Ms. Amos. Good evening, Council. Move. Good to see you on kind of a different topic than usual. Awesome. I'm going to start by going over the planning category and the economic development category. I'll go through some wins that we've had this year and some things that we've worked on. It's nice to go back and look over the year and highlight what we've worked on. Because you all allocated us money for a part-time position, we have that position filled in all of our other five positions. So we have five and a half positions in the department and we are fully staffed and I might have to come find your wood too. To knock on because hopefully we can keep this team, this great team together and keep moving forward. And as far on the residential field there, we had two subdivisions that are almost complete now. They just started not too long ago, but Amber and Haley residential subdivisions, which are up there off of James Street are well underway for construction and almost to build out. Laura Dell, which is a project we've been working on for a very long time, about 10 years ago, is when we started planning for Laura Dell. And it is now at full build out. So they have taken down there for sales signs and now we're working with the HOA to do things like maintaining their alleyways and such. So we had several transportation funding wins. So one of the wins that we got a few years ago through smart scale or two of them were the green chimneys extension between Route 1 and Hill Carter Parkway or yes, Hill Carter Parkway and then Hill Carter extension up to the north which would ultimately connect over to Route 1. Both of those are fully funded and as of February, the beginning of February, we have three years until we'll see that go to construction. And so those are two exciting projects to get fully funded, I think. Through the Central Virginia Transportation Authority, we received a majority of the funding that we're gonna need for the Ash Cake and Route 1 intersection project. And so that's to make improvements to pedestrian safety as well as signal improvements. And then we also are in the running and hope to continue to stay in the running for the smart scale funding through the Commonwealth Transportation Board for the I-95 project. So that study was complete last July, and we applied for funds last fall. We did lose funding, or we lost support from CSX for the bond road overpass. We were gonna apply for federal funds for the bond road overpass. We're gonna have to start over a new plan for funding that, but through that process, we did apply for federal funds for a real study. Those funds are currently on hold, and definitely we're not sure when those may be released, but it's over $400,000 to perform a safety study on our crossings. And then we spend a lot of time on the Iron Horse Data Center, a project that's half in the town and half in the county, and I have a feeling we're gonna continue to work on that in the next upcoming year, God bless you. And then Paytreeclin, which we just finished up a mixed-use residential and commercial project. I got approved. Very excitingly, in March, the link micro transit last March kicked off, and now we're celebrating a year and going and sitting down and looking at the numbers and the operations and seeing if we need to make any improvements or changes. And then a few months after it opened, we extended the service all the way down to Virginia Center Commons where as the town manager mentioned, you can now get on a fixed route to anywhere that receives service from GRTC. We've been doing I think a fantastic job of job of improving relationships and growing relationships with Randolph-Making College this year. We've been involved in numerous activities through the Edge program, through admissions. We went to admitted to the students day. We're able to speak now when the students come and the parents come and welcome them to the town, which is not something that we had been involved in in the past. We've also sat on their master plan committee. I think they'll be wrapping that up and bringing that to Planning Commission and Town Council for a review very soon. So here is the numbers. Let me go to the words where do we go here? Okay. Here are the words of what I'm requesting in the numbers. And if you want to go back to the small numbers, I can't. But this is what extra or new things we would like to request or changes for this year. So as mentioned, we were given 20 hours of a part-time person last year. I, Josh, can tell you he may have had to twist my arm to ask for that. I was like, we don't need more people. We can do it. we couldn't do it, we weren't doing it, we weren't doing it well at least. Having just 20 hours, it's amazing how that has opened up the opportunity for other work to get done, like these historic districts, seminars, and the other work that's being done, planning work that's being done. And we've come to realize if we had 12 more hours, the person would still be part time, could still work from home, but could take on more of the zoning investigation and enforcement activities, which were really very time consuming, which would allow our community development specialists to take on even more projects. And it doesn't necessarily have to be our planning projects, we could share her. And then we, now that we've completed the comprehensive plan, I think it's time that we need to look at our zoning ordinance, a full update. We have done a lot of piecemeal over the past 15 years, but we haven't done a full rewrite and we have a fantastic town attorney and staff that he has that can be a valuable resource and but staff can do a lot of the work too but we will need some additional consulting fee to update our zoning ordinance. We need a new platter printer. It's a fantastic tool for us to be able to print out large maps and site plans, but it is on its last leg. And our IT folks have said that there's not much that they can do to get it to keep going. Reorganizing, and you'll see that there's been a decrease in some lines, an increase in others. So we're reorganizing where funds are allocated. For example, we have an IT department now. And so some things, licenses and fees and such. We were keeping an hour planning to budget. We might be moving some of those over to. Oh, is this you, me? What do I need to do here? There we go. Very good. Okay. Reorganizing funds. So we're moving them to the appropriate line items. It's not necessarily that we're cutting here or there, but we're moving things to different locations. And then we are going to apply for a tree replacement grant. And so I've requested $5,000 as matching funds to go towards that Department of Forestry grant where we could plant up to 100 new trees in town. And what we would do is offer it up to residents and businesses if they wanted a free tree. We would work with a contractor and probably one or two days, over one or two days, go out and plant all these trees. We have lost a significant amount of our green infrastructure over the past bit and haven't really been able to keep up in the re-planting. So I think this, especially if we can get a majority of the money from the Department of Forestry. And so that covers the planning portion. Did you all have any questions on specifically the planning portion or the numbers as presented? Well, that was just one thing that you said regarding Rendolf Macon. Yes. You're able to go over there and welcome parents and students. Yes, ma'am. We couldn't do that before. I don't know that we couldn't, but we weren't invited. We didn't know about the opportunity, and I don't know that we asked. It's nice to be invited. It was a good night. So we had a table at admissions day. The parents, I think, loved finding out about the community that their children were gonna come to. And we heard a lot about transportation and parking, and they were all thrilled to hear about the link system and that their child wouldn't try to be walking to Walmart. It's wonderful. If you're dropping your kid off in a new place, you need as much information as possible. I know as a parent. I would. I wouldn't want to know more about what's around the college. We definitely talked to more parents than we did students. Yeah. Thanks. Anything else on that section? I'll move on to economic development. Okay. So, for economic development, we again welcomed a lot of new and exciting businesses. Here are some of the bigger ones, Duncan, Dachon, a classic coffee tea and books and they've already done an expansion. Lux Floring, which was a new build over off of Telcourt Road, the presidential office suites off of business lane and then Sonoco, which is on the east side of the inner state. We also had Posseanda up on Route 1, Ash and Olive, a new restaurant next to Ashland Meat Company took over the depot space, as well as crimson and clover that took over the, we think, in ink space is a thrift store. And so, again, great. I think news for opening of new businesses. We did have some clothes, and we're gonna continue to work on filling those vacant spots. Oh, another one I had in a different column here, Hanover Foils expansion, so not a new business, but they're doing so well that they were able to expand and add in a new product that they were able to offer. As was mentioned earlier, Dominion Energy Innovation Center is just really killing it out there in the realm of innovation centers and bringing new technology to light. So it's very exciting. We are thrilled to be able in the past year work with the new Downtown National and Association Executive Director and continue to work on that partnership. And then we've had really great success in our facade grant offering. years years we're not able to use it all this year. We could definitely use more. Speaking, so here's the numbers, let's skip through that. What I have asked for in addition to our usual budget for this year is a customer relationship management software and I believe we've requested about $5,000 for that. Probably should check that better. And that's an initial $5,000. After that, it'll be less than $1,000 per year to keep that license up. This really helps our business development coordinator to keep track of all the businesses. They're contact information, any issues that they might have, and being able to get back to to them and keeping track of communication that we've had with the businesses. It does a lot more. It's a fantastic system. She's done a really great job of vetting out several different systems and has come to the one that we've recommended. So Route 54 landscaping improvements. Everyone has really loved the improvements that we did last year, so thank you all for funding those. Along Route 54 between Route 1 and 95. This would be a very small addition to that, just the bump outs on Hill Carter Parkway. So at the intersection of Hill Carter Parkway is those two little bump outs. We would put similar vegetation in those two areas. And then marketing and facade enhancement assistance for impacted route one in England street properties. As you know, both of those areas are under construction and we are hearing pretty regularly, the businesses are being impacted. We're already hearing it on England street and route one where the construction has barely gotten started. And so this would allow us to work on incentives or some type of assistance that we could provide to businesses where there would be marketing or facade improvements or such. And so the same thing for marketing co-op for Route 54 businesses, again in that kind of service area where we have vacant buildings just making sure that we're helping to a market and bring in users there but also helping to market the area because we have heard that there has been a decrease in sales in some of those businesses. So do you have any questions about those number? I don't have a question, but we do have one of our small businesses here, like our loyal fans, they come all the time. So I just thank- They're definitely one of our fans. They're one of our fans that come all the time. They were allowed to have favorites. Yes, we are. We're glad they're here. Thank you. I think we're good. Thank you. Thank you. So we'll jump into the public safety a little bit. We already have heard from Chief Hutchinson and as you've written, this is the budget from Spreadshe's in turn to your PowerPoint for last year and this current year they got a grant from town council of $5,815 and you heard how they spent that money extremely well. I'll isolate with boots and more tools and things along those lines. This year in the department request if you will would be a level funding of $5, the chief alluded to already how much, how, what they would spend that on likely be battery operating, cutting tools, scene lighting, locking carabiners, and a litter system for, you know, getting patients out of a, like a ravine or something along the nice lines or a, or a height. So, rescue squad, Miss Lor Pearson, who is the president of the Ashland Volunteer Rescue Squad, cannot be with us here tonight. So I am speaking on her behalf. I know what problem would do as well as she would do. But again, last year. Excuse squad, Ms. Lor Pearson, who is the president of the Ashen Volunteer Rescue Squad, could not be with us here tonight. So I am speaking on her behalf, I know what problem would do as well as she would do. But again, last year they got a donation from Council of $5,000. This year the Department of Request is a level funding of $5,000. Last year for FY25, their expenses, and this is an email conversation between Ms. Pearson and myself, mostly around meals for either recruitment events or if they would have a meeting with their volunteers. Sometimes getting folks to come to a meeting, it's also helpful to feed them and show their appreciation. So I think council showed their appreciation to the volunteers serving as one. If they were on extended calls or extended events where they needed to be fed during the event or receive some type of nourishment. Things along those lines and that funding also paid for several specialized trainings for their memberships. So I think Council's money was well spent there. For FY26 they are planning on replacing. It's interesting because this photo was taken just a few short weeks ago and they've suffered a deficit stating loss to the fire in the bay. but they are looking to already replace some worn furniture that was in the back part of the building that was not damaged by the fire. But I think they're being very upfront that this was already worn but we need some help replacing that furniture as well. So part of their budget request would be that. And the second part of that, which I'm sure Miss Amos would appreciate, is they want be able to use funding to maybe upgrade to more aesthetically pleasing Bay doors versus just maybe what would be replaced in any type of coverage. And with that I'll try to answer any questions and if you do have questions if I can't answer them I will get back with Ms. Pearson. I'll ask a question just the Bay doors. But that couldn't, they can't qualify for a facade grant. Can they? With the Doors? I had thought about that. I think it's limited to business. I don't know that we do non-profit. I can't remember if we, I don't think we've given one to our it's an activity center before us. It's one of the reference point. Yeah, well the picture certainly tugs it to heart and the photo there. Very good. Thank you, Councilor. Thank you. All right, police. Mr. Mayor, members of town council, thank you for allowing me to be before this evening present the FY 26 budget for, police. Mr. Mayor, members of town council. Thank for allowing me to be in the 40th and 70th present the FY 26 budget for the police department. I could never take a selfie because I don't like seeing a picture of myself. So I'm sorry that the verse when you saw was my mug. So please forgive me. The children don't look frightened. So it's all good. They're not running away. So I guess that's a positive thing. That's right. Before I begin, as promised with the December of month of the report that I would give a more in depth preview of the fine work of the members of the Asham Police Department. And with that, I will begin and give a little bit of information to those out in the audience as well as out watching TV, at home and watching TV at home, some things about the Ash and Police Department. We are 31 members, and we have three civilians. And we handled 6300 calls for services this year, which is down 10.2% from last year. We did have an 11.7 decrease in part one offenses, we did have a 7.1% decrease in traffic crashes although we are still trending higher in traffic crashes than we had in previous years but we're going to continue to work on that hopefully and bring that down even more. We did have 21,314 property checks or when nighttime officers get out of the cars and they shake on the doors of businesses or when you're out of town, we have a program where you can fill out paperwork and let us know when you're going out of town and we will go around your house several times while you're gone to check on it and make sure that you don't have any issues at your household. We did have 6,820 park walk and talk foot patrols, which is up 27% from previous year. And we had 2,605 traffic stops. And we issued 2,049 uniform traffic summed as which is a significant increase. We did recognize obviously in the survey that that is something that the citizens are concerned about. And we will continue to issue citations for violations. We are primarily issuing citations for moving violations as most offenses that are not moving were made secondary offenses back in 2020. We did have 367 arrests, which is down 449 in 2023. And we engaged in 127 school visits where officers went to the schools and visited with the students there. We did find in those 21,000 property checks. We found 139 unlocked doors, primarily found at nighttime and we had 38 adoptive senior visits. And in keeping with our strategic plan to keep our officers well trained, we had 967 in service hours last year keeping our officers on top of that doesn't include introductory training. This is actually recurring training to re-hone our skills and make sure that our folks are trained. And just wanted to make a comment there on the uptick there at 55% in the uniform traffic stops. Yes, sir. Civility is down. Me first, ism is up. And so I do hear people making the observation about seeing cars pulled more frequently, but what I hear more than that is people talk about near misses, with individual speeding, individuals running lights, running stop signs and all that. So that statistic doesn't bother me because I know it's it's y'all doing your job. And it's also increased because of this funding that y'all given to staff our officers. So we have increased more officers. So conversely we are going to have more violations. We're able to spend more time enforcing the laws that obviously in the surveys that folks want us to enforce. We're going to continue. Also in line with that in 2024 we had 212 part one crimes. I'll go into that in another slide and we did did have 130 accidents. And you can see since 2008, the trend that we're experiencing. Overall, it is a downward trend in part ones, but like the wave, it's going to end up ebbing and flowing. So obviously, 2020 was a very big anomaly because of COVID with only 152 part ones in 85 accidents. But that is a array. That's kind of a outlier side of it. We can even consider that in that trend. And speaking of those part 1 crimes, I just may clear this year big crimes, this year merge rate robbery aggravated assaults. That's when any time that an assault occurs in a weapon or an item not normally thought of as a weapon is used or presented in a threatening manner. Arson, burglary, larceny and auto theft. Obviously, as you can see, larceny was our largest offense that occurred through last year and more than half of those were related to shoplifting offenses. We have had in previous years where larceny from vehicles and larceny motor vehicle parts was greatly contributing to that. And those still were factors, but shoplifting was the large government factor this year. And this is a great graphic that shows the correlation between traffic enforcement and accidents and traffic safety. And as you can see, you can kind of see the correlation between the one we pick up our traffic summits, you do see a drop in, a drop in accidents. Obviously Interstate 95 is going to continue, and we're going to be having some robust conversations here in the future about how to address 95, but it obviously is having a great impact upon our safety on the roadways within the town. And we're hopeful that at some point in time this will subside and people stay on the interstate, maybe they'll add a new lane, something, but I'll be interested to see what happens in the future. And this is probably one of the most important graphics that we have as of the response time and why we have the police department within the town. We did have an uptick, did take longer for us this year to get to the calls, but there's also been a change in how communications has been gathering some of those calls. So what was emergent before, they've categorized other offenses in there that may not have been considered emergent. So this did uptick and we did recognize that's a work of communications to make sure that the factors that we're using are similar as in a similar data set is what we used in previous years. Otherwise it's going to continue to creep up. But looking at it we did have overall 91 second emergency response. That's from the time that the call is dispatched. The officer received it to the time that they arrived to render 8. And on all other calls, the average was two minutes and 47 seconds. That's a pretty good time for him for a response from the time the radio is activated to the time we get there. So I'm very proud of the work of our officers. And we are no longer the smallest lone force menading scene Virginia. If we are the second smallest lone force agency that's Kalea credited, I find with that. So we don't need to take any police positions from us, but in poor, you might ask for more. And they are now the smallest, at least from one of my research for us. And last week we did actually receive our certificates. So it's official, but I can only download one picture and not have to pay money for it. So I'm waiting to get permission from Cheryl to download that picture. And I will share it with you once I get it. So we're tight like that. So I'm very proud of it. This is my first award as a chief of police with Kalea. And I believe this is our sixth. So it was sixth award we've had. So I'm really proud of that. So it's great work. Miss Book Walter did awesome on Captain Show Horse and on Miss Book Walter except that horse last week. And some favorite moments. I have to say Nicholas showbiz can sing. I don't know if all of you had the ability or time last year's ball to hear him belt out the national anthem but but he has got a voice on him, so he did an outstanding job. The Ashland Rotary made a donation from the ball's well, $5,000 that was utilized to buy much needed medical equipment. And Officer Nagy, on the far right, he was our recipient of the Officer of the Year Employ the year award last year. So, and also in keeping with the school visits, this is an event we put on every year, Hennemur Academy, Long Force and Appreciation Day, that's there. Picture on the left is Major Camp and Officer Watts, showing off the equipment inside the cars, it's also the same on the right, but we also, and that picture also parks and all sergeant Smith. They did an outstanding job. It was great. They brought in the helicopter from VCU. The kids had a great time. So we have a great working relationship with Henry Academy. So we're going to continue with that. And in the center is Officer Kevin Light. And he is a recipient last year of the Mad Award for combating impaired driving. So I'm very proud of him as well. It's more favorite events in the picture of the top left. One of the great events that Officer Chip waspits on. I thank you for all of you that were able to make it. Was a shop of the cop event and Miss Amy Mines from around the table for her hospitality and making that happen. It was incredible. So we were able to hopefully have 35 families if memory serves, but it's a great outreach that we do every year in chipwats to an outstanding job. I also wish we had turned the camera around so we didn't see me again and could see Major Camp. It was one of the most important things that I've done in my career promoting. Major Camp, she didn't have a standing job. She does a great job for this town and I'm very proud of all she's accomplished. And up in the right, again, thank you for your support. That was when Officer Johnson received his Excellence Police Duty Award. Ex-space. And again, I'm two slides of this, but some of the favorite moments are obviously when we hire new people as we make our march to 30. Officer Christian Bryant, he received his diploma, although he was hired last year, so he used picture in last year's presentation, but and in the center you have, excuse me, on the far right, you have Officer Fina receiving his award. And as you can see, we're pictured in the front at the triangle with the Henter Sheriff's Office. And we appreciate their support in allowing us to use their academy. So here are some of the new faces of APD. And just thankful for all you do for us to bring on these new officers as we march forward. And before I move past that, I'll be happy to answer any questions you may have before I get into the nuts and bolts of the budget. All good? Okay. All right. The Ash Police Department budget budget request overview represents a 9.2% increase when compared with FY, it should say 2025. So forgive me for that mistake. And it represents a 9.6 increase in the salaries and benefits line due to overall compensation. A requested increase in operating lines, we're asking for an increase in dues and membership 55, 8, 10 because of an increase in dues to rapid panic regional criminal justice academy make sure that we stay trained with all of those. They not only provide or introductory training, but they maintain our records and make sure that we meet all DCGS requirements, which is a huge lift. But it was about a, it was just over $3,000 increase of experience because of the CAD mission. As a question, is also a increase in water and sewer and looking at our bills and forecasting out, we are going to go slightly over budget. So it is my request to make some slight adjustments to that to ensure that we're within budget next year. I also am requesting an increase in the professional services line so we can fully utilize the police app. It's application we use in hiring our staff. They take care of advertising for us. This is going to allow us to expand upon that. But it's also they make sure that they keep our records so we can provide that information to Kalea and it helps us make sure that we're an equal opportunity employer so it's very important to speak with major account she feels that it's going to help us make that next step and attract the best candidates. Also requesting one of the largest increases we're asking for in this year's budget is a $6,000 increase and that's due to looking at projections of both what Verizon is charging currently projecting that that out by the monthly amounts we're paying and also Comcast Business, both for the department landlines as well as our internet, and we're expecting, and we're also adding one phone and one remote internet connection device. So we anticipate approximately a $6,000 increase in that line. Also we're asking for a $1,500 increase in uniform and apparel line. We're asking for that increase because our hats are getting very dingy and we need to increase them. They're about $80 each. So that'll be necessary that we do that while that's a $2,400 expenditure. We also need to add some extra. So we have a stock. I feel that that will, that increase, despite not being the full amount, we can absorb the rest of it in the existing budget. And finally, an increase in the crime prevention line of $1,000 ship lots does such a great job, but I think that looking at the limitation, we have not increased that line in some time, that it will be helpful in in community outreach engagement from the police department to let him even go further what he does. On this slide is the budgetary spreadsheet. I put some lines in there to show in that budget where the increase was. The increase on the recommendation on salaries based on the recommendation of the pay plan was presented and increase in other professional services, I said that's the police app, that's a 12.5% increase, increasing utilities based on our past usage and forecasting towards the future. And a 17% increase in telecommunication, that's due to the increase in personnel and looking out for casting a current billing. And finally on that slide and increase and do the number of personnel in the radius are radius that we have are aging. In past years we have not had to pay any money for it so that as money has been returned but we are in this year right seeing that we did spend $400 on that so anticipate that trend will will continue So I'm hopeful that we won't get a new radio system I'm gonna go into details in that in the first and further into my presentation I have not been given any indication that that's gonna happen But I just want to make sure that we have the money is available should the should the radio start to fail Anybody have any questions on that slide? Understood. All right, in the travel and convention line, excuse me, wrong one. Missulaneous line, that line has been $4,000. That is basically our catch-all, and we use that for plaques for the officers, events, if we happen to do any refreshments. We are this year going to do a event for the officers on April 25th to recognize them still working with the foundational what's going to replace the ball. But we do need to recognize the outstanding work of the officer so there will be a formal invitation forthcoming to you guys shortly. but that's also where that money would come from. So I just want to make sure that I have the ability to recognize the officers and that has not changed in some time. Also in the repairs and maintenance line, we're asking for an increase of 25, excuse me, sorry. 25%. That's just simply due to the rising costs. And also in the vehicle-powered equipment, it is just becoming so increasingly expensive to repair vehicles. I'm going to go further in my presentation about the condition of the fleet. We're in really good shape. But some of the cars we have, the chargers are starting to experience a lot of issues with the fans, they decker gate, and then they damage the radiator. We're also having some issues with the fuel pumps on them. It's been a repetitive issue, but these vehicles are starting to get the point where it's costing more than it's worth to keep them out in the field. So recognize that until we can replace them, I need to have the money just to keep those four vehicles in the fleet. And finally, that's 40% increase. I know that's a huge number, but it's $1,000, and that was for CHIP. So you look at the percentages, this is because the dollar amounts are so small, but 40% I figured had to be addressed, because it does look like a massive amount of money. Does anyone have any questions before I continue? I'm good. All right, and as you can see in this pie chart, this explains our budget. We are very lean in terms of operation. We don't ask for a lot of money. It primarily goes into the officers. Our primary line will re-grab all the equipment for the officers is $60,000.000 at the entire budget and I'm not asking for any increase in that. But we are very frugal and very responsible with the citizens' monies and we're going to continue. But I just want to see this chart because it explains how you all have supported us. We pay our officers well but we don't ask for a lot of privilege. So, and the long range plan, I don't know if you all are aware or not but part of our clear accreditation is that we have to have a long range plan and part of that plan is we will meet with the officers and determine what equipment we need, what the future needs are and outlays be for the building, the current vest that you all purchased, not exactly my cup of tea. I'm over traditionalist, but I have not seen anything that's made the officer so happy in the entire time that I've worked for the police department, but they are all giddy about it, especially officer Johnson, who, Tee need this, they're ecstatic about it, but these are own, not exactly my thing, I think my thing. But I thank you, Council Member Al, for your input into it. It was helpful. And we're seeing that. So that was just one aspect of it, but then when we do the budget, we've revisited every year and see if there's other things we need to remove or things we need to add and reassess. So we did some of those things this year, but before I go into that, As you can see on this sheet, we are asking for a $35,000 increase in replacement vehicles. That is largely because the vehicle market has been crazy, explores one from $42,000 to $50,000, and back to $43,000. And what they're gonna do in August is anyone's guess because I don't know. Dodge Durango stated almost the same price but there's just been a lot of evin flow. So because of the price disparity we actually went back to Durango's and we might go back to explorers again. I don't know. It's just a moving market so we're just trying to be responsible with how we use taxpayer phones. body camera maintenance we did we did install our five-year contract. That is the $24,237.00.00.00.00.00.00.00.00.00.00.00.00.00.00.00.00.00.00.00.00.00D radio fund, we've been building this fund up, the purposes is, so when the radios do fail, and they try to switch to a new radio, it is a huge cost. Usually an excess of $150,000 and that's just going to be a lot of money to take on at once. So we're just trying to build it up so we have a savings account so that happens. So I'm not shocking the budget when the need is there. So we're just trying to be responsible. All right. Anyone have any questions before I begin with the police capital building renovations? All right. As anyone knows, it's good to have a good foundation on the house. I'm not going to say that the building doesn't sag a little bit in some places and it doesn't move. And some day of times I wonder if the building is sagging more than others. But it's also important to have a roof. And our roof was originally leaking, and you all fixed that for me last year, and I really appreciate you doing that. But now it's time to take care of the other things in the building. So if you'll indulge me, we do building inspections as part of our, as a part of our clear accreditation as well. So we go around, check for out lights, out balusters or outside. We've gotten a lot of those things taken care of, but we did notice when we were painting the building recently that several of the windows are degradated, especially if you look to the picture on the upper right and the one below that on the right hand side. Those are the windows that are directly above the police department door. As everyone's aware, heat rises, windows cold. That was probably one of the hottest rooms in the building because the heater, the ball heater that was there. And when they got up there and painted it, they saw that there was extensive amount of rot. We went around and started looking at the other windows in the building and also found that many of them are rotten. So I'm not going to try to do death by power points to please forgive me. We did find that the sheet rock is also showing some issues as well because of the leaks. And the point of this discussion is if we can replace them now and stop further degradation, but if we do not, we're probably going to get mold, mill, and other water damage. So speaking to the vendor, we need to replace some of the windows. The windows are very expensive, so it is not very recommendation. We replace all of them this year, just those that need to be replaced. We may have to change that in future years as we go, but I believe it's eight banks of windows that need to be replaced. Yes, that's correct. And the cost that's made about $60,000. It is much more expensive to replace all of them. And I think we can hold off and do them piecemeal after we get the ones that are most in urgent need of change. The only exception is the back windows on investigations because they are a southern basing wall. We probably will never have to change them because they get a lot of sunlight. The problem is most of the windows are on the northern side of the building which gets most of the raid, hardly any sun, and we're suffering because of that. Also, in the building, the carpeting in the office was put in in 2008, and it's starting to show it's where some of the seams have started to come loose, it's starting to fray, some of the carpet in the building is even older than that. They're staining and we're finding that we can't remove the stains. Plus we did have leaks and they've suffered water damage as well. So it's our request that we be able to update that and bring in a fresh new look for the police department. What we're looking at is a similar to a carpeting that's in here that's a tile type carpeting. We did find a vendor who's on state contract with a good reputation so we'll be able to keep the costs low on that. And also have to say the locker room before I begin this this is probably the best problem that anyone could have in a police department. This shows the diversity in how we're moving in the agency. 1993, when the building was built, there was not a lot of female law enforcement officers predominantly all of those lockers that we currently have were used by our support services staff. We now have six female officers at the police department so we have greatly increased our diversity but it does come with it a problem that I have more female employees than I do lockers and we did buy temporary lockers but I just want to make sure that I'm treating the female employees the same as I am the male employees and make the bathroom and locker areas inviting for them. So I asked in this line that we were able to update them. The other thing is, is if you look at the pictures and I don't know if you can see it, I had to go into the bathroom because they said there was an odor coming from one of the drains in there and all that needed was some bleach board down it because there's bacteria in it. So I went in and did that, looked to the right, and observed that we had a bathroom faucet, any kitchen faucet. And I just kind of embarrassed when I saw that. I don't typically go in the female's locker room. So it's the first time I'd actually gone on a field trip there and it was felt that we probably needed to update that and make it, make it right. But the other thing is, is this just become dated in the lower right corner, speaking with staff. I would like to put in an vanity like that in both locker rooms so we can update it and Take out some of the dated dated hardware there Before I begin is before I continue is anyone have any questions? I mean for yes, sir. Do you have an amount that you might be requesting for the capital on improvement? Oh I've got it. Yes sir. And do you have an amount that you think might be the full amount if like there was unlimited funds and what would the full amount be to do the full renovations and the full updates? Yes sir. The reason why I ask is when I see things like this it like you, I get embarrassed. And I don't want any of our officers to feel embarrassed when they walk into any facility ever. And so I would be curious what it might look like as a fix now, a fix next year, a fix in the future, versus a debt service now that might also be a cost savings for the future. Not saying that I'm going to recommend any of that. I just want to know what I'm considering. That's just wrong. And I have it in a few slides. I'll have a breakdown of all the expenditures and what I think we can do. I think once I get to that slide, if I have the, I believe it will get through the next 15 to 20 years without any further expenditures. But I have a, I also have a contingency left in there. So if you'll indulge me, I'm going to get to that and I'll show that we'll be able to answer your questions. If not, then we'll continue on with the discussion and hopefully I'll be able to answer it. All right, thank you. Also in the building we have tile and that again was also put in 2008 when chief living became the chief, he spent a lot of time getting the building updated. And as you can see, the tile is starting to buckle. The mastic is coming between the seams on the floors and it's starting to degrade in places. So it's our recommendation to go with more of a flooring that's going to move with the building and we landed on a 20 millimeter plank style. So it will upgrade it. It will end up looking similar. If we can do this, it will have a similar look to what's in the top right hand corner. It will freshen the building up, and it'll make it look a lot better and more inviting. Also, we were able to do several major minor projects in 2025 fiscal year. We asked that we'd be able to continue doing that. In the common areas within the police department, we have placed LED lighting. We found it replacing fluorescent bulbs, ballast were going bad, was more expensive than the LED lights. So we just started to change them out. Also, it's more energy efficient, it's more environmentally friendly. So we started doing that. It's my hope that we can continue doing that in all the office space this year and bring it up to date. Also, because of the staffing, we don't have enough mailboxes in our current mailbox. And we have, like, old, this end up furniture on the favor. Remember that store from a long time ago? We actually still have some of that furniture in the building. So it's not going to be a huge cost, but it would be a nice date, rid of that stuff, and updated a little bit and get in a nice, a nice mailbox system in there. So... not going to be a huge cost but it would be nice to get rid of that stuff and update a little bit and get in a nice mailbox system in there. And also we have not painted some of the areas in the building I don't think since it was built probably. So some of the offices are still sporting 1993-ish paint so it would be our hopes that we could freshen up the office and paint it. We have painted the common areas outside and we did the kitchen renovation but this will basically bring the building up the speed. So as promised Here's here's a breakdown Because you provided us a hundred ten thousand dollars last year for the roof. I'm happy to report We were able to get it done for fifty seven thousand dollars So it's my hope that we can roll that into this amount. And I'm requesting $65,000 on top of the monies that we already have for the purpose of continuing with this. I believe that if we do that, we can get the windows that are done. I will have to get back to the number if we were to replace all the windows, but I believe $120,000. And I just don't think we need to spend that money right now. I think we could do that piecemeal. They're not in bad enough shape that it warrants a replacement right now. That way it won't harm the budget, and there's other money so you can be spent for other people's initiatives. I think we can survive. But at the end of the day, if we were to do everything that's a picture there. We would have $26,125 left in our budget. The reason I like to have that contingency is, I don't know if the air condition is going to fail. So that would roll into the next year and then I would ask we had $10,000 a year every year like we have another thing. So when we do have major repairs, we do have an account that we can pull from and we're just doing it incrementally from and we're just doing it incrementally so it's not a shock to the budget because if you ask for a bunch of money then that obviously can hinder other departments initiatives and I don't wish to do that. Zane, would you have any questions to help? It does help but you know because there's lots more to the police department building than just what you've said because because like when it was built, there was an upstairs, it's kind of not an upstairs, there's little things and I can't help but like in my head think like would it be of value at a moment like this when we see the little thing here, the little thing there, the little thing there to evaluate, maybe not this year, but at least near future, do we look to renovate significantly the building? Do we look at a future spot in the next 20, 30 years? Like, I don't know, I'm just trying to think about, like there's little things, and then when I hear about, oh, well, we didn't build the height just quite right and maybe the moisture. I mean I don't, I mean I remember when it was built and it was state of the art and it was beautiful and everything and I just you know Tom's change and you know I think if we did this we could get through the next 15 to 20 years. Given the staffing I just don't know what you know I don't know some of the projects that are being done in town there's a lot of unknowns that are there and that could change it but right now unless there was a massive change in population or some other massive infrastructure project that required us increasing our staffing the building I think will be fine for at least the next 15 years and this would carry us through that now that all goes out the window if a massive development comes in and we have to hire 15 or 20 officers or some other initiative were to take place. So I could end up eating those words. But right now, I feel that if we were to do this, we'd refresh them and building up. We're able to survive with 30. And I think we could do a 35 because the fact of matter is our investigation's office is very large But we work in the field mainly so if officers are spending too much time in the office We're probably not supervising them effectively Their car is their office so that's you know as long as we give them keep providing state-of-the-art vehicles I think we can certainly make the building last for Years to come at least another 10 to 50. Thank you. Sir. And that leads into the Police Department fleet talking about that office space. As I said earlier, it's found to you to vehicle prices that we need to increase the request amount with a goal of keeping our fleet current. As you can see in the bar chart, we do have 24% of our vehicles that have nine plus years on them. Eight vehicles, eight of those vehicles are more than nine years old. One is used by our support services staff and third used is decoys. The remaining four vehicles are actually in the fleet or in the fleet, are actually used by officers on the road. That is starting to get up Pat. Well, pass their useful life. We are finding again that the chargers are costing a lot of money. Plus, we've switched the SUV platform and I would like to remove any remaining sedans and have them all go to it. One of those vehicles, however, is low mileage. And I think it would be too soon to remove that vehicle because it does have a useful life in it. So I think we can push that vehicle for another year and get the lease out of it. So that would be my recommendation. I also would like to add one more vehicle to the investigative fleet, one more new vehicle. The plan is, is that okay if I talk about this? Okay. The plan is that we would use an investigative, the investigative vehicle for five years and then roll it over to town hall for their use. The vehicles we're getting now are new and to be prefigoths, they're very nice vehicles and they will have useful life. But then we can continue to replace those vehicles and we will find that they will have a good home here at Town Hall. So with that, we anticipate having $15,000 left over from this year and the $210,000 will afford me the ability to buy the three patrol vehicles and one on our vehicle. So are we having any having any questions you may have? And we still do have one remaining capital line, just for me to discuss. And remaining capital lines, the capital expenditure line, this is kind of the catch-all. As you'll remember, you did provide us funding to buy new handguns. We have not done that as of yet. It is going to be a three-day training requirement and speaking with our training officer to have it make sure the officers are trained properly. We are going to a red dot site and we're going to keep the same platform but it is a different site system so we want to make sure that officers are adequately trained in the event that they ever have to use it so we're not looking at any liability and also that we've got forbid to do something where an innocent was struck by one of our officers. We just, it's good practice to make sure we're trained, can't have enough training in that area. So it is our idea that we will have this done this fall, 2025 and we have implemented. To date, we have not expanded any of the monies, but we have team need and we've made the decision that we are going to do and we're going to implement that this fall. Also if you remember you allocated $85,000 for the purpose of going to a computer-aided dispatch, the county has not yet landed on what system they're going to go with. We still have that money set aside for that and we're hopeful that we will have enough money but right now they've got it out for RFPs and I don't know where they're going to land on it. So once that's done we will expend those money as well. And in this line again that's where we place the $10,000 for future radio purchase. I asked them if we just continue to put the $10,000 in there. So we have that money if we have a radio purchase happening on our rise. With that, this is the picture of the Ashen Police Department. I cannot thank you enough for the support that you all have provided for us. Having 30 is a great news and I'm here to tell you that we have 27 with Cameron Kraus and we have an interview for somebody next week so that will be 28 so we are getting where we need to be at 30 so hopefully have that two certain about three maybe four weeks the offer but we've got the interview. So definite positive traction on that area. So again, thank you for your support. And I'll be happy to answer any questions. No. I appreciate the whole team. This is another citizen input moment. I don't see the new citizens, but at the same time, if you have any new thoughts, invite you this moment. There you go. I have a quick question for the town. I'm hearing so much about the staffing. It was interesting. It's fun to learn and obviously all those costs. Is there an ideal ratio that you strive and I I was curious to inform, like, how many officers the- the chief or the town thinks are the- the right- is there a right number? It's just- I was interested to hear your thoughts. All right. I'll be happy to answer you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I was curious. Two- bit at the 3.36 is the number. 3.36 per 1,000 citizens is approximately. Approximately, but we, but in speaking with the manager, there was two thoughts we needed to look at. Not just the ability to cover calls, but we do all afford officer pay time off. And so what happens is by natural attrition, if you have an officer leave, we were finding that we're having to move officers around and it impacts morale. So the question was how do we provide good service, meet that ratio and provide a good work-life balance. And so we decided 30. Because as you can see, we end up with five on each squad. That means if one officer is off and somebody calls out sick, I'm not having to pull. Well, I'm not even having to fill. I now have the ability to let people take time off. So it came down to work life balance. So it's a great question, but it was meaningful. And there's one of things with the officers moving for. So it's probably to be honest with you, one of the most important things that I've seen happen in my town in my time in 27 years work here. So that's great. No thanks. I hadn't heard that ratio. I was just curious. Thank you. You hear a lot about sustainability is a very much used word, but sustainability for quality of life of our police officers. You maintain that by having a little bit above the recommendation. Obviously a lot of things factor into that, but good question. I'm glad you asked for the public All right American rescue plan Sorry, we're in a few different hats tonight. Point of personal privilege. In 2008, I gave the first budget presentation as your police chief. It was 92 slides long. And my spirit guide over here, Mr. Ferrer, who is in his role as finance director, said, Doug, don't read each slide. What did Doug do? He read each and every slide. So I just want to let you know, the chief let you off easy tonight. Are we appreciate? Can you remember? Oh yeah. I think it took well over 90 minutes, just my presentation. But I think we did it on the Saturday, so everybody was still wide awake in the morning. So we're going to try to roll through this fairly quickly. I also sent this out to you earlier. This is a line by line, really a detailed explanation of every line item that we spent money on. We do our annual reports to the federal government US Treasury to let them know as well, but that is a very robust report that's in your tap packet. And probably something we'll put up on our website as well. And once we spend all of our money, which we'll get into that, we'll put that up there as well for our citizens to be able to digest. But this is a bad as comprehensive as you're going to get until we spend every last dime in the money. So this is your budget sheet that's in there as the town manager alluded to a little while ago. We're only going to have a very small amount of money. amount of money, we anticipate maybe 180,000 that will roll over from this year to them next year. And again, that's a lot because a lot of the storm water projects, we're having our same kind of We're only going to have a very small amount of money. We anticipate maybe 180,000 that will roll over from this year to them next year. And again, that's a lot because a lot of the stormwater projects. We're having our same contractor, Talley, and Armstrong, we're taxing the same resources. And it's just not moving as fast as if we were to use multiple different contracts. We trust that contractor. And they get the job done well for us. some other projects there that were just it's just a timing issue whether we're going to move into the next fiscal year year So this is our interim final report So your spending plan the town council adopted was in the fall of 2021 for 8,100 $170,444 Now as we moved into that you know is amazing because the town manager and the deputy town manager mr Renale the time, had a very short amount of time to throw together basically an entire year's worth of extra money into a budget. And so things changed a little bit. So your original budget you approved is in that first column, $8,170,000, $44, that changed a little bit as we moved on to the amended budget you see here. We took from some lines, we added some, we brought some of the big changes, we brought back to you for reappropriate, for recertification from this board. Some of the minor changes, we just kind of ebbed and flow to make sure that we're spending the money in lines with the guidelines from the Department of Treasury, but also making sure we actually were able to get it spent. We'll talk a little bit about those deadlines that we had. And quite frankly, there were some projects that when they were great in 2021, but as we've moved through and the private sector has caught up in other areas, we didn't have to spend the money. So we were able to move it around a little bit. So we'll talk a little bit about that in grand detail. This is a pie chart of basically where we spread our money around. A lot of agencies across the United States, everybody did something different. Some agencies did like us. We kind of spread it around. Other agencies would put it all in kind of one piece of the pie. There's no one particular. We had to do what was right for our community. So amendments to the spin plan, and this is just a big amendments. We continue three of our propositions to the mid-year of this current fiscal year. So that original spin plan was $910,000. The actual cost was over 1.1 million for those three positions, plus the fourth position, which was a street crew member, which was picked up back in FY20, beginning of FY24. Additional funding was put towards Carter Park for improvements and the original spend plan was $165,000. We ended up spending $249,000 roughly on an amenity that our community certainly enjoys. Skate park renovation, the original spend plan was $25,000. This council approved the procurement and construction of $185,000 to renovate our skateboard part. Pretty much from the ground up. So there's an incredible job that Miss Richards did in honoring that. Our strategic property acquisition, again that's the original spend plan was $250,000. We spent just over $370,000, which we've ended up with a future park to be developed and a almost brand new parking line here in a very short amount of time right next to the building that's going to definitely open up parking to support our downtown businesses during the week. And then additional funding towards the I-95 landscape improvement project or the original budget was $20,000. We spent just over $81,000 on that project. So we kind of had to take from one pocket to put it in the other, but again, that overall dollar amount didn't increase. It was just increases and decreases within the lines. So where the money come from, the overall contingency, there was a, the spin plan you adopted included a $219,000 contingency line that was just not your mark to anyone particular project. So that remained there. That's where some of the money came from to add to those projects. Two projects, economic development fund and the replenishment of the economic development fund amounted to $275,000. But we relegated them back to contingency as the understanding of the ARPA guidelines for US Treasury started started mature and our understanding basically was clarified through clear direction from the US Treasury. We felt that money needed to go back into contingency for other more expenses that were general government-related expenses versus going into economic development that may have been more nebulous. So we had to have hard projects. And then, again, quite frankly, some of the other projects that we had just came in below budget, and that's why we were able to increase some of the other lines. So we have a season and a postseason. So the first season, the main season of ARPA spending ran from basically the summer of 2021 until this past December 31st, 2024. As of now, we have spent 93% of that $8.1 million. So $7 million, $613 million, $111 has been spent as of this afternoon. Those spreadsheets are accurate as of this afternoon. By ARPA regulations, we were able to basically take some projects into the postseason. Our program was released and said, okay, we understand that there's going to be some capital projects that town, cities, counties are not going to be able to complete in this three-year period. They're going to need five years, whether you're planning a road, or maybe building a new pool, or something along those lines, you're going to need more, or in our case, stormwater projects that require engineering, may require purchase of property, and then construction, we know they're going to take more than three years. So we do have about 7% remaining that are going into that what we call the postseason with ARPA that we have already obligated by contract most of those came in before in council in October. No, but where you approve the contracts we get obligate them to the US treasury so we basically lock those dollars in for those future projects pending. Very proud of my animated pie chart here, although I'm not proud it's skewed, but I'm very proud of my animated chart. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to go through those big pieces of the pie, if you will, we're going to start with government operations. I'm going to just keep rolling. If you questions, stop me but I'm going to try to fly through this as best I can while honoring as well. So when government operations, sir can you still note whether vice mayor Hodges is trying to get your attention? I've had to leave vice mayor Hodges on that laptop so I can't because I can't unplug it and bring it with me but I've the vice mayor Hodges those to text if or someone who leaves connectivity. All right, or he can just that is correct Miss mayor. All right. That's good It's like a movie. It's awesome. I love the voice in the sky So in under government operations we are we are replacing an antiquated accounting system to the tune of $400,000 That is something that we're working on we upgraded APD's phone security system. They had an older security system. I mean phone system and as far as their external cameras that provide the officers with that situational awareness before they walk out into the parking lot from the building that provides that was coming into the front of the building that helps them with their from a security. We paid for about $375,000 worth of refuge and recycling. Basically just build about nine months of refuge and recycling to the RP program that we would have paid otherwise out of the general funds. We had the premium paid program, which feels like about 10 years ago, but it actually outing was only two and a half years ago that this council approved to pay basically for lack of a better term bonus pay or premium pay to those members of our town government who worked through the pandemic and were exposed to situations where they couldn't socially distance and still continue to serve the public. And that was an allowable expense under the US Treasury guidelines. This position also paid for a street two positions, street crew position, and of course our community management. Can engagement manager, which is now our assistant town manager of external operations, Ms. Martha. So our street crew member, this is Curtis Stanley, I believe, and he was hired on, beginning of the program. His position was absorbed into general fund as of the end of last fiscal year. So he's been, that position has been on general fund since then. But as you can see, he was able to come back, he brought some experience with him when we were able to hire him back under the ARPA program. And of course most of his job was running the streets weaver. Again did a great job at making sure that we were keeping our streets clean on our storm channels clean but also meeting RTMDL requirements from that perspective. And of course our community The engagement manager, I just can't say enough about working with Martha Miller. She is now our assistant town manager of internal operations. And I just want to kind of run through some quick things. Of course, you see the images on the right there that town Christmas tree. We finally have our own Christmas tree. A public arts commission that we've never had before, Culture Works Program that bring in some incredible programs to our community, not just with Culture Works, but partnering them in the synergy between multiple different organizations. It's amazing. And of course, our Hispanic Heritage Month, and she's spearheaded as well, working with community partners. But it's so important that you look at the job that she has done with such an increase in satisfaction with how we're getting information out to our community, how we're engaging in our community. 72% excellent. and satisfaction with how we're getting information out to our community, how we're engaging in our community. 72% excellent public information services, that's incredible. The talk of the town's subscribers is up to almost 4,000 subscribers that get that weekly or biweekly newsletter that includes your agenda, includes big things that are going on in the town. Our social media Facebook reached was 800,000 this past year versus 12,000 in 2022, in three years. I should have figured out the percentage increase, but it's well over 1,000 percent increase. Overhaul the Citizens Leadership Academy, much to the appreciation of those who are going through it. Started a community ambassadors program, which is, again, a group of 50 plus people that meet with Martha, and it's not just, I think it's just showing that we're not just engaging people behind a keyboard, we're engaging people, one-on-one, engaging people in grass where it's great, and creating those opportunities where people may not feel comfortable talking about it in a meeting, but they'll pick up the phone and call Martha three days after me and go, hey, can we talk about this? And I mean, we've got so many different channels of communication from the technology to just, hey, can we talk about X, Y, or Z? And that's amazing. The Berkeley Town Heritage Storytelling has been a project that I'm not going to talk too much about because we're on the precipice of that in a few more weeks. The redesign of AshtonVA.gov, if you haven't looked to the town website, look at it. I've got a facelift over the weekend. Much to... about because we're on the precipice of that in a few more weeks. The redesign of Ashtonva.gov, if you haven't looked to the town website, look at it. I got a facelift over the weekend, much to Martha's work and working with that and it looks incredible. The past version looked great too, but this looks even better. The annual report, Martha got a second place award in the nation for our annual report, now as the form of the town calendar but also has information on each page as well. She created the Public Art Commission and she's also a graduate of the UVA lead program, which is one of the preeminent leadership schools in the Commonwealth and quite frankly, the nation for local government leaders. So congratulations from Martha. Again, money well spent from the art perspective on that. Public facilities, this is going to go really quickly. So stop me if you have any questions. So in public facilities that big chunk of the pie we replaced a 10 ton HVAC unit at APD, replaced an antiquated APD generator to the tune of about $50,000. The manufacturers just stopped making parts for it. So it had to be replaced. Installed fencing at APD to give the officers a little bit more security in that back parking lots of people aren't cutting through the parking light even though they may well intended, cutting through a parking lot where you may be handling someone who is in detention or we're just officers after getting ready for their shifts and gives them a little bit more security to have that fence around the back. Replace the DEI HVACs. That was one of the, I think that was the first expense on the ARPAFOGA program was replacing their condition because it failed, but the first day the program went live and we were able to cover that with ARPA program was replacing their condition because it failed, but the first day the program went live and we were able to cover that with ARPA funds. Various facility improvements and maintenance, I'm not going to go into the grand details, I'm happy to provide any level of report that you would like. But the theater roof, gutters at the train station, renovate the lobby in the kitchen at APD. If you've not been to the APD right recently and seen the lobby in the kitchen, you need to go take a look. I was blown away when I saw the kitchen last week, first time I've seen it. the lobby in the kitchen at APD. If you've not been to the APD rate recently and seen the lobby in the kitchen, you need to go take a look. I was blown away when I saw the kitchen last week, first time I've seen it. So chief and his staff, Cindy did a great job on that. A new flagpole town hall so we could move the flagpole from the front yard to the front building so we could have a Christmas tree. Replacement of the pole barn at the shop to cover the very expensive equipment that we buy out there such as some of the dump trucks and other heavy equipment. We assisted this council, assisted the Ashland Volunteer Rescue System with improving the security system of their building. And I know they just suffered a tragic loss of their front bay, but that security system still is in place for the rest of the building. So I think that was again that was something that that kind of happened on the fly It may have been one of those places where we took from one pocket and put in another for the rest of the building. So I think that was again, that was something that kind of happened on the fly. It may have been one of those places where we took from one pocket and put in another, but it was under all the auspices and guidelines of the US Treasury provided. And we replaced the generator at the town shop. So right now we have pretty much three brand new generators running our biggest facilities in the event that we have a storm. our broadband internet and Wi-Fi piece of the pie. So our broadband, we've got about 49,000 and we still have left to spend on putting conduit along in with the downtown streetscape project along Route 54. We looked at doing the project on Route 1 but the cost came in much more cross-prohibitive and along Route 1 with the V.com project and I think there was a lot of discussion about the implementation of shentel and low fiber is the services already there. So I think by shifting and moving the money to put it down on route on 54 with the street skate project, it's a very wise use of that money. Downtown Wi-Fi capital, we installed to the tune about $350,000 with equipment to have a open air downtown Wi-Fi. That is something that our IT manager, John Richardson, is continuing to kind of dial in to see if we can help much better we can get it for all of our folks who are visiting downtown to include those who are inside of our restaurants and other places of business and the library. So he's still continuing to work on that. And that downtown Wi-Fi service, it's an ongoing service. about $300 a month for six different cell signals that service the downtown Wi-Fi as well as the access points. Public safety had one really expensive, that was the creation of a police officer. That was that 27 police officer that this body created using ARPA funding. And unfortunately, unfortunately, we've had some turnover in that position, but Chief has been very good at making sure that if we did have a turnover in that position, big backfill as soon as we can, so we're taking advantage of the ARPA funding. We have those positions been filled by Lance Bell, Grant Miller, and now Michael Nelson Nelson, who is the one in the bottom right, he continues to fill this position. As you look at these stat sheets that the major camp provided me, we got some work out of these guys on the opera payroll. And you look at not just the numbers, but look at down the awards in the second half of that table, I mean, just the citizen accommodations, the recommendations from the supervisors, former awards. It's really impressive what they've been able to do in a very short amount of time. Infrastructure is the biggest piece of this pie. And the biggest part of that is storm water. So under the infrastructure we replenish the residential improvement program that was a small little piece, chunk of that pie if you will, and we'll talk about the Hanover King William Habitat from the Unity Project and the AHA trailer. We purchased Little Slipper land upon Vaud Road across from the Vaud Road intersection with North James Street so we can one day pursue the Vaud Road extension. We dispided about $25,000 in storm drainage. That was a lot of cleaning out of pipes so it makes sure our storm drains could clean out. We purchased a street sweeper. It was not complete purchase. the ARP of money is only covered part of that purchase, but it did offset some of that cost. And then in storm water is where we have the biggest amount of money. We purchased a street sweeper. It was not a complete purchase. The ARPA money's only covered part of that purchase, but it did offset some of that cost. And then in storm waters, where we have the biggest amount of money. So when you look at the, under the residence of a replenishment project, this was, again, one of those areas where we kind of pivoted midstream, where Habitat came to us and wanted to build five homes the Star Quarter on Arlington and Saltalers' Taylor Street and we provided them with assistance to be able to offset the cost of the foundations and the sidewalks. The AHA trailer, the Ashland Helping Ashenloos trailer. This was an initiative by our town manager and our most previous recent media development specialist. Thank you, community development specialists. To provide a tool bank for community members to use to check out tools to do basic yard work or living up trees or raking their yard, a lot of folks just don't have access to these tools. This tool bank is now there, and now Hope Becker, our current community development specialist, she's met with our area church groups to let them know, hey, look, if you've got a Bible study or other, so some of these school or other group in church service organization, once just come check out the whole trailer. Well, we've got waivers, we've got training for you to take, but you can take the whole trailer. It's all battery-operated, high-end equipment. clean up someone's yard over the weekend, bring it back and again no cost to them. That was purchased out of that and you'll see how well Todd, Evan, our operations manager did a great job at outfitting that and making best use of that trailer with lawn mowers and pole saws and hedge trimmers and leaf blowers and did some other just mechanical tools as well. The overall cost of that was just around $5,000. Stormwater is the number one expense that we have, and I'm trying to fit it all into one slide. If Mr. Jennings was here, you'd probably be upset that I fit it all in one slide, but we're going to go to town with that. So right now to date, we spent just over $1.8 million in stormwater projects, but beans that drainage in this town and stormwater, it's a big issue. And we want to make sure that we're funneling that water where it needs to go. So the six projects that are the big projects, of course the Stoney One Creek Restoration, which is still underway. The slash cottage drainage improvements, which you see in the bottom left-hand corner of that post photographs, the installation of permeable pavers and the municipal parking which is the parking lot. We did the first half of the permural pavers. I believe that was before 2020 and then that second half was in 2023, that back half we did that. The frontage grass channel on route one just south of Maple Street Extendion. That's that on the top right hand corner. And then of course the Maple Street Swale and Greenway Trail, that is still a project that's still undergoing now. And then finally the additional town hall parking lot. That is the top left corner, which you see we've got it, got a photograph before the handicap parking, the spot's got painted, but that's been a big help not just for town employees, but we're able to move all of our cars to this back parking lot and break up in that whole front parking lot for parking. I think Mr. Ferris since you were a picture last week of when it was chick day over at the Asheville Feed and Seed and every single one of those spots was filled at 730 in the morning. So it was pretty impressive. Community program is where I spent a lot of my time as your ARPA grant administrator making sure that our community programs had the support they needed to complete their projects and stay within the policy of the U.S. Treasury service. So we had three big community programs in this light, Circles Ashland, the Patrick Cle William C.A., that partnership with the Capital Area Health Network and Devon Assist. So with Circles Ashland, again, I'm not doing any of these programs justice by giving this high level, but I'm happy if anyone wants to talk about it a little bit more. They gave me grant reports every quarter that we have to keep on file for three years after the grant closes. But I just want to let you know that they were able to sponsor three cohorts of classes, if you will, with 24 adults and 47 children over this time frame. I think they did a great job of providing them not only individual, but group coaching, help with transportation. And that transportation was not only Uber or Lyft, but it was also they had a relationship with the mechanic to help fix maybe some of their circle leaders cars or vehicles that needed minor repairs just so they could get back on the road. And then of course they've been a big help at helping us get the word out about the link. The Patrick Henry Y. Capital Health Network served 1,242 community members with direct medical services. This is not wrap-around services. This is not referrals This is these are people coming into the bus or when they had a Partnership with St. James less. These are people patients that are getting service that probably otherwise We're not we got in service here. So that's an incredible number of course We know we had the the bus parked out there at Junction Shopping Center and on we had a loss of a provider for about six month time which they again partnered with St. James the less I got to give the why folks the staff incredible credit for being able to pivot so fast to have that partnership with St. James the less and they've also provided what they call wraparound services to 12,092 people where they were able to maybe they didn't need medical services, maybe they needed nutrition assistance, maybe they needed food assistance, maybe they needed counseling in other areas, things all in those lines are tutoring. That's been a big part of that and it's been a big part of the outreach especially to our Latino and our Hispanic communities. Divine Assist, they've been a fun group to work with. They really have been, they were able to stand up and open up their youth center at the Aspen Church of God in January of 2023. And they went from 10 weekly members to 103, regular weekly members in that timeframe. And they're still going strong. They've had, you know, volunteer, they basically had 907 operating hours under the upper grant where they've actually had the doors open and kids in the building having activities. And their volunteers gave over a thousand hours of volunteer time. And that's one to farmer and her group they worked so hard. And just recently we were very, very happy to report. It took them three years to find a van that met Miss Wanda's high standards, but they've got a nice sprinter van now that they can transport the kids around and during that time. Probably mostly I'd be willing to bet mostly on Ms. Warmer's car, but they transported kids for a total of 382 miles during that time as well. And again I know I'm not doing these these programs justice, giving this high gloss, but I'm just trying to give you a a good snapshot of what we've got going here. So our next is Parks and Recreation. Emmy has done a really incredible job at not just spending this money, but spending this money well. Of course, the ARPA funding enabled us to create our first-deever Parks and Recordination coordinator, which is now the Parks and Recreation Manager. She championed the B.C.D. USA designation. She earned the 2023 Virginia Recreation and Parks Society Young Professional of the Year for the State of Virginia. She currently serves as the Chair of the Central Virginia Area Network and the Co-Chair of the Leadership Training Institute, which is a national body. She's recognized by her peers time and time and time again, she's recognized by her peers. And then there's hard things she did for us. She oversaw a complete overhaul of the skate park. She forwards partnerships with other recreation entities to provide maybe opportunities that we haven't provided our community before. Again, leveraging partnerships. She's elevated the Carter Park pool via policy, by training, by programming, yes, by equipment, by awnings and things along those lines and slides, but also management software. She's just done an incredible work down there. And she's also worked with the Parks and Rec created committee to write the 2045 bicycle and pedestrian plan. And you've got some of those pictures up there. I'm particularly proud for the budget for the budget for the budget for the budget for the budget for the budget for the budget for the budget for the budget for the budget for the budget for the budget for the budget for the budget for the budget for the budget for the budget for the budget for the budget for the budget for the budget for the a ton of work. development of two parks. The first being the Berkeley Town Heritage Park is 3.3 acre park, multi-use and interpretive pathway, and of course a bridge over creek. A ton of work is gone into this. Again, this is not one I'm gonna spend a whole heck, a lot of time on tonight because I don't wanna ruin any surprises. So I didn't put any current pictures in there other than the map you have in front of you. Of course, this was all done kicked off donation of Habitat for Humanity who donated a parcel of land to the town and we were able to connect the dots with other land we already own to create this park. So again, I don't wanna ruin any of this prize, but I think it's gonna be a wonderful unveiling in a few weeks. The South Taylor Park Expansion and Renovation, we purchased 0.7 acres of land, which essentially doubled the area of the park for a small community park it doubled that area to a total of 1.3 acres the future plans and that construction that's one of those projects that's still out there we still have two years to finish that under the the US Treasury guidelines include a full size basketball court and you know a foot's all court, park and exercise path. So we're still working on that project. That's one of those ones again that will continue into the postseason. Other parks and rec expenses that under the arpephide pool slide, tools, shade, camp, and canopies, resurface the part of the surface of the baby pool or Carter Park. The trail at Elman Park streets, waste receptacles and one of the trails, purchase of cell almost seven acres of land near the North Ash, for the future North Ashland Park. Complete overhaul the trails. Purchase of seven acres of land near the North Astro for the future North Astro Park. Complete overhauled the skate park. Replace the playground at South Taylor Street Park. New Saunage at South Taylor Street Park. Replace the filter media at Carter Park Pool. That doesn't sound a lot of fun, but it's saved $11,000 of local taxpayer dollars to be able to complete that work under the archives of the opera grant Complete the trail along north and north James Street and repaid the trail along Maple Street at New Street Again, fantastic work in our parks and rec room Economic development I'm going to continue sounds like we have a little side conversation so the facilities done a lot of things with economic development when I go through them very quickly. We're able to put up downtown fencing along railroad avenue, especially that southbound side of railroad avenue to enable our restaurants to have outdoor seating during the height of the pandemic so they could stay alive and surviving. And I think that's been a wonderful plan. We located overhead utilities. That's an ongoing program. We've expended all the money but that's again, that project is still ongoing with local funds. We've expended all the ARPA funds. Downtown parking from purchasing this little sliver of property, from Mr. Campbell, Judge Campbell behind us, to be able to maintain access to our parking lot there. Downtown street scape, the I-95 interchange landscaping is another part of where we improve that facility, is improve the look of our town as people are getting off of the interchange. Public art, we've spent about $30,000 so far out of our buffons for the Gateway Arch, but also Gateway signage that brings our folks in from the interstate and directs them more than just a half mile off the interstate brings them actually into downtown as well. And the assistance we had the downtown soundtracks that was probably about $40,000 off the top of my head if you will for where Chris Ray and his group working with other vendors provided live music in the downtown area for some or for during the weekends of the basically summer to fall. And what Chris has been able to show year after year is those weekends where they had live music, they had an increase in business revenue. So it paid off there. And then we also had a venue supports a grant, which was eight sub-recipients, to locate businesses that just had to shut down during the pandemic, think, skate land, think some of our folks that they just couldn't open because of the regulations. This helped them to backfill a little bit. And that was a total of about $78,000 for that venue support program. All right, this is the really exciting stuff here, administration of ARPA, which was funded on most of my position for the first three years since I came back retirement. And basically what you see here is the three screens, this top one there with all the green, and that's the sheet that you have. This is, I would probably cry if I woke up and something was wrong with that spreadsheet, because that contains every morsel, every piece of data that governs our usage. But then you see that bottom left hand photo image is just showing you that we've submitted our reports timely and on time and complete every year. Next Monday, the portal opens for the final year. So if you walk past my office and there's papers everywhere and the doors lock, I'll come out in two, three weeks when I'll finish that final report. But we process 695 individual invoices. I maintain wage and benefit data for five employees over 12 quarters, provided grants management to five non-profit subdued subversions. Of course, manage that venue support and submitted all final federal grant report. So it's not heroic work, but it just work that had to be done. And this is probably one of our most proud of during that time. It's cleaning up the dang interstate. Work continues on that. There's a big tree oak tree that we thought we were trying to save during the process, but it fell down and it didn't fall down on the storm. It just fell down one day. That is now we've renewed our permit with V.Dot for another two years. So Mr. Evans will be out there renewed our permit with V.Dot for another two years so Mr. Evans will be out there with our contractor cleaning that up and another month or so we'll continue with our monthly litter and grass mowing operations as well but being very careful in case Miss Martin is watching to avoid the day lily field. Be very careful to make sure we avoid those. Getting close to the end folks, I promise. Affordable housing is one of the final categories and we provided funding to the Hannaburg King William Habitat for Manity and Project Homes. Project Homes received $150,000 grant from the town of Ashland to service roughly 10 homes where they were able to replace windows, replace indoor plumbing, sometimes address some of the HVAC or some roofing issues. None of the issues, none of the photos they sent me are, these things are not going to make front page news or like a wheelchair ramp is great for the imagery, but you're not going to see that, but they help people keep their house warm and keep water from coming into their house and fix mold and mildew issues and plumbing safety, health and welfare things that again, we may not see from the road and this is all from houses in Aslan, but I didn't show the expense because I didn't want to single any one person out. But again, each home roughly about $15,000 for each of the 10, 11 homes in that project. the Hanover King William Habitat for Humanity. We gave $100,000 to Hanover King William Habitat for Humanity to purchase a home on Dewey Street that had fallen into disrepair. And they purchased it, renovated it, and this is the article from the mechanics of a local when they finished that renovation, and we now have a new home over there. So what's next? What do we do in the next 21 months? We have to spend the money, have to have to spend the money by December 31st, 2026. That may change. Based on the tenor of the emails we're now getting now from the US Treasury versus December and November, that could change. So we're working as hard as we can to expend that money responsibly now, going through those processes. So we have four big projects that are marked in yellow in the spreadsheet that I provided you that's also in for those watching at home. This is also embedded into the agenda on the ARPA RENT program so anybody anybody can take a look at it. We have basically have $557,000 left. We've got to install the conduit on Route 54 for future fiber installation. We have to finish setting up the new accounting software. And that's just a timeline set up by contract. When we purchased it, it's going to take a little bit longer to get that finally set up. Miss Schugart and Miss Jones are doing an incredible job with that. We've got to complete the engineering and start of the phase one of the South Taylor Street Park renovation. That again is just going to take a little bit of time. And then we still have several stormwater projects, two big ones that are in play that we hope, hope we will finish much of this before June 30th, but right now we're being somewhat responsible in trying to make sure what we, trying to forecast that, what we think we might have to carry over into FY26. So this is the best story that we can tell of this is, okay, Chief, our two Doug, what did this do for our average citizen? I went through every project and looked at it with the question, would the town have incurred this expense without our funding? Would we have had to pay for this expense, whether we had our funding or not? And so I came up with two slides for you because the town managers thought we probably needed two different scenarios. So if you look at all of these projects, these are things that we would have had to buy one way or the other. We used ARPA funding for $5.8 million for the projects that otherwise would have needed local taxpayer dollars to fund, almost a year's worth of operating budget. If you want to get a little bit more conservative in those estimates, we take out the four positions, because my position wasn't included in the first one, because my position was created to manage the ARPA project. So that wouldn't be saved. But you take out the four positions, which we have benefited from greatly, we're still looking at $4.8 million of savings to local town task bears, which is just under 60% of our allocated funding towards projects that we would have had to pay for one way or the other. I think that's again a testament to this council, a testament to the town manager and all those who put this budget together back in 2021. And with that, I am happy to answer any questions. But before I go, I guess I'll do my final slide. So the voice is going. So final successes, five fantastic employees, five fantastic team members that we are able to bring on board. We're able to make contributions to five programs, PHY, the Central Area Health Network, VAN circles, divinacists, habitat humanity, and project homes, big, major storm water, chunky storm water programs that we're able to better our drainage from our town. Strategic property to improve our parking, and I'm pointing to this parking lot over here for those looking at home, access to right away and spend our parks. So our neighbors have more park land to explore. Much needed overhauls of HVAC systems to APD and DEC, DIC, replacement phone systems of APD, two new generators, and these again, facility upkeep that have all would have been paid out for out of general fund dollars. And of course improvements in expansions to our park facilities. So conservative estimate, we saved $5.8 million of local funding, or if you want to take out the positions 4.8. And now, happy to answer your questions. I think it's very thorough. Well, and I'm just so proud of us and our staff that we used that money to benefit people in our community. And we really thought about how we could spread it is across the board. And it was a lot of work, but we took care of a lot of people. A lot of good things. Well done and the management. Mr. Mayor. Yes, sir. I'm sorry. I sent a text, but in any case, having been with the ARPA funds or the ARPA program since the beginning, I'm blown away with what the town has been able to accomplish. And I'm not only with the support of Council, but obviously the staff was very creative. You don't get this kind of opportunity. Came up with legacy projects that will last us for many years to come and very proud of what the town has done with its art performance. Thank you. Well said. All right. Thank you, sir. I promise we're almost there. Bring it back to you. These are highlights from the proposed budget from your department heads. Obviously my budget will come to you later in April but just want to highlight some. Again, a key element of this is transitioning off. All that wonderful work with ARPA to make sure that the things that need ongoing funding are funded locally. And I think we successfully accomplished that. I've shared with councilman for those in the audience tonight or at home. I am particularly looking at FY26 as a new base budget for the town, rolling off ARPA funding but also with economic uncertainty not adding a lot of new things this coming year. And just let's do what we already do really well for a year and then see where the world is and move forward from there. Again continuing investments in your priorities and the communities priorities we've heard over and over again about connectivity whether it be sidewalks and you know that I also include community engagement in that kind of connecting amongst ourselves and among the community. Expanded Parks and Racken Community Engagement Services, I think we've done really well with that and then again significant significant investment in ARPO based on that surplus we had in FY25, 24, using one time surplus money for one time investments in infrastructure. Completing some really major things that we've been working on for a very long time. Downtown streetscape, I feel like I've been a broken record for many years. Thrilled that that is under construction right now. I loved the stream restoration we did down off Hill Carter Parkway. I think this one's gonna be just as wonderful and beautiful over here on Lee Avenue. And again, help us to meet those stormwater management goals that are required by the state and the federal government. And then again, doing a made, we've already done some playground equipment, replacement at Cell Taylor. Pfft. and again, help us to meet those stormwater management goals that are required by the state and the federal government. And then again, we've already done some playground equipment, replacement at Cell Taylor, but doing a nice revitalization of that park with the expanded area there. And then as we've talked about through strategic planning, we are going to do some planning in the coming year for traffic congestion. I want to re-up our neighborhood revitalization efforts, making sure we're taking care of what we already have and not just always look into the future, but also importantly, internally dealing with some succession planning we have. We have some incredible talent that's going to be leaving us over the next 12 months, and we need to make sure we prepare for it. So that's what the highlights of what you saw from, at the end, the last thing is asking you, do you have any general guidance, any specific guidance, and then in particular, and I just say this because it's often times the easiest place to find savings or find places where you may want, are there capital projects that you really hope to have funded or may say, Josh, you know, that's something that could maybe wait a few years. Those are the types of things that are always helpful for me as I probably have to cut Probably about a million to 1.5 million out of this before I come present to you all. So any suggestion or. Those are the types of things that are always helpful for me as I probably have to cut probably about a million to 1.5 million out of this before I come present to you all. So any suggestion or guidance you have would be very much appreciated. And as always you can wait and noodle on it a little bit and get with me next week too. Our top 10 in the CPF there, we always kind of him and hall about which ones and what order and all of that. But there's certainly some flexibility in those numbers to try it as you say, establish from the baseline. So anyway, I'm pleased with where we all I'm satisfied with the numbers and look forward to more discussion. Very good. All right. All right. Thank you, Council. All right. There's another opportunity for citizen input. And we have these meetings and we talk about citizen input. Obviously citizen input isn't limited only to our meetings, phone calls, emails and all of that. So always open but the concrete starts to get set as the days go by so sooner rather than later. But at this point we have on our schedule a closed. I'll ask whether there's a motion concerning going into closed session. Mr. Mayor. Let's see. I move to enter closed session or I move to move to enter close session on meet pursuant to Virginia code section 2.23711A1 to discuss or consider the annual performance evaluation of the town manager. you you I'm going to go back to the other side. All right. We're returning now from closed session. Is there a motion concerning certification? Mr. Mayor, I move to return to Mr. Mayor, I move to return to open meeting and certify that only those matters lawfully exempted from the open meeting requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and mentioned in the motion to enter closed meeting were heard, discussed or considered the correct response. I'm going to be speed that. I second. Ms. Barnhart. I so certify. Ms. Soapal. I so certify. Dr. McGraw. Dr. speak that. I second. Miss Barnhart. I so certify. Miss Soapo. I so certify. Dr. McGraw. I so certify. Mayor Trvett. I so certify. And Mayor, I'm sorry, vice mayor Hodges is absent at this point. Okay. Thank you. All right, anything else come before us? No. Thanks everyone.