Thank you. Good evening. We'll call to order this November 19th, 2024 meeting of the Ascent Tower Council. And before I get started, I'll do something official here. Our vice mayor, John Hodges, is not able to be here in person. But I'll go through the proper code section. You're pursuant to Virginia Code section 2.2-3708.2A. Vice Mayor Hodges notified us today that he would not be able to attend tonight's meeting in person. And would like to participate by electronic means remotely. Through the power of technology, Vice Mayor 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. Is there a motion to confirm that this request is within council policy? COU-114 and is approved. So I guess I'll have a motion then. So moved. I second. Vice Mayor Hodges. Aye. Dr. McGraw. Aye. Ms. Barnhart. Aye. Ms. Soapall. Aye. Mayor Trevet. Aye. And for posterity sake before the town attorney gets on me for that, the vote for approving is just those present. I appreciate that I called Vice Mayor Hodges and he answered me. So that was just a test of this audio system. So the four of you approved unanimously. So thank you. Great validity. All right. And brought him in early from the beginning, but want to take a moment of silence here. And yesterday, even had the opportunity to speak to PAC, I guess it's troops 718 of Ashland talking to the weeblows, young ladies and one young gentleman. And they wanted me to talk about the difference between majority voting and plurality voting, which is, you know is not that easy, a thing to talk about. But I just wanted to mention that, that that's exciting to think that there's young age, that they're learning about civics and governmental responsibility. And so I just say, how about a moment of silence? While we consider those of us old enough to vote, that we consider our civics and then be encouraging young people to participate as well. So please join me in a moment silence. Thank you. Dr. McGraw, would you lead us in the pledge? Please stand if you're able. A pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic a Thank you All right, we'll review the agenda here. We have our consent agenda That's minutes from the November 6th 2024 town council meeting we have invoices and then we have an item 301 business lane Internal sidewalk waiver request Then we have presentations we have four of the first from fiscal year 2023 2024 annual comprehensive financial report will have, I think, Ms. Betsy Hedrick in electronically as well from PB Mayors. After that, our rich and regional tourism update from Ms. Catherine O'Donnell, glad to have them here, and Ashley Museum update, Ms. Ann Martin and company, and crisis communications for elected officials of presentation by Ms. Miller. After After that we'll have our citizen input time opportunity for someone to come up and speak to council on a matter. After a citizen input time we have action item that's the public art master plan. Miss Miller bring us that and the two discussion items outdoor musical or entertainment festivals from chief Aaron Holt, the 2025 draft legislative agenda, Mr. Goodman, and then our report from the planning department, my Miss Amos and police department, Chief Aaron Holt. Is there consensus for the agenda is presented? Yes. Yes. All right. Yes. All right. Now, before we go to the consent agenda, I understand that there may be a motion. Mr.. Now before we go to the consent agenda, understand that maybe a motion? Mr Mayor. Yes, sir. I would like to move that item C be removed from the consent agenda 301 lane. And on the sidewalk waiver request for a follow-up report by the staff. that just occurred today. All right. That was in the form of a motion, wasn't it? It was. So moved, Mr. Chair. And Mr. Mayor. I second. Okay. A motion in a second. Mr. Paul. Aye. Vice Mayor Hodges. Aye. Dr. McGraw. Aye. Ms. Pawnhart. Aye. Mayor Trevert. Aye. Vice Mayor Hodges. Aye. Dr. McGraw. Aye. Ms. Pawnhart. Aye. Mayor Trevett. Aye. All right. Well, let's go ahead and take up the consent agenda at this time. Any questions, comments, or a motion concerning the consent agenda with item C removed? Mr. Mayor, I move to approve the plate. I move to approve the consent agenda as amended and pay the bills. Nice second. Dr. McGraw. Aye. Ms. Soapal. Aye. Vice Mayor Hodges. Aye. Ms. Barnhart. Aye. Mayor Chava. Aye. All right, so now we'll take up the item that was removed from the consent agenda. 301 Business Lane Internal Sidewalk Waver Request. Miss Amos? Good evening. So we went ahead and put together a presentation ban and went ahead and put it together a presentation for you all to just so that we can have some graphics for the public if we're going to be so far we discuss this. So it is a request for 301 business lane for an internal sidewalk waiver. The request comes from the applicant's representative, Nicholas Jiggy. I am really sorry. I'm going to destroy your name, Jiggy Lottie. On behalf of Christopher Erby with the Manning Con companies to request a waiver to exempt them from designing and constructing the internal sidewalk improvements along a portion of business lane going north into their property. The applicant is requesting this waiver due to safety erosion and the connectivity concerns and conflicts with existing utilities. So a background on this, this exception request is coming from the review of 301 Business Lane Site Plan. So during the site plan there was a comment made that there needed to be internal sidewalks connecting from the road to the office. The site plan is still currently under review. It's for a 105,000 square foot contractors office. The property currently contains an adjacent office building which is the home of Port Vare Filtration Group. Majority of the parcel is currently vacant for us to land with some wetlands. Here's just an area of you showing the location. You can see my pointer back around. Here's Hill Carter Parkway and Business Lane. This is I-95. This area right here is in Hanover County. This is the town County boundary and the Dominion easement, the power line easement that comes through the town. So the entire parcel is the area marked in red. This is the poor, poor, poor, rare company that's adjacent to the property. So here's an overlay of the site plan. So you can see, I apologize. There will be an extension of business lane to get them the adequate road frontage that's required. And according to the code, they would be required to provide a sidewalk along this access drive. So this would not be a public road here. This is their driveway into the office. And there's a requirement for pedestrian facilities, and that's what they're requesting a waiver for. So the Ashland Town Code does require on-site and off-site sidewalks. They will be providing the off-site sidewalks, but there's also a section in here that allows for waivers. And that section comes to town council for approval. The applicant's proposed alternative was to provide a five-foot stripe pedestrian walkway along that access drive is business lane coming in and along this would be the area where the striped pedestrian path would come in. The existing conditions business lane is a small local road, it does have five industrial lights, lots including the subject parcel. It is approximately 1.24 miles long and runs east to west. It is not shown on our transportation plan to connect to the Hanover County parcel, but I don't think it's unreasonable to think in the future that it could be something discussed. The area is not likely to be developed further because of the constraints we discussed the wetlands and the Dominion Power line. The roadway width is currently 22 feet and lies within a 50 foot right of way. The road does have curb and gutter throughout and the sidewalk will be installed. At the last council meeting I believe it was discussed that the transportation plan shows for a trail to be located along the eastern property line. So that's in this area here. Here's for a ver. And this is where the office building would be constructed. And so you can see there's a proposed trail it has not yet been built and we do not have the right of way for or easements for a trail at this point. After last month's meeting we met with the applicant I believe actually today it was suggested that a sidewalk easement be provided not on the east side or I'm sorry yes not on the east side where it's shown here on the plan but actually on the western side of the parcel we'll go back to the map here on the western side of the parcel so on the western side of the drive aisle that there would be a 20-foot easement in order for a 10 foot trail to be constructed at a future time. And so that would go from business lane all the way north to the property line, the northern property line. And so staff is recommending that council approve the request for the 301 business lane exception, waving the requirement to provide internal sidewalks but requiring the dedication of a 20 foot wide pedestrian easement along the western property line from business lane on the south to the northern property line for construction of a 10 foot wide pedestrian trail. All right. Any questions for staff on this? and the committee. We have a pedestrian trail. Any questions for staff on this? We have a Vice Mayor is holding up his hand trying to get attention. We are not going to move ahead of you. No one has any questions. Mr. Vice Mayor, if you have something to say, questions or a motion will entertain that at this time. I did not have a question, Mr. Mayor. I did want to commend the staff for their follow-up to a discussion that we had and I wanted to express my appreciation to Council for your patients and dealing with this case and to the applicant who's responded. I think that the dilemma has been that this private access request would, while it would satisfy a code requirement, it would not provide for the public access that the comp plan, the transportation plan and the parks and recreation master plan that was presented to you not yet adopted shows with the trail with this with the applicants proposed and staff proposed 20 foot easement. The applicant would not be building the 10 foot trail but there would be provided a public access easement across the portion of the property that doesn't interfere with the applicant's development plans and would preclude the blockage through the applicant's development of a trail along the power lines. I think it's a good alternative trading a private walkway for a public access and I would support the staff's recommended presentation and I would so move. All right thank you. Our motion has been made. Second. Ms. Barnhart. Aye. Ms. Soapall. Aye. Vice Mayor Hodges. Aye. Dr. McGraw. Aye. Mayor Chabot. Aye. All right. Thank you, Mr. Gaggadhi. Thank you so much. Thank you. All right, and so we'll go ahead and move on with our first presentation, the 2023-2024 annual comprehensive financial report. And you've got that peed up. Excuse me? Is that an input? Well, we do that after our presentation. And we change the order up a little bit there. OK. Oh, that after our presentation. Yeah, we change the order up a little bit there. Okay. Oh, that's right. I'm looking down. That's okay. We'll call on Ms. Betsy Hedrick to Hedrick to give her report of the FY24 audit. Betsy. Great. Good evening. While I am pleased to share with you that we have issued an unmodified opinion on the town's financial statements for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2024. And as you all are well aware, an unmodified opinion is a clean opinion, and that's really the best opinion that we can issue as auditors. In addition to the financial statement opinion, there are two other reports that we issue in the back of your financial statements in the compliance section. And the first one is our report on internal controls over financial reporting and compliance. And the second one is our report on the compliance for the major federal program, which for the town this past year was ARPA, and our report on internal control over compliance required by the uniform gotten. So our single audit report. And again, I'm happy to share with you that based on our audit procedures and our testing, we did not identify any significant deficiencies or material weaknesses or findings that we needed to write up. In addition to the reports that we've issued in your financial statements, we have also shared with you another document that we refer to as our results of the audit. Our professional auditing standards require us to report certain items related to the audit to you, those charged with governance. So every year we need to remind you that there are some estimates in your financial statements so we have a list of those there. If we would have identified any significant audit adjustments to the trial balances that were shared with us for audit, we would have reported that in that report. We did not, which is fantastic. If we would have had any disagreements or difficulties in performing our audit procedures, we would have included that in the report. But everyone that we worked with was extremely cooperative. And if we asked for, when we asked for a lot of supporting documentation, we do interviews, inquiries, and we were able to obtain everything that we needed to fulfill our audit responsibilities in our procedure. So it was a very smooth audit. So we're thankful to everyone that worked with us to get the audit done this year and we're grateful to serve as a town's auditors. So do you have any questions for me this evening? Any questions anyone? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I just want to say is appreciate PV mayors and your services and as the doctor to the town's financial health It's always good to get a good report and so anyway appreciate that very much. Thanks for y'all's Services and it is a complement to the financial staff. So well done team Thank you We'll see you next year. All right. Now our Richland Region Tourism Update, Ms. Catherine O'Donnell. Welcome back. And you got your ring person. Good evening. Yes. I'm so happy to be here in the center of the universe with all of you for our annual tourism update. And I have my colleague, Daniel Fitzhugh, who's our Vice President of Community Relations, who's going to join me in sharing the good tourism news with all of you tonight. So we'll kick it off, of course, with our new favorite picture from Ashland with the wonderful Secretary of Photo and talk about some good news. And as you all know, we work in tourism because it supports our community. and we're working with the community and we're working with the community and we're working with the community and we're working with the community and we're working with the community and we're working with the community and we're working with the community and we're working with the community and we're working with the community and we're working with the community and we're working with the community and we're working with the community and we're working with the community and we're working with the You also know that this is a regional effort. We know that when visitors travel, they don't know what boundary lines are between towns and cities and counties. And for us, we have a more than four-decade history of regional collaboration and tourism knowing that when we put all of our assets together, we have a much better product to offer our visitors. And so we're so thrilled to have Ashlyn among the region inviting visitors here. We're still breaking records. and so we're so thrilled to have Ashlyn among the region inviting visitors here. We're still breaking records. So we come back every year since COVID really and talk about how well we're doing. We're looking at great improvement in the number of trips and the increase of year over year in overnight trips, which is what we like to see because people are spending more money when they stay overnight. We got our latest visitor spending numbers, which you have seen I'm sure, but 2023 data comes out in the fall, so right before we meet with you. And we're almost back to pre-COVID numbers in terms of visitation, but we're well ahead of the spending. And that's what we really want to know about. So we're at 3.7 billion for our region in visitor spending. And similarly our hotels are full and that's one way we measure of course how well we're doing is if people are staying in hotels and you can see from fiscal year 24 more almost $40 million in revenue across the region for tax revenue for lodging. So we continue to see growth. We're seeing that trend still play out this year. It is not quite as rapid as the line that you see coming out of COVID. Some of that revenge travel is sort of tapering off and it's more steady, but we're still seeing good revenue growth over the year. The reason we're successful in the Richmond region is because we have a great variety of tourism assets to promote. So we don't have all of our eggs in one basket. I'm sure you can think of other destinations that just have leisure or maybe only business. And because we have all four sectors, when one area is slow to rebound or one area fails, we have the other three lion. And this is really played out for us as we continue to come back from COVID. And of course, the slowest segment to recover is business travel. And really, 2026 is the forecasted year for potentially business travel to return a nationwide to pre-COVID numbers. But the rest of them are back and they have been doing really well in holding us up and that's what's so great about having such a good variety of tourism sectors in our region. So you all are familiar with what they all are. We continue to lead in friends and family. So we outpace the national average of people who visit friends and family in the return region. I think that speaks volumes for how much our citizens love living here, but it also reminds us why we need to engage them on what there is to see and do. So when they do have visitors come, they're taking them out, they're exploring, they're coming to all areas of the region. When we look at our demographics, similar from what we see every year, D.C. Northern, continue to be our biggest feeder markets. We've seen a lot of growth in the Hampton Roads area in the last year or so. And when we see that, we continue to market in those markets and add more outreach so that they continue to come. We're pretty much set year-round. Every quarter is pretty close to being the same in terms of seasonality, which again is great unlike other weather dependent destinations. We don't really have a high season in the low season. We have a great steady flow of visitation. That has a lot to do with those market segments we are just looking at. When we look outside of leisure, which leisure is our biggest tourism market, when we look outside of leisure, sports tourism on the group side, it continues to be the largest of what Richmond region tourism is recruiting, and you can see that breakout there, as well as the top five sports. And Ashland gets great benefits from that. So while you might not necessarily be home to some of the facilities, you're really nearby, a lot of them. A great example would be the lot of the cross-country that's taking place in Hanover. Of course, you're very close to Meadow Event Park, so you're seeing the benefit of sports tourism in your hotels and in your restaurants and in all the other things when they're not on their fields. Some exciting things for Ashland that happened in 2024. Of course, we have the tabletop events, tabletop gaming convention. We love ISSA, the International Senior Softball Association. They come year after year where people as old as over a hundred are playing softball. And then some people who might not want to classify themselves as senior citizens are also playing, you know, in their 50s and 60s. But it's a great event playing all over the region. And then of course you have the Half-Mayorathon that has participatory tourism, sports tourism here in Ashland. We're very excited about the new NCAA announcements for the Richmond region. For the first time ever, we've won three for our region. Yes, and of course our main partner for one of them was Randolph-Making College. So they partnered with Rechun Region Tourism and the Henrico Sports and Event or Entertainment Authority to win the D3 of Alleyball for 2027. So the event will take place at the facility in Henrico. However, of course, it's great exposure for the University, the college, and we're really grateful for their partnership, because in order to win any of the events, we have to have a university or college partner to bid on them. So we're excited to have two D1 events, and one D3 event coming to the Richmond region in 27 and 28. And these were made possible through the funding, through the tourism improvement district, which we'll talk more about later But that enables us to have the funds to recruit these big wins Every year we'd like to update you on the tourism master plan last year We talked a lot about starting these efforts and there's some good progress to announce the headquarter hotel is the one that's ongoing We're still really working closely with the City of Richmond and then now incoming administration to advocate for the City Center project to provide a new headquarters hotel. The Inspiration Campaign has, we finished up our ARPA funds, we too just went through the audit for our ARPA programs, we feel that pain, but it turned out to be great and the results were really great. I think we're gonna, yes, we're that pain. But it turned out to be great and the results are really great. I think we're going to, yes, we're going to show the video and I'll tell you about the results afterward. It's sound-based. I'm going to go back. So I'll give if I turn the volume on it's going to feed back to the zoom call. I am so sorry. I wish there was another way I could do it. That's okay. You know, it's my computer so I'm having two computers up here and it'll start a feedback loop that I can't stop. So none of the videos are going to work. We'll try. We'll try. We'll try. We'll try. We'll try. We'll try. We'll try. We'll try. We're waiting to meet you or other computers. What if I pull it up like you're really on the mic? I'm sorry. I pull it up like you're in the presentation I'm willing to try anything as long as council has the patience to try it. Sure. Well, this one, I think we showed you last year. So I'm going to skip it. If you'll remember, you can watch it. It's a good one. It's a great one. And we'll send you the link. It's the one that's ASMR based. so there's only sound and no words. It was a way for us to stand out and be different from all the other tourism videos taking place. So pretend you can hear the echoes of the footsteps and the roaring engines and all the great things. But the idea is to let the Richmond region speak for itself and tell the story through this popular ASMR technology And again, we can forward that to you two review It's been out for a while, but we continue to dawn through Richmond region tourism's additional funding and I'll show you the results once it's done And it says ding there we go the Richmond region speaks for itself And we think the results speak for themselves. You can see here all the impressions that we were able to get through this, and of course, Ashland's a part of the video. But more importantly, we did a brand-lift study which shows the impact of people who've seen the ad. And this kind of result is almost unheard of in brand-lift. So we have a 51% increase in perception of the region and a 34% increase in very likely to travel. Of people who saw the video and people who did not. And when you talk to people who are in the marketing world, I'd lunch with someone who's a longtime advertiser and told him this and he was like, that is unheard of. Like it's so good. So we're continuing to invest in this even though the ARPA money has run out. We're using some TID funding. We're using some of Richard and Regent Tourism's money to continue this message and really let the Regent speak for itself. Wow. So speaking of the Tourism Improvement District, you guys will remember we went through the process to pass the district. It's been in place for a full year and change now. July 1 was the beginning of the second year. So we have in your packet that you'll be receiving and some highlights here from the first year, the success and it's obviously continued on since since we're in November now. But part of what we really wanted to do was level the playing field with the TID. So that we had more resources to market the region and be close to our competitors. And that's enabled us to advertise year round, which we could not afford to do previously. And here is a sampling of the results of those campaigns from the first year, keeping in mind that we can really only track about 20 to 30% of the bookings. The rest of it is not able to be tracked. So you can sort of multiply in your head what the results might be. This is very conservative. But altogether, we're talking of over 30,000 additional hotel room nights through these campaigns, again representing 20 to 30%. And the task at hand for anything with the TID is to drive more hotel business. One of the things we were able to do, we ran many campaigns, seasonal campaigns, midweek campaigns, heard from our hotels what their desires were, and to focus the campaigns that way. But we also ran campaigns for every locality. So you can see here a sample of the one that was specifically for Ashland. And so through the TID, the Richmond region is always on for advertising. On the business development side, where we meet with meeting and event planners and tour operators, you can see a summary here. We add new trade shows, new partnerships, expanded partnerships. We had brought people in for tours. And all together, the TID approved 56 incentives in the first year representing almost $115 million in economic impact. Of those so far, we've converted 70%. That means they've said yes, and they'll be hosting their events. Some have already happened and into the future in the region. So we're really seeing the dividends from the TID payoff. And you can see here, our picture of our upgraded booth that was funded by the TID. We used to just sort of have a table with like a pull up. And now we're professional and have more people at the trade just. And one of the things we loved about the TID is we were able to afford working with influencers, content creators, which are very effective because we can help tell them what we want them to cover. And this one is called Geek Girl Travel. And she came with her family and went to Ashland in a bunch of other places in the Richmond region and these posts went viral. And she had a great blog. And one of my favorites written about all the great things to do in the region. So we're really excited about the ability to get the word out so much more through these resources through the TID for all of the localities that are contributing. So with that I'm going to turn it over to Danielle who will talk about the rest of the tourism Good evening everyone. As Catherine and Jen, I'm Danielle, fits you by President of Community Relations and it's so good to see everyone here again. Our work focuses on community relations and right here in the market. And as you can see by this slide, we're spending about 40% a little over 40% on our DEI efforts in the community, another 40% in sports grants. So we are providing grants to our region right here in market that are putting on activities right here in the region. We also had our very first IAM Tourism class right here in this room, this year where we had a full class, full busload, immersive, and all the things. There is the due tourism to become ambassadors of our region. And then we also offer scholarships for our college students who are entertaining hospitality careers throughout the region. So I'll talk a little bit about these programs as we go through. Tourism supports jobs. We talk about that in our IAM Tourism program. We employ over 29,000 employees in tourism and hospitality. And what people don't realize is that the tourism industry, the average wage is over $80,000 dollars right here. And I mean, that's really a good wage for this region. And so we're excited to educate our young people on hospitality and tourism being a career path. Our IAM tourism, we had over 400 attendees throughout the year in IAM tourism. And that doesn't include the 800 students and families that we educated for orientation for first year students and families attending universities at VCU and telling them about the region. So when they come down to the region, they know what to do with their students and young people. Our Black RBA celebrated five years this year, doing the work in the community, uplifting our business partners, and so that they can experience part of those 17.9 million visitors that are coming into the region. I'm going to tell you, let's see. I think our next is the video. Let's see how we do. Is it on? All right. I can click. No, push the play. This one? I will show. Now play. There we go. VLTRV8. My name is Melody Boychort and this is how I live Black RBA. What's happening I'm Jason Ford and this is how I live Black RBA. That's just a little bit of the work we've been doing over the past five years and keeping them up the movement going. We spent ten years celebrating out RVA, this past September of doing the work which contributed to the 100 perfect score in the MEI index. And we're very excited to promote that to our communities. We also, as I mentioned, we have sports grants. Those grants are funded through our RVA Sports Awards. As you can see here, this is our version of the SBEs, where we recognize and highlight and uplift our local athletes. In fact, I believe the softball player from Randolph-Macon received female athlete of the year. I see top of the list. Yes, I was like going by memory. But this was, it's really, we're slated to be February 8th this year. This is going to be Super Bowl Saturday. We hope you'll come back up. This event has been so successful. CBS Local has won a national award as the best produced local program for our RVA sports awards. So we're getting national recognition based on our little event that we do in the Richmond region and we'll show you just a little bit of the media headlines from this past year. I'm going to have a little bit of a to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. We know that the Richmond region is on fire for both leisure travelers, sports travelers, meetings and conventions. Ways you can get involved, as I mentioned, the IAM Tourism campaign. We've taken our SMR technology that Catherine mentioned from our speaks for itself. Commercial and put it into our RVA Champions program. So we now, if you have conventions or visitors that you know are coming to the region, maybe you belong to a fraternity or sorority or other national league of cities and other national league of counties and other events. We can help promote and get those events right here in our Richmond region through our RVA Champions program. We're on all of the social media making sure that we are everywhere that our visitors want to be and they have no problem finding the Richmond region and finding the center of the universe. All right. From our team to yours, thank you so much. Thank you. Any questions happy to answer them? Happy to direct them all to Catherine. Great results. We do have some packets for you that Doug go hand out just to leave you with some bedtime reading. All right. Thank you very much. Yep. And if you wanted to go back to your first video and show that now that we have audio capability, thank you Miss Amos. Let me agree. Is it turned up real loud? Thank you. Thank you. Starting route to to get you. I'm going to get you. I'm going to get you. I'm going to get you. I'm going to get you. I'm going to get you. I'm going to get you. I'm going to get you. I'm going to get you. I'm going to get you. I'm going to get you. I'm going to get you. I'm going to get you a drink. I'm going to get you a drink. I'm going to get you a drink. I'm going to get you a drink. I'm going to get you a drink. I'm going to get you a drink. I'm going to get you a drink. I'm going to get you a drink. I'm going to get you a drink. I'm going to get you a drink. I'm going to get you a drink. That's great. I think you could hear Ashlyn in the video. Outstanding results. That's terrific. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. While we're talking tourism, we'll go to an attraction in Ashland, the Ashland Museum update. Welcome. Right in the hometown. That's right. Good evening members of Council. I am Anne Martin and I come to you tonight representing the Ashland Museum. Like most of us, I too love holidays. Not only for the joy, the festivities and the time with family, just as important, holidays give us the opportunity for reflection. Be it the 4th of July, Martin Luther King Day, Memorial Day, Mother's Day, or any of the others, we should always take the time to reflect on the history and the significance of each of these special days. Now as we enter this holiday season and with Thanksgiving almost here. This isn't especially appropriate time to express the museum's appreciation and thankfulness for the support that the town and this council has provided us throughout the years. Through monetary grants awarded by the council, the museum has accomplished activities we could not have managed on our own. Examples being the physical refresh of the museum building, which made it more visible and a place of which we can be proud. The purchase of archival material to display items and to store them correctly. And now with our new interactive media board, it is a delightful way for visitors to experience those important stories that highlight activities within the town. A smaller version can be found at the Ashland Library. All of this has been made possible by your support. And the museum wants you to know, have very, very, very thankful we as citizens and our visitors are. The museum is an integral part of our community, with programs both inside and outside of the museum, from helping to ensure the placement of the Secretaryate of Staffashlin statue in Ashland to history talks. Our most recent was just this past Thursday night. This pan was there. Spongebob, history talk when we celebrated the 100th anniversary and Ashlin's connection to the culinary icon Sally Bell's kitchen. Youth programs, such as Fish Like Huckthin at Dejarnit Park sponsored in cooperation with the Ashland Park and Ruck Department, it was a grand success with each participant catching at least one fish. Other programs include trivia nights, by annual Woodland Cemetery tours, and neighborhood walking tours and receptions. This year's tour will be held Sunday, December 8, along parts of Howard and James Street. Registration can be found on the museum's web page. In addition, are all the programs accomplished in conjunction with other town organizations. A partial list is on your screen. Never willing to rest on our accomplishments, the museum is exploring two possible projects. And Mr. Mayor, I was really excited to hear about the young boy's scouts, because one of the projects that we are thinking about will provide opportunities for youth to engage history through programs, historical reenactors, and interactive lessons focused on their gaining on understanding and appreciation of the dreams and expectations of our founding fathers and of our collective responsibility to what it means to be an American. The second effort would be the development of a program on preserving our personal and community history. Participants would learn how to organize and collect oral histories through workshops and a story booth. Those priceless family stories will be collected and preserved for future generations. As you can see, much goes on at your museum for which you too can be proud. Thank you for helping to shape Ashland's museum into the jewel that it is. And also I wish to thank you for your dedication and commitment to the welfare of a beautiful town. As together, we build and preserve a distinctive and important history for future generations. Thank you. Thank you, thank you very much. Ms. Martin, thank you for that presentation. Presented with much love for what you do. Yes, indeed. All right. Next thing is a crisis communications for elected officials. Miss Miller. Good evening. We're going to switch gears just slightly here. How good. Something a little more serious but hopefully helpful. So this presentation I put together at the request actually of Council Member Barnhart who attended I think a very helpful presentation at VML a month or so ago just specifically on this topic and so I wanted to kind of provide a digest from the crisis communications plan that I presented to you all last year. That provided a little bit more specific guidance or recommendations for you all given your unique position as elected officials should we encounter a crisis. So this is kind of a refresh, but this is my common refrain when it comes to crisis, timely and accurate, accurate communication in a crisis is essential. Communications from the town must be honest and forthright and the general knowledge around crisis is tell it all, tell it fast and tell the truth. So as a refresher on our crisis communications plan, that was presented to town council in September of 2023. I have attached with your agenda packet an updated version of that. You may recall that the plan was always to kind of do an annual update of that. Just to make sure that all the information included therein was still accurate, was staff changes and changes in our partners. So I just completed an update. So what you have with you in your packet is the most recent version of that. And again, this is a really specific and important reminder that this serves as an appendix to Hanova County's emergency operations plan. Hanova County is really the leading partner, especially when it comes to a public safety crisis. And in partnership with the Ashland Police Department, obviously. And that the crisis communications plan for the town outlines the processes that will be used by town staff specifically to maintain and coordinate effective public information sharing before, during and after an incident. So again, we're not talking about public safety response. We're talking about the communications aspect of those. So the plan is designed to be flexible enough to accommodate contingencies, various types, and degrees, and identifies the members of staff by title that make up the crisis communications team. So let's talk about your unique position as elected officials. So during times of crisis, elected officials are often experiencing the same trauma, fear and confusion alongside their constituents. However, you're embedded in your communities. You are trusted neighbors, you are community leaders, and especially given the nature of our small town, you are highly accessible to your neighbors and to your constituents at any time, really. It's to be expected that constituents will reach out to you directly, stop you on the streets or in the grocery store looking for more information. So what kind of, how should you respond? What are best practices? So I've broken this into kind of three parts, before a crisis, into kind of three parts before a crisis, during a crisis, and after a crisis. Just some general tips. So before a crisis, make sure you're really familiar with the town and county plans. You know, you should really understand kind of what the general process is for responses. So you have an understanding of what to expect when the time comes. Learn from other communities. Talk to your peers that have been through things. VML is a great place to exchange information and experiences about things like this. Invest in community relationships, which I'm preaching to the choir on that. You all obviously are already doing that. But we always like to say in an emergency, that's not the first time you want to be meeting someone or talking to someone. So maintaining those core community contacts and really building that trust is really going to come in handy when an emergency or crisis emerges. And then think through potential crises and their potential impacts. And there's some guidance on that in the plan as well, you know, the different kinds of crises that could happen and what the impacts or fallouts might be from those. So during a crisis, I broke this into kind of four big categories. So generally speaking, you want to stick to the facts. So you want to limit information sharing to factual information, and this is important that's been approved for public dissemination only. Given your positions, you may become privy to information that is actually not available or ready to be shared with the public yet. So making sure that you clearly understand and seeking clarification where you're not sure from town staff, chief Aaron Holt on what is okay to share is really important. So consult official statements and recommended messaging for guidance. So per the communications plan, there is a process by which myself, Chief Aaron Holt, Officer Watts, who was the PIO for APD, would come together and put together official statements that would be okay for sharing on social media pages and in person. Second bucket is defer. So that really is just getting at refer all media inquiries and requests for comment to designated county or town spokesperson. Again, because we're a small town, we all know that there are members of the media that have your old contact information, right? And in a crisis they are looking for that kind of breaking piece of news, so they will use kind of anything that is available to them. So it's really important to try to continue to funnel those requests to kind of the official channel. So we don't have information that doesn't match or something that maybe goes out publicly that isn't ready to be gone on publicly yet. And if you are interested in speaking with the media, please consult staff, speak with Josh or myself or Chief Aaron Holt and let us know that those inquiries are coming in. Amplify. So this is kind of in contrast to the defer. So amplify the messages that are approved to be amplified. Director constituents to the official government channels for up to date information and help us counter disinformation by sharing those official statements only, especially without kind of a standard newspaper of record. And we all know kind of how confusing social media can be and how quickly rumors spread. The more folks we have sharing official and factual information, the better. And then of course be the calm. And this is just good leadership 101. But there is recognition that you may be experiencing some of the emotions of your constituents, depending on the nature of the crisis, but endeavor to set your own experiences aside to reassure the community. They will be looking to you. After a crisis, be a conduit, maintain close ties with community members, and I really see you all as being a resource for staff after a crisis as well. If there are things that haven't happened yet, that you're bubbling up from the community, you all could be a great conduit to let us know if there is lack of information in one neighborhood, or you're hearing something from another, really being kind of that years to the ground resource as the accessible person to your constituents can be a real asset to staff in a situation like this. Help us manage the public's expectations, right? Depending on the nature of the crisis, if it's a natural disaster or something like that, the recovery and repair may take a significant period of time and so helping manage those expectations while reassuring folks that you know we're handling it and that things will return to some form of normal as soon as possible is really helpful. And then of course do what you're already doing we know will make us a more resilient community, depending on the nature of the crisis. And that's all I had for you on. I'm happy to take questions or entertain ideas. Questions or comments? I have a comment and that is, you know, thank you for taking the time and effort and anyone involved for putting it together. It was a topic of discussion at the VML conference. And when I was sitting there, I realized I knew we had something in place, but I wasn't quite sure exactly what it was. And it certainly doesn't hurt to go back and revisit something that's this important. And practice always makes it second nature. So I do appreciate that. And I'm sure the rest of us feel the same way. And also anyone who might be listening at home. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. That was very helpful. Yeah. You're welcome. Thank you very much. All right, that brings us to a citizen input time. Anyone like to come forward and speak to council? Want to matter? Just invite you to do so at this time. Anyone like to come forward and speak to council? On a matter just invite you to do so at this time. I see no one coming. So we'll close citizen input time and move on with our first action item. Miss Miller to you all tonight. This represents a lot of great work by our very new public art commission. They've done an exceptional job of really bringing this to light and you know done a lot of work. Let me just see if I can get this to blow up so it doesn't. There we go. They've done a lot of work for a very new commission to get this off the ground. You'll see in your staff report they recently voted to adopt this plan so that's why I'm bringing it to you For suggested adoption alongside our other town plans rather than preparing a A lengthy kind of PowerPoint presentation. I thought I would just walk through the PDF a little bit and then answer questions so this is as you can see designed to be a five-year plan and You know that starts out kind of his most plans to do with an executive summary and then the introduction includes kind of some history around the creation of the public art commission its purpose and the purpose of the master plan. Then goes into methods of how this was developed. We really did a pretty robust community engagement process that happened to, I guess it started almost exactly a year ago. I can recall being out at the tree lighting last year, getting folks to take surveys around public art. And so we're coming up on that this Saturday. So that just occurred to me that it was just about a year ago. And we did a lot of research of other plans as well. Best practices I consulted with colleagues and other localities that are kind of farther along than we are, to make sure that it was robust, but also very specific to Ashland and what Ashland would want. So I think this is really important how this plan relates to other plans. This lists all of the kind of town plans that we have so far of which you all are all very familiar with, of course. But I wanted to make sure that our community recognized that this speaks to other plans. It's not a standalone plan. It is built to align with the objectives in our comp plan, the strategic plan, as well as our other plans like our parks and recreation master plan. And then how will it be implemented? So a plan is, a lot of plans just end up on shells, right? But I like to say the town, we don't do that, we actually use our plans. And so I really wanted to make sure that this plan was designed to be implemented. And in addition to the existing public art policy and then our public art commission, I'll talk a little bit in a minute about the public art work plan, which is kind of in the process of being developed, as well as our public art map. So that's how this plan kind of starts to come to life. So again, this plan is designed for all audiences. And so it really starts with kind of an educational component about public art and why it matters, what it brings to a community. And then these were developed in conjunction with our public art commission. So it talks about the mission and then the vision they foresee. And I'll just go quickly into the bullets under vision because I think they are really well-done. And I'm proud of the commission for pulling these together. So it says public art in Ashland will connect people to art that enriches their lives, create whimsy and delight in everyday places, provide opportunities for people to have hands-on encounters with art, supports the participation of local artists in public art projects, Foster's exploration and generates dialogue about Ashland's multiple and many layered stories and enhances parks, gathering places and neighborhood focal points, new infrastructure and community facilities. Then we went into an exercise where they defined what their values would be for the Public Art Master Plan. So I'll just go over the headings really quickly, the long view, there's a recognition here in the plan and on the commission that making significant impact on a public art level takes many, many years, right? Art is public art and installation is not in an expensive endeavor. And so there is an understanding that this is kind of a multi year decade kind of endeavor. Collaboration is vital with our with not only our arts community, but with other nonprofits. Engagement with the community is art is developed as vital. It needs to be art that reflects the values of the community. Equity needs to reflect equity and should be accessible to everyone in our community. Public art practice talks about the recognition of professional art and recognition for the talents and artistry that goes into artists and the compensation of artists. And then quality. It does define some categories around, you know, there is a standard by which they endeavor in commissioning art pieces. And then there's a guiding principles. Specifically, I wanna just point out that public art will be free, easily accessible and engaging, and that decisions about public art will be carefully deliberated by people who bring a specific set of expertise and perspectives. And that is a reflection of the kind of bench that we have on our public art commission of professional and practicing artists. So now we get into the goals. So we did a short-term midterm and long-term goal practice and really the idea not only to be set goals for the commission so they kind of knew where they were going to put to manage expectations, not only of those on the commission, but of the public, right? What is possible to be accomplished in a certain time frame? So we have our short-term goals, which number one is to develop an annual work plan. And that will go on each year. They are in the process, they've just reviewed their first work plan, and they're the process of kind of refining that. And the work plan is really their opportunity each year to say, okay, what are we specifically going to accomplish this year? What projects do we want to take on? Do we need to focus on looking for grant money? And so it really gives them kind of that near term goal and keeps them on track and aligned with the broader objectives outlined in the five-year plan. I think some of the folks on our commission, for most of them this is their first public service opportunity and kind of wrapping their heads around kind of the long-termness of it and what is required. So having them set this plan in place and thinking of five-year increment but then also giving them the ability to plan at a one year, I think was a good exercise for them. And then you'll see our midterm and longterm, which talks more significantly about creating diverse opportunities for local artists, we're talking about more like seismic change. Then there's definitions of the different types of art and then what the roles that everyone plays, with the understanding that again this is a collaborative endeavor. Resources is really talking about funding. How are we going to pay for it? And it needs to be a multifaceted approach. Can't just rely on government funding. We do need to look at maybe corporate partnerships, donations of art, which we already had this past year, which was phenomenal. And then potential with new development or redevelopment of integration into public art, working with developers that are interested, including that in their development plan. And then they identified priority locations and projects. And these all came out of largely our community engagement exercises, where do people think we need art, what should be our priority spots? Parks and trails were number one. Everyone said they would love to see more art in our green spaces. Our historic downtown, and what we refer to as our community front porches, so places that are frequented by the public, and then as well as our gateways, not just our main gateway of which we're already working on a public art project there, but neighborhood gateways. There was a real interest by the commission and the community to provide some identity around our different neighborhoods here in Ashland. And then finally we have kind of this is an evergreen document, a living document of a map of public art. And this as pieces are added, this is being updated, it exists in our visitor app as well as on our website. So if folks are visiting or locals want to take a walking art tour, they can do so, but it also serves as kind of a repository for our growing kind of public art collection that we have here in town. And then you'll see at the end here a full appendix which has all the contents of our focus groups, our surveys, and things of that nature if you're interested in kind of getting into the weeds and what the public really thought. But we had a great turnout for the focus group. We had several artists come join us as well as community members, and then really good survey response as well. So with that, I'll kick it over to the staff report. Just as our minor, this will be the first ever public art master plan for the town. And it sets the stage for public art to be an important tool that can help the town grow and nurture its existing arts and culture assets and attract new opportunities. This is a living plan and it provides a five year roadmap for making public art an integral part of Ashland's built environment and civic identity in the years ahead. The Public Art Commission approved this plan at their meeting on October 24th. And as there's staff liaison, I bring you this as a referral for adoption and I recommend that town council approve and adopt the public art master plan. And with that, I'm happy to answer any questions. I just want to say, I can see that the vision is being carried out that they're working on carrying out that vision. I can definitely see that. That's wonderful. I'll be happy to share that with you. And as you can see, it's very thorough. And they spent a lot of time and energy trying to make sure it was done correctly because it's the first document, but they wanted it done right. Yeah, it's impressive. I've got a couple of things. I'm really pleased with the outcome. The mapping of the public art, is it going to be clear that there's things that are publicly available versus commission by the public? Because when I read through this master plan, it says conveys the community feeling, and there clearly could be some artwork that may not be community driven, but it's available to the public, but isn't necessarily commissioned by, and I don't know, I just want to, I think it would be helpful. Yeah. That's possible. That would be absolutely possible, and I think it would be helpful. Yeah. That's possible. That would be absolutely possible. And I think it's a great point. I'm happy to put on the ones that are commissioned by the Public Art Commission a note to that effect. And then some of these are on, they're publicly viewable but on private property. And they were done by that property owner. Or, yeah. And if it's easy to find who commissioned the art, it would also be nice to attribute it. So because if you really appreciate something, you'd like to be able to say, who made that happen? How did that? And having heard from the Ashland Museum, we like to preserve our history. And so that would be good. The other thing is, as a nerdy teacher, I love research and I love reading research. I don't doubt that research suggests the things that are set in here. But if anyone comes across any of it, I would appreciate like an appendix of some research topics that actually point to that. Not asking for work is not a tell. I'm not, I'm just, it would be nice to be able to read back and go, oh, that's what it meant. Like, research says this and I just, my nerdy stuff likes to say, well, what does, what does that mean? And I like to read it. So that's, that's all I have no other comments other than thank you. And I just wanted to share that's it is no additional work. I have it all saved. I just I'll add a footnote or two and hopefully that will point in the right track. right to thank you I appreciate that. And Mr. Vice Mayor. Thank you Mr. Mayor. Very professional job is Miller very impressive. I wanted to follow up on Dr. McGraw's comment. I was trying to put in to of trying to figure out how the flip bow gallery for example which is not a public building but it's open to the public and it has obviously art that would contribute to the town's public art landscape. Is that something that would appear on the map, the interactive map? We, it's under discussion. I'm in conversations with one of my colleagues at Randolph-Macon, or kind of about what the future of the flip-book gallery is, and the hours of it. And so I'm just trying to, you know, we're trying to figure out the last thing I want to do is put something on there that may or may not be open regularly. Right. And so, but it may be about, you know, check the website for hours but yes that's a good point Very good. Thank you I'll be happy to make a motion then all right I moved for the adoption of the public arts master plan as presented I second Dr. McGraw aye Miss Barnhart aye miss so Ms. Soapall. Aye. Vice Mayor Hodges. Aye. Mayor Trebert. Aye. Aye. Thank you and thank the commission. All right. Our first discussion item. Add to a musical or entertainment festivals. Chief Aaron Holt. Oh. Oh. Oh. Mr. Mayor, members of Town Council, thank you for allowing me to be before you this evening. In your packet, you have a run-line version of the ordinance. And before beginning, I would like to just thank Mr. Andrews and Mr. Tyler Gwyn with Sands Anderson for all the help of this. It was a lot of work that went into it. So this is just a discussion item this evening to go over some work that we have done and get input from elected officials. So this is a constitutional protection with assembly. This is a serious undertaking. We'll make sure we get it right. The purposes of new ordinances provide guidance to the citizens on special events and to provide a process that will follow and ensure safety of all those in attendance. There's also to ensure that all events follow the state code and also are existing town ordinances and basically to respect the right of assembly and but to ensure that we do not also overburden our town resources. The primary purpose of this ordinance, though, is to grant the town manager the authority to develop a policy. This will make it so the town manager, his or her designee, can make those adjustments as policy without having to come before council every single time that we have to make a change. As anything in life, you have to make adjustments and it can be a breathing document, but the purpose of the ordinance is to essentially give the manager that authority and just give us some framework to work with them. The reason for the change is, and working with SANS is that the Tashham Town Code in its current form does not support existing special events, is primarily based on outdoor festivals, basically music. You can look at Islam's like a woodstock provision, which is problematic because we have so many different types of special events within the town. It uses some state codes that are no longer in existence. It deals with events, I said, music, some parades. It also does not have provisions for races, festivals, events such as the Strawberry Fair. And it does not have provisions for small scale neighborhood style events. This was something that's come up recently with like block parties, for example, if you wanted to have something in your neighborhood that was small, you have to go through the entire process. So it's a little cumbersome. So what would like to make it so the policy would address events on different scales. There's also vague language, which is something that can be very problematic. And also there's content in a large part with when a permit is needed or not. When you look at the code, there's a lot of not safety concerns, but what the content of the event is that determines whether or not it requires or permit, which can be constitutional and problematic. There are also conflicts with the timing requirements within the policy. And there's one provision in chapter 12 that deals with security that creates a very, very big burden on the police chief with having demand as something within 24 hours and being giving such short notice that could be problematic in my staffing. So why the change? The current ordinance ordinance is absent of any authority for the town manager to draft a policy. This can be problematic because the current ordinance fails to support our existing policy because there's no mention of a policy contained in the existing code. This new ordinance will grant the town manager that authority and allow him to amend the framework within the adopted ordinance without the need to go before you all each time. Furthermore, while the current policy does address mainly events held within the town, There's still several that are admitted and should be added with the new policy. Also, there's an article that addresses carvals and abusments. That's Article 4 and Special Bunches and Article 5. Looking at it, there's a lot of similarity between the two and it places a great burden on the town treasure to manage that. It would seem prudent to bring all those together as they are special events and make them all meet the same criteria so we're consistent in how we apply things and it'll just streamline the process. So just a quick look, I just wanted to give you all, y'all obviously have the red line version, but just to briefly touch on each one and see if there are any questions before we put together an announcement. I think you've achieved good men for making the advertisement that's included in the packet. Any mention of festivals, carnivals and flateables, that is all defined by the Virginia State Code and was language that was grabbed directly from the State Code. So there wasn't any thought that went into that on my part, we just used existing language in the state code to define that. The important definitions, the definitions that will entail what a special event is. It classifies the type of events so we can make policy again, the caters to the events, based on the size of the event, and make sure that all the attendance are safe. The definitions will allow for neighborhoods type events. They're low impact like block parties. And there have been an increasing request for those type requests. For example, a nationalite out Berkeley town asked if they could have an event in their neighborhood and close down a roadway. If the neighborhood wants to do something like that, it shouldn't be a cumbersome process. It's multi-bages. I think we can do that in a smaller scale and meet the needs of the citizens. When's the permit required? It's purpose is to define when the triggers permits to be required, but leaves the specific details to the permitting process. The ordinance will also allow for permits to be written so that more information will not be gathered for We'll be gathered for larger scale events and process smaller events will be more streamlined so it's less cumbersome Most importantly will allow the establishment of that policy that governs the special events The time limits um when you looked at the proceeding the older code It did allow for only eight hours. it seemed prudent to make it ten hours But it also falls in line with our noise ordinance our noise ordinance begins at 7 a.m So it seemed prudent to make sure that we follow our noise ordinance Sanitation is something required all special events. It's governed by the Hanover County Department of Health And we are allowed by Virginia State Code to exceed those standards And I did speak with Hanover Department of Health and the community of Canada and the community of Canada and the community of Canada and the community of Canada and the community of Canada and the community of Canada and the community of Canada and the community of Canada and the community of Canada and the community of Canada and the community of Canada and the community of Canada and the community of Canada and the community of Canada and the community of Canada and the community of Canada and the community of Canada and the We have to have some type of provision for insurance, but we also have to make sure there's provision for people who are unable to afford insurance as well. As for amusement and searches, as I said, these are drafted primarily from Virginia State Code. Rarely do they happen, but like anything else, you want to write a code and be prepared for something, should it come down the line? And Randolph-Macon in the past has had some events where there happens some carnival rise. So I want to make sure that we follow that. General conduct lots of responsibility government to allow freedom assembly must be done with peaceful intent. Some behaviors that can be problematic inside of the line ordinance you'll see there things like the carrying of shields, wearing of masks, carrying caustic substances. These were things that were found in places like Charlottesville and researching their code that they have done to prevent certain types of behavior. While there's maybe some types of content that are concerning it's the behavior we need to focus on, not the actual expression itself. 946 is the entry. Basically this allows if they do seek a permit that we have to allow to gain entry to ensure compliance with the law. The issuance or denial, like anything else, people may put permits together and we may deny that if for certain reasons, if that happens, it does allow for the denial of it, but it also allows for a, and appeals process to go before the manager, should the designate or deny that request. And so the other thing is revocation. You may have instances where people go outside of the provisions of the policy, they engage in conduct that is problematic. This will allow the chief of police or his designate should they see something to revoke that permit and stop the behavior and basically declare as a lawful assembly and the event. 948.2 this is something that has come up in the past. We want our citizens to be able to use our parks. But if it's Saturday, we want to make sure that the parks and the facilities are left and clean and early-fashion so our other citizens can use them after done. This places the onus of cleaning them up on the event organizers and allows the uh, Miles and Mr. Jennings to engage in cleaning up at a set rate should he see fit. And the penalties originally violating our special events policy was a Class I misdemeanor, which is a $2,500 fine in 12 months in jail, which is a bit steep in looking at other ordinances, a Class III misdemeanor, which is more in keeping and seems more appropriate for the crime. Other things to consider, there is one change to the noise ordinance because we do address these in the specialments ordinance. There is a provision and contained inside of the town ordinance for events that are gonna create noise. Since we dealt with that in the specialments ordinance, it seemed appropriate to make the changes, but there may be other events such as construction projects or things of that nature that could be disruptive and there are provisions in that that the person who's responsible that has to let everyone in the area know it believes within 500 feet and to give them those either by first class mail or through the which we added to that or through the use of print news, which I don't know too many people that read the newspaper anymore except my mother-in-law. As for security, this is the one that I explained that's pretty problematic. For some reason, if you sit down at a meal and people are not gonna fight or have problems and it's not an issue, but This this basically made it so if you were to have an event and as long as it Wasn't they sit down meal that I would have to provide security within 24 hours So it seemed more appropriate to remove this from the ordinance move it into the special events under the review portion and leave it there and basically remove this from the town coat altogether. Without a be happy to answer any questions anyone may have. Questions anyone? Just a lot of detail, but all of them important. Mr. Vice mayor anything? No, I had questions, but the chief answered them. All right. No, thanks for all this good pre-planning. To be one to discuss the one issue I know or just about protest or just... I mean, if you want to talk about that and how it relates or doesn't relate. Okay fine. Just a protest or one thing that are contained inside of this and I know that that can be specially problematic. We did have one where we had a resident who had a protestors in front of his house. The issue we faced with that was in speaking with a town attorney at the time was that we did not have the lawful authority to arrest him at that point. The reason being is because the existing state code does have content language dealing with labor disputes that would not allow you to protest in front of a residence unless it was a labor dispute and then it was okay or construction site. Because of that it created a lot of problems and then you had the incidents that had taken place up in Northern Virginia with the Supreme Court justices and that kind of continued on. In 2020 there was a movement by one of the delegates in Virginia to remove the content language and make a content neutral, that unfortunately was left in the general assembly. The reason I bring this up is because there was a case for his B versus Schultz, where in Wisconsin, the code was very similar to that what we have in Virginia. The township, I believe it's Brook Mead, or maybe Brook Neal, I cannot recall. I'm actually had an ordinance that was content neutral and removed the labor provisions from the code. The state still had the labor provisions there and it went to the Supreme Court. And the Supreme Court rule, you know, basically it was that their argument was that the state had controlling language and not the locality, but the Supreme Court did say the content neutral ordinance from a township stood. So if this is something that we want to examine, I would have to speak with the attorneys, have them review it, and make sure that any language we would draft will be content neutral because this is a constitutionally protected ordinance and could be very problematic. Don't get it right on the first time. So I just, that's something that just for consideration if we want to include that in the law. And the other thing is if we want to limit the number of protesters, that is some things that are done in places like Norfolk, I reviewed them. I'm Arlington. Norfolk prohibits any protests over 30 people without getting permit and Arlington is 25 on a street and 100 in a park. So if that's something that we want to examine or something we want to look at, I'm more than happy to do so, but I just wanted to put that out there because I know that's maybe a concern that you may have had. So, I say very, very thorough. I appreciated one of the sections, I guess it's 940, purposes of Oracle and its section too, but it uses this expression to ensure the preservation of public convenience in the use of town streets and outdoor areas, the preservation of public order and safety, and the defraying of administrative expense associated with certain types of uses. So, as far as individuals, if you're blocking the street or doing something that's affecting the rights of others, I'm glad that it's trying to be as thorough as possible and still respecting the First Amendment rights. Mr. Mayor. I want to commend Chief Aaron Holt for working on this. Often these types of things sort of a little like your emergency communications plan. Kind of sit on the shelf and they not looked at. I commend the chief for taking on the task. These kinds of things are important because they involve constitutional activities on the one hand but also potential liability and concerns to the public on the other and I will say that you never need it until you need it and then it's too late to go and adopt one So I come again. I commend the chief for being proactive Very much appreciate it. Thank proactive. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you. If I may then, are you suggesting then that we go ahead and ask the chief to look into the limiting the number of people that can protest and the types of things he was just sharing with us? I believe the chief already is. OK. All right. I just want to. I can certainly speak with Mr. Gwynn and get his get his advice on that and also Mr. Roberts. I'll work on crafting and get their get their final approval list. As I said, it's a very it's a costume she protected. Right. So it can be if it's not done properly, it can be very problematic and I want to make sure that I'm giving the officers the best advice should we have to enforce it. So I just make sure we get it right to first go around. And that's why I had written down in the comments. I know we have, it's a balancing act with the first of and right and making sure that they are allowed to do what they want to do at the same time. I'm sure. Make sure we're safe. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Let's give them what to expect going forward. Right? So this was a discussion item tonight, but we do need to bring it back and actually have them adopt and do a public hearing. So we'll do the advertisements and I believe second meeting in December. We'll put it together for public comment and any considerations. But the additional topic we just discussed would be a separate item. Special events would come back on its own. Is that correct? Are you trying to know about the package? I'll package them all. I mean, I've bought it as long as the time frame is to package it all together and do it all at once. I was just worried about the time frame for you. Yeah. I can make it happen, sir. As long as we may want to hold off on the end. We may want to hold off on the ad until we've got the whole thing reviewed and ready, but I'm happy to move forward as quickly as we can. So we will bring one back to you that incorporates those changes. All right, thank you so much. Appreciate that. Absolutely. Thank you. So that does bring a question to me then when we're talking about protests. Because I thought it would be delayed. I didn't know that it might be pushed. In there, you said, it says there's code that says they can't bring anything that could potentially be thought perceived as dangerous to participants or to law enforcement. Is it possible to have in there any code that would say intentionally intimidating to people, because when we're talking about that incident that you referred to, that was intentional to, like that was not, I'm just speaking my mind and letting people know I'm intentionally at a certain spot in front of a certain person, trying to assert myself. And at the time, I don't think we were as much we could do. But anyway, that's the concern of mine because we have had protests and they went great. I mean, the people were organized, and the law enforcement was involved, and everyone was safe, and they got to speak their mind and hear it out. And they were expressing themselves, and people may or may not have liked what they were saying, but they weren't trying to go after a certain group or a certain person. And I just, that does concern me. Like I wasn't thinking on that until hearing this might go fast. So I just want to make sure that we think that. Yeah, absolutely. And it is something that's concerning, but again, anything we do is going to have to be content, neutral. That's why there is the mention of the torches, because like for example, in Charlottesville, that was something that they had happened. And then you have the shields, the masks, those type of things, you recognize that they're not doing that because they're trying to protect the First Amendment rights, it's because they plan on basically getting into a disagreement with the people I supervise. So we want to make sure that conduct does not happen and that whatever we do is peaceful. So we have to look at that. Unfortunately, some, you know, speeches can be a very problematic thing. And sometimes can intimidate and sometimes can be a port, but unfortunately, speeches protected, but it's the actual behavior itself and the things that they bring that can be problematic. And I just got to make sure that we do strike that balancing act of not basing what we do off of content but off of behavior and safety. All right. All right. It is one last comment unless someone follows me. I'd take a note of in reading through it. You know, we've discussed what's in there this evening. But when I looked at the agenda and the titles outdoor musical or entertainment festivals, it doesn't really refer to something that might be first amendment rights or protest and that sort of thing. So I'm saying, if we're gonna vote on something that refers to that, we probably all have something in the title of that so that if somebody has an interest in that, if they see that and something we publicize, they'll know, hey, this isn't just about outdoor concerts. So just to make sure that we're highlighting it for the public. And I think we can split the difference a little bit too. I think I want to rely on the attorneys to tell us what the section titles should be for our code But our agenda title will certainly make as clear as we possibly can Right, of course. Yeah, I follow the attorney Yeah, all right. Thank you very much. Thank you All right now Mr. Goodman our 2025 draft legislative agenda My computer's working overtime tonight so it's trying to catch up. Oh good. Give me a moment. I'm going to try to reload it. Please. Take your time. I'm not sure what's happening with the computer today. But what you have in front of you is the 2025 draft general assembly legislative agenda. We go over this in November, December of each year to relay to our legislative representatives both at the state and the federal level. And so what you have in your packet is less the highlighting that I have here, which you have in the packet, is it looks very similar to last year's model. And what I did is as a process, as they took last year's model, compared it to what VML produced as their legislative priority list, and then kind of nipped and tucked along the way. So what you'll see on that first page as we go down is we added a VML had a point in their legislative program about accessory dwelling units. So you'll see a little snippet about accessory dwelling units and that locality shall retain local land use control when considering accessory dwelling units. We also have some language in there that from high speed rail and land use that were also from last year's model. This is no different than we had in the 2024 model. Local control and local excise taxes is also from last year, but I think still pertinent today. Three new ones that are I think reflective of the maturing of the Virginia cannabis authority and the cannabis retail sales that are on the horizon. And that is again, ensuring that local governments have some stake in the game as far as deciding taxes, licenses, and things along those lines. Also, you'll see in there is revenue share from skill games and the legislation towards skill games by a town specifically. That is straight from the VML language. We also had last year we had a little bit more robust language in there about marijuana that was replaced by the cannabis authority language from VML to be in keeping with VML. But we kept the language for marijuana regarding again increased funding for law enforcement for training so they can deal with those instances of Yusomero 1 where it's considered driving while under the influence of drugs, not just alcohol, which takes a higher level of training. As you go down, you'll see the next highlighted one. Of course, we also went past mental health services. This is a repeat from last year, but again, no less important coming up in 2025. What we also added was, this was a VML legislative priority, is the photo speed enforcement. This is something that right now in Virginia, you can only do photo speed enforcement and Virginia in work zones and in school zones. We do not have that technology in play in Hanover County or Ashland yet, but there are a lot of localities that use photo speed enforcement to augment what law enforcement is able to do on a more permanent basis, especially in school zones. Harrisonburg, the city of Suffolk have both been have extreme success at changing driver behavior and making those zones safer in their localities. Harrison birds specifically in a long-term work zone. This would would, again, support a BML and adding a key element to that Virginia State code that would allow a locality to place a speed camera in an area of documented concern through speed studies, crash data and engineering studies. I think Chief Aaron Holt and Public Works Director might gennix do a great job of looking at areas where we have problems. For instance, this would be a fantastic tool if you wanna look at what we've done with staff and working with the Jamestown Road corridor to try to minimize speed instances there, especially when we have overflow from the interstate. But we could also, you know, looking at what the chief already does on areas where we have constant citizen complaints that may not be in a school zone or may not be in a work zone. So that would allow us to proceed with that. Again, we have relationships to cities, towns and counties. That is a repeat from last year. We kept in the remote meetings for persons with disabilities. We want to make sure that that language stays in the state code that we can have folks that are on elected positions or appointed positions attend virtually as they need to be based on a medical need. We also have language in there as last year, which is a repeat for supporting law enforcement, specifically funding from the HB599 funding stream, the stormwater local assistant fund, and you know, retaining our ability to tax as we need to. Transportation, also there is a line in there about allocating of transportation money that does not prioritize interstate funding over local roadway needs. And then lastly, as a repeat from last year again, to our federal partner specifically, which is rail crossing safety, and also asking our federal partners to lean into our navigation apps like Waze and Google Maps and such like that that are to be quite frank, the culprit for creating traffic impacts on Jamestown Road on Henry Street and some of our other side streets, Meets Humps Creek Mount Herman Road when we have that traffic congestion. So again, this is a draft, my request from Council and whether we can, I have it open in word, we can make changes on the fly tonight. But if you have changes or revisions, we can make those changes revisions and bring this back either December 3rd or to December, I believe 19th meeting for ratification by this Council adoption the board. I'm going to move to the board. I'm going to move to the board. I'm going to move to the board. I'm going to move to the board. I'm going to move to the board. I'm going to move to the board. I'm going to move to the board. I'm going to move to the board. I'm going to move to the board. I've been, I'm a member of the VML legislative and environmental quality policy committee. I've met one time with them. And I know that our legislative agenda includes basically the VML legislative list of their support for the Virginia Passion to Array Authority. And it basically re-inirates that while the Virginia Passion to Array Authority as an important role, it is critical that localities retain local land use control and that the authority provide opportunities for localities to provide input on rail projects and improvements. I thought it's our, we support that. I don't know whether it rises to being added to the, to our list for emphasis, but I think the sentiment is a good one given our future dealings with the Virginia real, passionate real authority. So I'm not proposing to make a change. I'm just pointing it out. Well, I agree with your point. And I think we, in my opinion, I think we should add that. We are. Okay. Well, we've got time. And so maybe between now and our next meeting, whatever thoughts any of us may have, or whatever questions we may have, maybe we can get a position, position to go ahead and vote on. At least having consensus for the legislative agenda that we have for next meet. Yes sir, I can make that change that the vice mayor spoke of very easily and have that prepared for the next agenda. If there's no, and again we can, don't have for us then we've got to tell December 19th or if you you wanna take it up earlier, and that I could get it to our representatives earlier, especially our state representatives, be in the general assembly, we'll start very quick in January after the holidays. Yeah, sure they'll be swamped, as they always are. And so, I think the earlier we can get it in front of them, the maybe send it twice. They try to get it and plan it in their memory, I think that'd be good. I wrote in an elevator with one of our delegates, but a Richmond-based delegate the other day, and they said they're already working on prefiling all their bills, so now is a good time to start getting in the back of their mind, but look how these may want. Yep, amen. All right, yes, sir. And I'm supportive of the way it is. It doesn't have to change, but I do want to at least bring it up. Under the marijuana situation or concern, I definitely support the police having tools that can prevent impaired drivers from potentially causing harm. And I know last session, they took some of those tools away from, or the town before. And so I would like for there to be something in place for us to make sure that our streets are safe and people are safe. But I also think that there should be something in there that addresses drug use as a public health concern and that maybe if the state's gonna decriminalize something and then prevent law enforcement from like keeping people safe when they're doing something that they probably shouldn't be doing at that time. Not that maybe from a public health standpoint, the state could offer some tools. And let me give you an example, because I don't want to just throw it out there. There was somebody who did some really deep research on open drug use, because some areas in the world have said, oh, we're just gonna decriminalize drugs and then all of a sudden there was a lot of open use and some children were in danger of the needles and things that were around. And then the Netherlands, for example, said, we're gonna look at this as a public health issue, not as a criminal issue. And when they looked at it through that lens, they were able to then, so then they outlawed public youth like in the public. But then they looked at it through that lens, and then when they saw people using the public, they said, okay, you have some options. You can get some counseling, and we will help you use your drugs in a safe, clean environment free from other people who have doctors and people around to help, or you can be incarcerated. And I'm not saying we need that, but basically people just said, okay, I'll take the not incarcerated route. And so they ended up like a much safer, cleaner street. And Portugal started using that model. And we're not at that level because we don't have it at that intensity, but not only is it important that people not be impaired to drive, but also we should be looking at it through the lens of their health. Like maybe that's that's kind of a thing I wanted to add. I don't know how to like word all of that. Not even if it needs to be worded. I just wanted to share that with my peers and with anyone who cared to listen to this meeting. I'll do some research and sharpen my pencil. Okay. Thank you. Anything else, Mr. Vice-Mayer? Sir. All right. Thank you. All right. Thank you. And so that takes us to our reports. And the first one is Planning Department. Miss Amos. Thank you for being here. Good evening. My manager report is in your packet. Have any questions you may have there? To my list here. I'm not sure if you have any questions you may have there. So, Patriot Glen had been put on the planning commission agenda for November but it got removed from the agenda as they did not finalize the application requirements that were needed prior to the time of putting the packet together. We are working with them, hoping to get them on the December agenda for the planning commission. I'm sure this is something you all may hear about. We've been working quite closely with the county on the sale of that stem lot to the property owner for Patriot Glen and all of the paperwork has gone through. They're just waiting for the proffers to be updated, but the board has voted on that agreement. Other items for the Planning Commission, they reviewed and made their recommendation for their top 10 for the CIP. I think they really enjoyed that exercise again as town manager led them through that process and they enjoyed doing some swapping and talking about the projects. That will be coming to you all during the budget process. I'm sure. I'm excited to announce that we have hired Hope Becker from Colorado to fill the community development specialist position. She and Deputy Zoning Administrator, she has done a fantastic job and has gotten to know the town and is already out working with people. To get on your calendar and we're pretty sure this date is finalized, we are going to hold an English-Dreet-Scaped State Holder meeting on December 17th here at Town Hall at 5 o'clock. You all have a council meeting at 6.30 so we're hoping that we can hold that at five between five and six. And then is that okay is that a bad date? No, we'll figure it out. Yeah. Okay. And so the our contractors should be there as well as public works engineers and project managers to talk to property and business owners within the area of phase one to talk to them about the schedule and how the process will move forward and who they can communicate with. Flagstap, I know a lot of people have been waiting since we approved it a good bit ago, has started construction in the past couple weeks so you've probably seen some land clearing and they hope to be opened by late next spring in early summer. And then last, I think I told you all about this when I did it last spring. I did the amazing shake through Reynolds Community College in partnership with Hanover or Patrick Henry High School and their Advanced College Academy, their ACA program. It's a really great opportunity. I'll share with you all the next time it comes through. They're always looking for volunteers, but I told the Planning Commission, sometimes I worry about our future and I see kids and it's like well but working with these kids they're fantastic. It really gives me hope and excitement to see what they're going to do with their future. Now that I've seen them in the new year, it's wonderful to see the growth and they really take the input that we provide and make changes I appreciate it. So happy to answer any question to all my have. I mean everything is good. The question keeps coming up to me and I don't have an answer. Is there any movement on the old Pizza Hut property? There is. We talked to people quite regularly about it. There, as you may have seen, it was a public meeting. There was an incentive provided to a prospect for the property and they had the property under contract and we thought they were moving forward, but after the EDA made their recommendation after they reviewed the area a little more they decided not to move forward with the contract and so I think there's someone else looking at the property right now and we'll let you know how that goes. Okay thanks. Thank you. Thank you all. All right thanks. All right. Chief Aaron Holt bring you back, sir. Mr. Mayor, members of Town Council, and your packet of seeding, you will have the month report, the Ashland Police Department, for the month of October. I am happy to report that the trend of a Part One crimes were continuing to experience a decrease in that although we are still trending a little more than previous years we are going in the right direction This also holds true for accidents. We continue to see frequent backups on interstate 95 and obviously that is impacting the town last month was a especially challenging with several backups that Kind of put the town at a standstill several times I'm also on the police department the patrol division, especially is continuing to do many checkpoints As a part of monthly proactive activities and we will be doing a pedestrian operation in the upcoming month so It seems to be a trend in the rich and venture area where you open the news every day and you see that there's another pedestrian hit by a car or even a fatality. So we're just trying to get ahead of that. One reason going back to the part one crimes that we are seeing kind of a rise in that is because of shoplifting. So we remember last year we had one business that was plagued by one individual multiple times and each one of those offenses for shoplifting counts as a separate offense because it happens on a different date and we just had that happen as well. I'm happy your board that investigator Hill big was able to identify one of these suspects and was able to secure a war and arrest the individual for multiple shoplifting the same as last year. Also we held our neighborhood watch meeting last month on South Center Street which was timely because we had Halloween occur a few weeks after. Halloween was challenging as it always is but I believe Lieutenant Hicks did an outstanding job and keeping everyone off the tracks. Public Works did an awesome job getting the cones up and using the ropes to keep everyone off the tracks. We did realize when we cut the ropes last year, when they moved the crosswalks that kind of created a problem because the ropes were not the proper length anymore. So we had to do a little bit of tying and other things to make it work. So what we did, so I would like to thank the hand of our search and the co-owns for their support because we wouldn't be able to deal with that there help. We also participated in the YMC trunk or treat and we had our drug take back with neted 80 pounds of unused medication last month as well. And upcoming we will be hosting our Clea assessor. We'll be going through our one site assessment. The last four have been off site remote. This one the assessor will actually be coming to visit us and that will be occurring from December 2nd through the 5th. So they will be focusing on four areas that the police department on those areas are mental health response which is time with the Mark Salert working on that Internal Affairs to me policing evidence collection and preservation and some revisions to our new early warning policy Also upcoming is going to be busy next weekend as well as everyone knows we have laid up the tracks and We have the quality Christmas parade so It's gonna be a busy time for us and finally and following up We ordered those load bearing fast as I'd done the presentation on we've ordered them We also secured a grant for new handcuffs from Berza these new handcuffs Kind of hard explain unless you've actually had handcuffs on. They only have one keyhole on each side. And so if you're using handcuffs and it's a busy moment or you're in a stressful situation, unfortunately sometimes the handcuffs can get with the keyholes down, which requires some yoga poses to get the person out. So it can result in shoulder injuries. So the other thing is that when handcuffs are put on, you double lock them. Well, now you have to stick a little part of the handcuff key in it to make sure they're double locked. This actually has a button that's high-visibited yellow that will let us know that the handcuffs are locked. So it's a good addition to make sure that we don't have any injuries occur while people are in our custody. So with that, we'll be having to answer any questions anyway, may I have? Questions anyone? Yes, Mr. Vice-Mayor. Relative to an earlier discussion we had about an ordinance to deal with public demonstrations, I was advised on Halloween. an ordinance to deal with public demonstrations. I was advised on Halloween, there was a group at McMurdo in South Center Street that was shouting at a Halloween participants about how if they eat candy, they were going to, that was the devil's work and they were going to purgatory. And I've picked my words. So I think that the police department has done a great job under stressful situations on Halloween, but there are, because of our notoriety, we are attracting folks who want to take advantage of the large crowds that come and try to promote. Perspectives aren't helpful to the folks that come to town to enjoy our Halloween celebrations. So as a comment, Mr. Chairman. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Take note of that and consider that in days ahead. All right, anything else anyone? Thanks to you and your team. Thanks so much. Thank you. All right. Anything else to come for us this evening? All right. We're adjourned.