Good evening. I would like to call the budget company, County Board of Civil Affairs, Budget Workshop to order on March 25, 2025 to 6.03 pm. Miss Branch, can you call the role, please? Mr. Handlitz? Here. Mr. Newman? Yep. Miss Tariq? Here. Miss Dosa? Here? I'm going to put it on the back of the role. Mr. Handlitz. Here. Mr. Newman. Here. Mr. Sairi. Here. Mr. Sairi. At this time we will stand and do the thank you very much. I'm placing a reason to flag the United States of America and to the Republic for which which expands more nation or under God and to the world with liberty and justice for all. At this time we just need to hear from him with the Department of Education. Let us pray. Almighty God we thank you for this day. We thank you for those gathered in this place. We just pray that as we go over the budget for the citizens of Carmelon County that you will make this a productive meeting. Let us focus on pleasing you and Christ name of pray. Amen. We have a minute to approve the agenda. So moved. Sorry. All right. The handling. Bye. Mr. Mughan. Sorry. Hi. Hi. That's a on the floor. I'm sorry. Do you have another green? Oh, I see. So I think you can just keep that yours, because I think what I submitted to Jennifer and what's in here is slightly different. Do you all have any questions about what has been submitted? Are you speaking to staff or to the board? Everybody here at the table? I don't have any questions. I would, Amber, if you could, kind of give the board a background of how the cooperative extension funding and the funding from the county works together and how that's determined. Can you give us a little bit of background of percentages and matching funds and things of that nature? Yes. So, you'll see actually in your packet there is this follicle hate here. On the back of that is a return of a return on investment. This sheet is actually for us to give to our local stakeholders and in that you will see that the Cumberland County Extension Office requires a lot to run but 51% of that comes from the state. 23% of that comes from the locality. 21% comes by wrong fabricants. 5% comes from other funds. So in the grand scheme of things, covering county's contribution is a portion of a larger whole. Does that kind of answer your question, Derek? I know that that's kind of confusing, but we get a lot of funding for multiple areas, USDA, the state level, VDAX, and then of course on the local level. Right, so like for example, with your staffing requests, that number that you submit covers a percentage of each full time position in the office. Yes. Is that accurate? Yes. OK. Yes. And now I will say, so majority of that comes from Linda and I salaries, and a small, small portion of that comes from his requested local request for Dana's, which is the UAA, the unit administrative assistant administrative fiscal assistant, whatever you want to call her, that is for her salary. So I think, doesn't have it listed in there somewhere, it might just come in as a hole on her sheet. I don't think it comes. The total program cost was $255.850. Yes, so the total program calls for FY26 is 257-850 with the local request being 67-928. And then the salary space was the 45-763, but right now that's in one of the... Yes, but no, should be the 62... That is with the benefits. Yes, with the benefits. Yes. Yes. And then of course, the support services are in there the 2370 as well. So that's from the adopted FWI 25 the 2370 was for expenditure category 5810. Is that also a request for FY26? I believe so, yes. Okay. Yes, we just moved that portion over, which I think. Just where you'll have to correct me if I'm wrong. That comes from a portion of, what does that come from? I just moved it over from last year because that's what we had. And I didn't bring last year's, of course. Is that like the educational? There's a piece for, for traveling, convention, education, do's in membership do you use in association membership? Yes, that's under total office support services for the local. Yes, and so that is included in the 679-21. Okay, so that's the title. Okay, so that's the number 23. Okay, all right. Yep. Check for different actual number. Actual today. Hmm. I don't. So that's going to move that whole number up to close to 70 correct or lower. I think the 2370 is the sum of electrical services travel and convention and do's and association and membership. Yes, but it is included in the 67928 because when it comes over we just take it out of that one line I don't know. So that's how we summed it up. Thank you. But the total request is still going to be close to 70 or a little longer, right? It's going to be the 67928. 28. Alright, well you got the 67 9 28 and the salaries, but then you said about the 2370. The 2370 is included in this. Okay. So it's baked in. So, yes. Yes. So I'm just putting it in. Because when we do the invoice, we just do it to that one expenditure line. So that's all we summed it up. This is the first time we've seen that. So it's a little Okay, nope. When you ask about me having questions, that's all I know. Some of them I can answer, some of them I have, I was seeking out for you to wait. When you ask about having questions, that's all I know. Some of them I can answer, some of them I obviously cannot. And that also that publication there that's in your folder, it also includes a little bit of what a couple things for 2024, what that look like for us. It doesn't certainly cover it all. We can definitely come to a meeting and give this stuff to y'all, but we actually blended it and I took the time to pronounce some packets that you guys can read at your own leisure. I know that you have enough packets and enough paper, but promise that these are worth reading. So yeah, absolutely here. Sorry, don't judge me by the amount that I've written. So just a little snapshot there of all the things that we accomplished this year and goals and things for next year and kind of gives you a more detailed experience of where that money is going. And so when you do read through those and you see us going out of places, out of Converling County, just know that, you know, a portion of our funding does come from federal and state. So we are required to do other things as well. Here we go. Oh, sure. Professional development and birth grant law. So. So these packets probably count for about $500 with a lot of supplies. Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. That's included in the 2370s.. Just kidding. I could have, like, you know what that means. Sometimes it's nice when you have it in front of you. Definitely a paper person. Amber, what can you give the board some background on what some of the more popular programs and more beneficial programs there are offer through extension specific to Cumberland specific to Cumberland well we have the Buckingham Cumberland last-door club So yes, that is in partnership with Buckingham, but sometimes it's nice to Get a group of kids together one time versus Reinventing the wheel in every county. So we do partner with them. We have about 30 active, well, 30 total children in the club, but probably about 23-ish that are very active. You'll see some information about the club in my stuff, and probably in Linde's as well. Linda and I, we both tag team, Linda works a lot on the 4-H aspect of it, so the character building and the leadership skills while I tag team more of the livestock skills, livestock handling, some more of the like animal husbandry type skills. The Bucketman Countdowns Association is a very, very large piece of Carmerland County. You'll see a lot of work that I do with the Countdowns group. Three board members on the board are from Carmeling County, so we spend a lot of time visiting with them and just working on cattle handling, record keeping, herd health management, all the pasture forage, all those things. Let's see, else. Both of these there is the alternative agriculture options for poultry houses which was a request that we completed this year and then we had the agriculture career awareness day which actually was more than just covering county but this is something that we really hope to do again in the future. This was a huge event and had five counties involved. Big success, a lot of sponsors and vendors present as well and a lot of funding came through this program. Let's see. We have a very active master gardener group that participates in a lot of stuff. They do meet in Prince Edwards's Incentibility of the members are from Prince Edward County, but we do have quite a few permanent folks. They are in Buckingham as well. Let's see. Linda, you chime in at any point with all of your youth, I mean because that's direct impact as well. So, well, I guess that what I would add is that when the programs that we do, we are making sure that we are looking at the needs within the community. We're not just offering programming. We are trying to meet the needs. We do our situational analysis every five years. We lean into the comprehensive plan that the county does to kind of hone in what the direction of our program is. So in theory everything that we should do should have some relevant and I have some examples of that and the old flyer that I gave him it seems that for, my programming things are divided up. Either it's going to be the leadership program for a team or a young people or it's going to be a natural resource education program or it's going to be tough and wellness. I'm going to force me to do other programs, but that seems to be where I can categorize my programs. So let's say in 2023, our situation analysis, the people that responded to our surveys and to our questionnaires said that there was a lack of activities for teens and mentioned youth programming for teens and youth as a priority. So, in response to that, last year we had six overnight camps and we had six day camps. Holiday late started a teen and leadership council and one of our kids got chosen to be afforded that teen leadership council. And as a result of arrow response, 135 kids increased in the amount of decrease in the amount of screen time. That's a big deal. If I wanted to do programming, moving forward, I could do a lot of mental health, probably because of screen time. But so, also those teens volunteered 1,455 hours, I should say the teens and adults to the 4H program at a value of $46,269. As far as natural resources is concerned, the situational analysis said that an absence of agricultural natural resources and environmental literacy among youth and adults is a priority issue. And because of that, we have offered a variety of camps in 2024. Winter in the woods camp, let me just count. That would be easier. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight with our RIFES.club. and we offer in-school programming in the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, and in the 7th grade, for the children in Cumberland on in-reology. We do egg and classroom, water and soil science, plant science, and we'll have that habitation. And we also start a homeschool group this year, actually that was last year, but it kept going through this year. And because of that response, 520 youth in Cumberland received hands-on research-based high-quality programs related to ag and natural resources in Cumberland. And one camper that's so cool to hear their response to how it impacts them. One camper said, it has caused me to worry a lot more about litter and the impact it does on animals. And another recognized how much impact can it has on the environment. So that's a pretty big impact, I think. And as far as health and wellness, which is another of the my big programming areas, and I'm sure you know the statistics here in Cumberland, the county health ranking dot org in 2023 said that 16% of Cumberland residents were deemed in poor or or fair health. Many of these issues are related to adult obesity, physical inactivity, smoking, excessive drinking. So our response was that we offered five programs that were specifically focused on health and wellness. We did a trail to farm camp. We partnered with Amelia 4-H and some of the other not-a-way 4-H as well. We do a lot of our work through partnering. We partner with a lot of people. Health and beauty parks and red, we love parks and red. So and because of that work, 87 youth participated in 4-H programs that were specifically focused on health and on wellness. We offered work with the 21st Century after school program and we did healthy snacks for the fifth and sixth graders. We did try to get them moving. We tried to get them outdoors. I mean so that kind of that's how in a nutshell two, three minutes how we directly impact the youth in Cumberland and And in 2025, I plan to, at Co-Advisor, that's wrong, I'm not the advisor, I'm the Co-Advisor to the Central Peatmont Master Naturalist. And I'm gonna continue to partner with them. We are offering a day camp in June for our children here in Cumberland. I will continue to partner with Peter Francisco, so in water they're coming in for the next two days and we're doing the field trip to the sixth and the seventh grade at the Bear Street Lake. Continue, I'd like to continue to work with Sam over there. Continue to work with the public schools. That is we get most of our enrollment and their Arab requirements for enrollment is that you need to have six hours to be accounted as a 4-H member. Well, we all know that children need a lot more than six hours of impact to make a difference, but we will continue because that's how we get the word out. The school system has been fabulous to work with very welcoming, very, I don't know what they're very welcoming. You have a captain audience there. Yeah, I'll take a look at it. They can't even get away. I just think I know. And personally, I would like to, I'm gonna continue to strengthen our team leadership program. And I'd like to start a program club, which is the children that are from five to eight years old. Because right now, that is an underserved audience for us. Because we only have one or two programs programs for them specifically a camp at Holiday Lake. We don't have anything. So my goal is to get something started for them this year. Do you have any questions for me? I could say a lot more, but that's just. Yeah, and again, I didn't say a lot as well, simply because I put it all here on paper. And while Linda can work directly with the youth in Cumberland and I can work directly with the producers sometimes in our programs, agonential resources programs and for each programs take off a little differently. So while a lot of agents in our planning district come together to do Agricultural programs so we will do it all of our just simply for funding purposes resources all of those things speakers whatnot Again, not reinventing the wheel so while you might see that some of these put these programs and things were held in different counties Don't take offense to that because there's it's still serving the producers of covelling county But if you have any questions about any of that. I know that's really not what we came here to talk about. But again. Questions in the audience? Thank you. Thank you. Absolutely. Thank you all. Thanks for running. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you all so much. Board of Supervisors and County Administration. I'm going to take these next several, but it's primary functions of the board. The Board of Supervisors is an elected body representing Carmel and Spide election districts. Board members adopt ordinances, established policies and more collaboratively with county staff. All policies and ordinances are consistent with applicable state and federal law. Goals and objectives include effective, efficient, transparent, local, government, strong financial management, and also focusing on appropriate development that aligns with the county's rural and agricultural character. Of course, focus on customer service and creating the positive working environment for staff. A lot of these goals and effect is that you see with the board of Supervisors aligned with the County Administrative Office as well. From a personnel standpoint, actually I'm going to back into this. So total expenditures are actually going to drop by about $1,500 for the FY26 requested versus 25 adopted. Primarily related to some operating costs found within the budget request itself. Future outlooks and challenges. Future budgets of the board will reflect direct expenses in carrying out duties and responsibilities. And the board will be challenged obviously with strategic issues such as economic development. Financial considerations as we move through the coming year. That's very high level, but if you've got any questions as to the request itself, it's on pages four of your packet, the individual Administrator ensures compliance with federal state of laws and ordinances, maintains of communications to various sectors of the community, other local governments and county residents. Administrator serves the pleasure of the board and implements policy directives as directed by the board of supervisors. Again, you can see the goals and objectives aligned very closely with the ones from the board, efficient, effective, and transparent local government, of course with that emphasis being on customer service, excellence in financial management, but again, more customer service and creating a diversified and qualified workforce, ensuring high quality course services of the general government functions, including public safety and community health and human services. So personnel, when you look at total expenditures, that's found on page five of your packet. There's actually a slight decrease of about $1,000, a little over, I'm sorry, a little under $1,000 from the previous year, primarily related to a reduction in some of the dues and associations and memberships and office supplies and things of that nature just trying to cut back on some of the ways that we that we expend county funds. Challenges and outlook for the future obviously will be focused on strategic planning, economic development, financial issues related to the county and employee relations to the implementation of best practices. Of course we're going to be laser focused in the coming year as everyone's aware on economic development on our public safety program as well as focusing on grant opportunities as a major focus for county administration. And with that, we're glad to any questions. I don't have any really cool pictures like everybody else is going to have later on in the presentation. But with that, I would be glad to take any questions. I just have some comments. You know, you get uniforms and a wearing a peril under the board. You've got it again under County Administrator. Why I just consolidate that. I won't see where the board does anything different than the administration. I've never seen a board of supervisors, sure. So. There's some, but we haven't had them recently. I mean, so you get you Nike one. And I don't know. Third kind of the same thing. I mean, I guess it doesn't really matter where it is. It seems like it would be a lot easier just to consolidate stuff. So it's just one number in one place. Okay. As I work through, the County Administrators recommended budget. I can take this in consideration. It's part of the recommended budget that I'll bring back to you. Okay. You do have travel for convention and education. Do you think $1500 is enough? For the board? If you look at previous years expenditures, the FYI 24 actual was just under $700. We budgeted for nine. We have $1,500 in here for the request. So when we go to the board, is supervisors convenient as this and that? It depends on how many go. And every year it can change. There's also opportunities for scholarships. So the goal would be to budget to a certain number and then if we have to seek additional ways to fund and what we would do. So this budget is for how many of us to be convention? It would depend if you go, this is just a round number but you could send one to Vaco for the fall conference. conference, or'm sorry one for VECO in the spring and then two in the fall. Okay. Okay. Next is legal services. This is related to the functionalities of the County Attorney. The primary functions are, by the time the legal services to the board and county administration. Legal services include review and preparation of county legislation, deeds, contracts, and other legal documents, representation, litigation, and the provision of day-to-day bikes, goals and objectives include providing quality legal services to the board in a timely fashion. Assisting County departments and reviewing and updating code sections. A lot of that's related to say Miss Johnson's shop. Sometimes it's Robbie, sometimes it's animal protection. If we have fees and charges related to utilities, it would be with brine shop so you can see that they really have to advise all of the different departments in some way shape or form as it relates to code. Another goal and objective is recommending coordinating third party legal representation is deemed appropriate by the board. So when you look at the budget for legal services the personnel, it's a contracted service. So you'll see to the right there are no FTEs associated with the budget request. It's just a contracted amount. Operating expenditures are related to just some minor printing and binding costs, dues and association memberships, some office supplies and in books and subscriptions. So you'll see an uptake of about $11,000. It's just what we're seeing is more and more engagement with legal on different items as a relates to county business. So that's why we're projecting a need for an increase in that line. Work loads going up, and I just touched on that. Does it pertain to ordinance updates? Conditionally used permits for a request and other other matters that require legal representation. With that, we'll be glad to take any questions. I'm turning over to Jennifer. Okay. So on page seven of your booklet, you'll find the one by one item for accounting and independent auditor. So the primary functions of the accounting department is to assist with creating and implementing the organizational budget, preparing a minister grants, provide recommendations for developing, planning, and ministry and implementing rules, regulations, goals, and objectives for for the county. Staff also assists with coordination of the county's financial activities, coordinating with the external auditing firms. That's a big one, assisting with hiring, evaluation, disciplinary and termination policies and actions at the county as well. The county department is responsible for the processing and maintenance of both payroll and accounts payable. The goals and objectives of the accounting department will be to manage the county's financial function, including accounting, payroll accounts payable, budgeting and financial reporting, update, review and implement county policy for accuracy and completeness, Manage and maintain benefits for all county employees and coordinate with county annual audit process as well as oversee and participate in the separation of those audits as well. Prepare and maintain grants both new and reoccurring for the county government. For the overall budget request for FY26, it remains relatively flat. Personnel fluctuates a little bit just because it's been a bit fluctuating as well. But overall, the expenditures remain pretty consistent and we will remain at the two full time positions as well. For the independent auditor, we still have not received the contract for this year, but for the prep work and for the external auditor, we did provide a 3% increase in there, just because that's the way we have seen those numbers rolling forward. So we just included that at 103,000 for FY26. And again, that is the prep work and for RFCs contact as well. Accomplishments and highlights. Step-Doc continue to seek grants, both competitive and non-competitive for all departments. This just becomes more and more difficult as more and more organizations and local communities are reaching out for the same grants. But I tell everybody, it takes just as much work to get a know as it does to get a guess. So we have to just be consistent and keep moving forward. We have successfully filled several vacant and vital positions both full-time and part-time. We do have other positions out there as you know, shares department, Stephanie as well that we've tried and just trying to get those competitive applicants in here. Just difficult sometimes. And of course we did complete the county's annual audit and fortunately we did get that in before the end of the year so that was a great thing. Future outlook, the focus of the accounting department remains to enhance and create policies and procedures that is ensure that the county is in compliance with all laws and then continuously evaluate the county's pay stuff to reflect the current market. That is something that staff has also been working to do. It is more more difficult to try to do that because we have to reach out to the localities around us and they're doing the same thing. So it's just a repetitive motion and it really doesn't matter what the pay study says if you can't get people to apply and then accept the position. So that's always something we're having to look at and that also includes benefits. That's something that we have to look at that's in addition to salaries. So we're looking at that as well. With that, are there any questions for the accounting department? Software maintenance. Software maintenance would be under IT. And when are you going to have to replace the system? The A.R. I hope it is not while I'm employed. You talking about financial systems? Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely not. No. I have not no one that merged and it went well. Still running on the AS400? Yeah. Yeah. They couldn't make it on me 10 years ago. They do have a dot net so as well. We're not alone. I know I'm not pointing fingers. Yeah. It may be something that we need to at least be thinking of in the future. It is the only system out there that still works with finance and treasure and commissioner. It is the only one that still works. Binance, AN, Treasurer, and Commissioner. It is the only one that still works with all. So... Yeah, transitioning in a financial system, it's expensive and it's extremely time consuming. Oh yeah. I mean, you need a project manager just to execute. Yeah, and they're working with dual systems as well. Yeah, that's why I'm concerned. About 26 comes around and we're gonna start here in some grumblings. So you can still get parts for AS-400s. You cannot get them for System 38, 36 or 34s. So I don't know what that is. There are all IBM, they're all the same generation, they're all the same stuff. AS-400 was the last one. I have a. I have one question. What falls under professional health services? That is their contract rate for the company that actually manages air health insurance for anthem local choice. But they actually do the coordination of it. So they go out, they get the quotes, they provide all of their information that gets reported over to IRS. So they do all that legwork so that we, fortunately, don't have to. And then coordinate with a local choice at the state level for the contractor grades. Thank you. Uh-huh, sure. The school uses them as well but they pay them a separate rate. Mm-hmm. So what's up? All right. And unfortunately I'm also doing the AT&E No. Daniel could not be here this evening. So I will present to you and Daniel and his next justice I can meet. So the primary reflections of AT&E department is for the procurement, installation, support, and maintenance of the county's information, technology resources. The IT department's primary objective is to provide resources and technology support in an effort to provide the most effective, efficient, and safe network system for county-wide operations. As you're all aware, Daniel works on everything that is county-related and that includes for the electoral board and for the registrar so that is something that is going to hop top it for several years now. For the goals and objectives the IT department's objective is to maintain equipment and systems uptime as close to 100% as possible obviously safeguard data and test implement technology that may improve customer service and be beneficial for all county departments. The number one goal is to provide supportive solutions that increase effectiveness for all departments and operate, maintain a safe and reliable network. Examples include returning to a PC replacement schedule for five years which we have been working towards and start to replace in-of-life components in the county network and institute a schedule for future replacements which Daniel estimates for six to seven years. The next page will show Daniel's overall budget for the IT department. This is separate from the E911 department. Everything stays relatively the same, although he is requesting an increase for the maintenance service contracts. And this is due to the contract pricing. He is also looking at other competitive firewall service contracts that would bring us up closer to where the Virginia Department of Elections would like us to be. So you tell me that we're placing the firewall upgrade? Yeah, upgrading. Yes. Yep. The last part of the maintenance? Yes. Maintenance service contracts. Yeah. I've. We've got another big computer software. I'm sorry, computer software now. Yes, yeah. And then also lease and rent of equipment. And this is for the lease for the big popular that's upstairs and administrative suite. And then EDP equipment. Obviously, requesting an increase to offset the vendor prices that are also increasing. And he is also looking at some competitive software as well that could be used to help more departments than one. So we might have one department that uses something and then another department uses something similar but if you can get one, have more licenses than something that that they could both use and hopefully in the long run say same to counties and funds. The next one is for the E now one department. This department is for dispatch primarily. That's why you see no personnel calls for this. This is whether they need monitors, computers. We have used this budget from time to time if a computer need to be replaced in a share vehicle perhaps, or an ambulance if needed, and it was not in there available funds. So then we would just pull it from the e-no one since it did work fine with that. He is requesting an additional $2,000 for professional services to cover associated costs with diagnostic or installation of e-no one equipment. The department is also requesting some additional funds for road signs, and this is due to new signs being installed, and a lot of road signs also happen to be replaced. So, that also falls under that budget as well. Accomplishments for the AT department includes upgrading the Internet service provider to reduce cost and have higher bandwidth, computer upgrades, as well as getting rid of the old servers and then replacing them as well. Assisted with the implementation of the priority dispatch program, WAPI has been installed in the registrar's office, which has been a long time coming. Input provided for security camera systems for the sheriff's department, with its also an increasing concern, and may make and change us to the county website, which is ongoing. That is an ongoing event, that's for sure. Some challenges for this department includes costs for hardware and software, which is increasing yearly cyber security for all county departments and trying to be more proactive with the system rather than reactive, which also needs more funding. State less requirements for election office also recommends power backups or generators along with the security upgrades. The current radio system obviously when you need some updates as well as to keep the page system running long term when the new radio system does go long and the Abbey M. Sarver and Windows 10 are being e-mailed in the near future. And with that, do you have any questions? I do. Okay, I probably will not do him justice, but go ahead. It's probably a Daniel question, but can the fire will not be used for just the county in general and not just? It will be. It will be. It will be. Yes, that will be county wide. And the next one I guess is probably for this guy over here in that when they took over the library, there were two servers. One was brand new. We had contacted them to see, I don't even know if it's not. I'm pretty sure it went to Chip. Okay. I mean, that's what they claimed anyway. Cause they had their own brands and their own way of doing things, but one was new. I'll check with you. Yeah I mean it's you know if we got into live servers coming up I mean we should we can read you potentially read you Yes, okay, I will check with him. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. Thank you. Everybody doing well. We don't need building inspections. I know you're up. You're the man. All right, so our primary function, this is come straight from State Code. The reason we're here, protect the health safety welfare of the residents of Carvelling County and the Commonwealth of Virginia. Provided that buildings and structures should be permitted in construction at the least possible cost consistent with recognized standards of health safety, energy conservation and water conservation, including provisions necessary to be met over-ground, rodent or insect and bestation. Garbage accumulation, barrier-free provisions for the physically handicapped and aged. All right, I don't want glasses so much. Oh, you should have this memorized, Rob. So some accomplishments throughout the last year, this was as of December of 24, we had issued 893 permits. That was a 20% increase over the previous year. 2066 inspections were completed. That was a 5% increase over the previous year. We fully implemented permitting software, which increases time-littance on permit issuance, and it helps with tracking all these numbers we're reading to you now. We issued 90% of permits within 48 hours of payment. That was a 30% increase in efficiency and that's due to the software, mainly. Completed plan review in 24 hours on 95% of permits. So it was a folks similar increase increase. And our fees, so we had the solar come in, I guess it was after July last year. With those fees, if you looked at it from January to December, that would have covered 110% of the budget. I know our budget runs, July to July, but if you looked at it that way, it's kind of how our system tracks things is from year to year, not budget year. That would have covered 110% of our budget just because of that one solar project there. So that was a 77% increase if you looked at it that way. For us, if you look at our operating costs, it's exactly the same. All we did was move some stuff around. We went down in some categories and had to go up another, but our operating is going to be exactly the same. So if you'd all the way to bottom-net county funds with all the additional revenues and really we're going to be costing the county a little less this year. Explanation of changes. So with the software we had, the last stuff digital now, we're able to get emails out on a lot of these things that we were mailing people, which saves a lot on some postage. We did increase, so one thing that makes the lines look bigger is search charge of bill permit fees, so we have to pay 2% of the state on every permit fee we get in. My increased it to $2,000, it's still going to be under, but that's a pass-through cost because we collect that from the customer. So really that's not going to impact the county at all. That's charged to the customer. But it reflects in the budget as an increase. So it's still two positions for now. We'll be looking in the future to maybe increase as busy as we're getting. It's going to be harder to keep up. Future outlook and challenges, customer services, a priority and building inspections would be implementing ongoing methods including more technological improvements policies and staffing requests to maintain improve. So that maybe next year's budget you might see something in that staff in the quest to help keep up with things. Due to the ongoing increase in home construction and other things, I've come with the other projects. We're going to just continually get is here. Any questions? Do you ever have to outsource anything? Bye. questions. I have to outsource anything? Yeah. I think the big projects will be their party inspection. I do want to take a moment and just commend Robby for implementing a process change and software change Because I don't know if you'd be able to keep up with what he's had to deal with over the past year without it. So I just want to say thank you. Also, you had staff change this year. Yeah, so I mean to maintain and keep providing the level of service and everything with a new employee, I replaced someone who was very long term that was in that role for a while. I think that speaks to his leadership as well and Kudos. I'm surprised I still have all my hair. Yeah, but we made it. Oh no, we don't know. I've never seen them without that. We have been getting a lot of compliments on Gina just so you all know. She's been very good for the county. Customers. Customers. Compliments weekly. Oh no. Thank you.. Good afternoon everybody. I'm Stephen Davis, one of the obviously one of the patrol officers here in Carbohydr. Our senior officer wasn't able to make it to seem to do to a family emergency, but I will be representing our budget request. All right, so the first slide, this is a 12 year old boykin spanula who was picked up straight last year. Obviously she had been used strictly for breeding and was in very poor condition. Once she was in our custody, she received veterinary care and the haircut and was transferred to a rescue group. So the primary function animal control is responsible for the enforcement of all state and local ordinances and codes pertaining to the best of the animals as the protection of health, safety and welfare of the residents, companion animals and livestock of Combo County. We take industry and or ban an animal of the county, maintain the shelter, work to find permanent homes for unplaying animals through adoptions and partnering with more rescue organizations. So this picture, this is a star. She is a one-year-old, terrier mix. We never really got to find out exactly what kind of mix. But she was hit by a car at 60 in Trimts, Mule. The driver pulled into the Arcanada family dollar to check to see the damage on her car. When she got out she realized that Star was still stuck in the bumper of her car. We took her to the car and took her for emergency bed and air care. She was not expected to live through the night but over the next few weeks he went through a lot of treatment and observation. Think about a month later she was able to me placed with an adoption and Ashen be best friend So our goals and objectives are to provide all required and mandated services related to animal control while seeking to reduce response times increase our level of services Work with citizens and rescue agencies to appropriately adopt and place animals entering shelter, work with other government agencies to develop programming and educational efforts related to domesticated animals and the care. We also seek to significantly reduce our youth and nature rate and provide more animals with homes that provide proper care and attention. These are two wolves, hybrids that we've had to deal with over the past year. The one on the left is a gray wolf hybrid, and the one on the right is a check with the block and will fiber. During for you to show portion. So looking at their overall budget, they are requesting for this current, with this next FYI, an additional full-time AMOLED control officer. And so that's why you will see the increase in the personnel. And you will see that they do have two full-time ACOs and then two part-time that do help up the shelter. They are excellent team and then so if they do get the additional ACO that would make three full-time then still remain in two part-time for the X-Vinerture piece that really over for the operation that's only increasing with the addition to and ACO. So that would make those costs go up, whether it's fuel, vehicle insurance, thanks to that nature uniform ones. So that would relatively be the reason for those items increasing. Other than that, obviously they would have, let's see, convention and education, they would need that regardless if they have an additional ACO, they would need to send them to school. But every other year, the ACO is due for take. We are required to stay to have, I think it's 24 hours every three years of continuing education for our animal control groups. Also the professional health services, that's for the veterinarians, of course, as they intake more of those costs go up and then just generally those costs are going up anyway. But for the most part, that's the reason for those items to increase. It's just generic overall price increases and then, in addition sample of the additional ACO and then the intake makes other costs go up as well. Would like to add the two part towers, those are strictly shelter attendance, they're not certified ACOs. And Steve, I will show you just a little bit later on his presentation but just the work that those individuals do it is absolutely amazing what they do for that department. With the the veterinarian services services, are we currently providing gravy shots for shelter for animals. It depends. If we go in there for like today we had to take one up there. He's gotten this a weird kind of rash thing. His pads are starting to turn raw. But he's been there since October so it's kind of weird. So we took about to see what Dr. Hazard Ruben said. While we were there, we hadn't gotten a rabie shot. We don't take every dog up there, but it is once they're adopted out, stay requires that they get rabie shots, county license for whatever county they live in, and they have to get a spare neuter within 30 days of adoption. And that's per state good. And if they don't do that, we have to take the animal back and they get charged. Okay. So this is Bailey. He's a four year old boxer who was surrendered to his last October. Once he was in our custody he received veterinary care for the first time in his life. He was in a lot of pain. None of us could get close to him or pet him. I think the first like four days he didn't need anything. A few weeks close, I don't mean a few weeks with my family came by, those willing to give him a chance. We were kind of hesitant just because of how he acted, but they had an extensive background on animal training and stuff like that. So we gave him a chance, we told him after a week, if they didn't think he would work out, they could come surrender back to us. He is now 20 pounds heavier and loves passing everything. They brought him to the pound. He hopped up in my lap so it's a huge improvement and you can see the pin that he was in when we found him. All this is trash. There's a lot of burnt stuff from the ground, a bunch of foil. What they were using for food and water bowl, they only had one, you know, when you buy a cake from Walmart or food line, you know the lids. They had one of those foot ups I down that they were just important. So the explanation of our changes goes back to the budget. So we're questioning an additional certified ACO at uniform supplies, vehicle maintenance stuff that goes along with that. Other office supplies, our printer is kind of at the end of its life. RNM supplies, that goes to the maintenance of our maintenance generator. We have to make We estimate that to be about 2000 a year. Hopefully, hopefully less than that. Other operating supplies, you know, again do the intake. We saw 44% increase in intake this year. So, you know, vet bills and stuff to go along with that. And then we're looking at we want to get new cat like a kind of like dispatch as a cat. There's a bunch of companies that make stuff for animal control officers and we want to get some like tough books and have MDTs in our vehicles that way when they're shelter attendance when they get a call, instead of us having to come back to the pound after every call or something like that, you know, when they get a call, they can put it into the computer, we can see that it hasn't been, you know, we can see who has answered what calls. We can respond to that call. It all shows you, owners, phone numbers, what animals they have, stuff like that. The way horses or cows get out, instead of us having to go out at three o'clock in the morning, we can just say, okay, that person, I know this person lives here, they have these cows. Let me give them a call, Rick, wait, stuff like that. So this is a severely diseased bear that the Department of Wildlife Resources requested our assistance for. It had made a home inside of a local farmer's hay barn and contaminated all of its hay. It had extreme mage and a few other diseases. It was very bad. The picture on the right, it's heard of about approximately 50 water buffalo. All of our neighborhood. Yeah. All of our neighborhood. All of our neighborhood. All of our neighborhood. For about a week last year, they got out nonstop. And they're not like cows or anything. They're very aggressive. Cows you walk into a field and they'll run away from you, water buffalo, they'll run at you and they don't care what kind of fences they're going to go through it. Now it's a big word you that we had to deal with last year. So accomplishments. Early animal crops from Mike Davis attended the 2024 Virginia Animal Control Association Convention in October. We where he completed 17 and a half hours of advanced animal cruelty investigation, advanced care of a companion animal and several other classes. I attended the Virginia State Police Animal Cruelty class and worked with the Virginia State Police data analysis reporting team on how to become more productive and efficient in reporting animal cruelty and other related crimes for Virginia State Police and FBI data. Our shelter attendant and rescue and adoption coordinator assisted us in reducing our youth and age rate by 36.8% increasing our transfer rate by 132.6% and increasing our adoptions by 72.7%. She also attended several other or several adoption events and multiple jurisdictions participated in the state of New clinics, attended several sheltered care seminars, promoted awareness for animals needing homes in the local animal shelters, and performed other administrative duties at the shelter. Safety, we designed and installed new decals and lighting on our animal control vehicles to improve officer safety on the roadways to be more easily identified to the public and to promote awareness for animals in our need of our services. I don't know if any of y'all saw before but where trucks used to be, they looked just like maintenance trucks. They were completely white, no shavrons, no lights on them or anything. So when we're on the side of the road with a dog that got hit or cows or something, we really had nothing to prevent us from getting hit. Grants, we applied to three grants last year. Two of them, I don't think we've heard back from yet, but T-Mobile we did not get approved for. But hopefully the other two grants we will hear back from soon. If I might, and Vego's settlement funds is not technically a grant program. It was a request that I submitted up through Tom Garrett's office. They are working with the senator that crafted the language on the settlement itself. And I've requested a lump sum of $500,000. I've been in contact with Jenny Wood who's in that office. I talked to her probably weekly, which is great to work with. And part of that $500,000 includes one of our CIP requests for the adoption and additional kennels for the shelter, but also vehicles, tough books, things that we need to operate. And I've also requested a couple of years worth of funding for personnel as well. So yeah, thank you. Yeah. Good job. I can put a check on that. So a picture on the left, during the request for a welfare check, I came across this dog that was in 15 degree weather and had a 4 foot chain wrapped around its neck. It had a barrel with no shaving or bedding in it and no food water for about 4 days. The image on the right was a poor attempt to cover the seas husky that had passed due to the owner's refusal to seek necessary veterinary treatment. The owner knew that it had cancer, but refused to give it a veterinary treatment. Once we would treat the dog, we had it sent to the state lab. They said that the dog was just riddled with tumors. One about the size of my fist on its stomach. They said you know easily could have been preventable if they would have taken it to a vet. So this is just a list the bottom graph or I guess chart that's what we have to report to the state every year is You know what kind of animals we took in whether they were seized Strays or under transfer or other We saw a 4.2% increase in calls for service, which was 1559. A 44.7% increase in animal intakes, which was 392 animals. A 72.7% increase in adoptions, which was 57 versus 33 from last year. A 132.6% increase in transfers to other adoption facilities, which was 221. No change in our state transfers. The use and nature rate, that's in red. It should be in green, but that's a 16-foot. Yeah, so that's a 16-point, no, that's reclaimed. Sorry. Reclaimed by owners was decreased by 16.3%. Had a lot more of abandoned animals this year. So our youth and age of eight was decreased by 36.8%, which is 24 versus 38 last year. We did have a 94.94% save rate and only a 6% ease of measurement rate. So the four dogs pictured here along with 24 other animals who were surrendered to us last October. The owners currently face several cruel to charges along with 34 other misdemeanors. All the animals from this event were taken for immediate vent their care. Thankfully none of them were required to be youth and not as due to health concerns or injuries and all were able to be sent to adoption facilities or adopted out of our own shelter. Alright so the future outlook department uh proceeds to the following need of an additional animal certified animal control officer. Having another officer will take a lot of strain off the department and provide a better level of service Better level of service for the citizens and animals of the county as we have seen a 44.7% increase in Intakes and cases from previous years Each of our animal control officers are required to be on call for two 128 hours a week and every other week and an average of 3340 hours a year not including the hour 40 hour work week. So like right now starting one Friday at midnight when I turn Friday I'll be on call. So I'll be able to call for 128 hours plus my 48, plus my 40 hours of a work week. In addition, okay. This increase significantly, when the other ACA was on leave or outdated medical issues, we just ran into that our lead officer, Davis, he had to go out for a medical procedure. He was out from November 11th to February 11th and I was only in control of the shirt for the county for three months. We did have some help on a few weekends here and there from Prince Edward to Ann Buckingham. But about I think 90% of the time I was the only officer for the whole county during that three months. Adding an additional officer would reduce our workload and strain on each officer, as well as reduce the one-call hours required of each officer and allow for a better work-life balance and more positive work environment. I believe also a better retention for I think within the past five years on the third officer to have this position. So I think it would really benefit that. In addition to the current animal shelter, we hope to add more kennels. Currently we have 16 kennels, which is a factor in our eithnature rate. With the addition of more kennels, we can significantly reduce our eithnature rate and have the ability to adopt out more animals by being able to hold them longer if needed. Because sometimes, you know, if we can't get a rescue to take them and they've been there we have three dogs there that we've had since last October so they've been there a minute we had one last year that was there for almost 12 months thankfully they didn't have to be using us to do the space or anything we haven't had to use them as any due to space pretty much all year last year which we were really lucky but still that 16 kennels and we took in 400 almost 400 animals it's kind of hard to you know get them moving 24 seven. Let's see we'd also like to add an adoption and welcome area. We currently have four employees sharing one office, one workspace and one computer. There is no quiet animal for the public, quiet area for the public to come in and look at dogs, dot dogs and pick up. When you walk in, it's just a hallway, kittles on one side, the bathroom and the office on the other, and their bark's just echo and you can't do yourself like it's very difficult. So the picture on the left is a straight female lab that was picked up. She was approximately seven years old, weighing only 30 pounds. She had a bodyscore of one out of nine. She was able to gain or receive veterinary treatment, gain and maintain weight and was adopted by a family. As you can see I put a pin on her back just so you can see a comparison She was in very rough shape The image on the right is an engine of a motor vehicle accident that occurred on 60 at approximately 3 a.m When a vehicle struck and killed a horse that escaped its pasture the previous night along with another horse We were able to find and secure the second horse and return it to its owner. We had not been notified about the horses escaped the previous night. If we had maybe we would have been able to prevent that maybe not but we were not notified that they were missing. So the two handsome boys on the left were dumped or abandoned in the state forest. Thankfully, somebody found them and brought them to us. They were both able to be sent to arrest you. I think they were actually sent to Guchuin County and they were able to get adopted together. The picture on the right is a great Peerney's puppy that was left in the woods with no food, water or proper shelter. The crate it was in was too small and only had a tarp to protect it from inclinement weather and had very little human interaction. It's hard to tell but but in the picture the is laying down and the crate was so small it couldn't stand up all the way. Anybody have any questions? I've got two. Yep. And this isn't necessarily towards the budget request, but how many current, do you know the current number of animals in the shelter? Right. As it is. I think we have 10 right now, currently. 10 dogs. 10 dogs, yeah. 10 dogs, yeah. 10 dogs, yeah. 10 dogs, yeah. 10 dogs, yeah. 10 dogs, yeah. 10 dogs, yeah. 10 dogs, yeah. staying here much longer, but he, he, he, he tried to, he tried to eat mic up. 9 of the 10... The problem we have is that I'd say about 75% of the animals that we have come in or either pits or hounds, and nobody seems to want either right now. Especially hounds. People look at hounds, I think they're just... they're hunting dogs, not house dogs, and what I want something to not friendly or to not, you know, whatever. Most of the ones we have come in though, they're cat's potatoes. If I had room in home I would take them. I hear you. But, and then people also, you know, there was this, I think, five years ago, there was a huge stigma with pits. All pits are aggressive, all pits are used for fighting, you know, whatever, there, you know, there's a huge thing and it's not true. Yeah, a lot of them are great dogs, just, but those are the two main animals that we have come in, in nobody wants them. I got you. And that's one of the reasons that it's so hard to get them placed. I don't know how to say. I was going to say is it up to code. I know that's a big thing now as far as some of our neighbors having to redo their, so because of size and because of certain things as tape man days. So yeah, it is up to code as far as size. It'll be great if it was bigger. But the state back comes in inspects everything once a year. They inspect all of our paperwork and reports or files, the shelter itself where we have all of our chemical agents for cleaning different stuff like pouring. And the reason I ask, I know there were some size requirements and what have you space requirements at one time. A few counties around us have been required to increase the size of the facility. No, and I think the way our facility is set up is better than a lot of surrounding counties except for Guitua and they have a mansion. But like compared to a media county, they're pound where they keep their doses about a room the same size. They've got chain link that goes down the middle. They've got a kind of like a where you can walk around it. But it's got a split in the middle and they've got like five pins on each side. It's half the space of what we have as far as where the dogs can move in and out because we have guillotine doors. You know, when it gets below 32 degrees with close doors, they stay inside, stuff like that. But as far as the pins themselves go, I think we probably have one of the better styles. Yeah, you have trough drains, right? Yeah, the trough drains are huge. I have two additional questions. And one might be more suited for you, because I don't know if Mr. Davis would know about it. Remember the request about Washington Dryer? Yes. And then there was going to be some hospital funding from the Solar Project. Yes. Suntraub didn't come through. We didn't come through. Yeah. OK. All right. So we'll save that one for later. But my last question is that any of the training that you put on the slide or you ever involve of the Davis Mr. Davis's attending sales and marketing classes because I'm gonna tell you you'll take note you saw those pictures right you pulling at heartstrings right so I see what you're doing there I see what you're doing there but thank But thank you so much. Yeah, I was going to say it was important. Well, I wouldn't go into your pictures. There's something I could have put in there that's a lot worse, but I didn't want to. I didn't want people to look that didn't. I remember the first time I went to my cell. The first time I went to a friend. First time I went to Prince Errol my wife called to say hey there's a dockson so I drive around there and nobody's there. They're coming to meet us and I'm looking there's two of them so she pulls up and says, hey Paul, did you see him? I said, yeah, we got a problem. She's like, what do you mean? I said, what do you have to do? So I'm going to have them four later. We ended up a doubting five over time because my son was at the end of the city of worked at theel over there saying we give us all a scoop when something was coming down. So it's a deck team and like I said I've get over the wolves looking around. And we used to catch a lot of beagles that had not been saved and take them home. Yeah. Because they were taking them down to Richmond because the Richmond was a high spot for them. They do take majority of the house and beacons with the defense. And they were taking them down to Richmond, because the Richmond was a hot spot for them. If Richmond and Wheat, they do take majority of the Alps and beagles that we have. You bring up the, I shouldn't mention it earlier, but I will add, we met with the, yes they had attorney general's office. They had their own animal fighting task force and stuff like that. They helped us out a lot and we had a meeting with them between us, Bucketham, Paltham, and the United States and I want to say Prince Edward, we all got together. Cumberland actually has leading numbers in abandoned hounds and beagles in all of the surrounding counties. It's a word're big, with the state force too, there's a lot of spots where nobody sees you in, right? It's a hot spot where people abandon animals. And we're working with them, trying to get them much flyer, trying to figure out a way to knock it off, cut it through, you know, put a stop to it. I also working with the dog lions trying to, you know, because if they're guys getting on board, they go back to their home club and say, hey, you know, keep doing this. We're not a problem. But a lot of times people know who's doing it, but they don't want to round on their buddies. They'll call us and say, hey, somebody dropped these dogs there because his buddy told them, but they won't say who. So, and then we can't process, and then we can't charge anybody, and it goes nowhere. And so that way everybody says, oh, nobody gets some trouble, so we can keep doing it. So that's one of the big problems that we're running out of. You might do a shameless plug for your adoption event. It's Bruce Barry. That's coming up. What is it? I mean, it's a... It's a... It was a Herald for Pat. Yeah, adopt a pat. Yeah, April 12th, right? Yes. It was a Herald for your work, right? his remains also going to be a know that I'm I hope like that won't be a single event you can do One two a year. Yeah, three four We're gonna try and With the way of what we can make better what we can improve on what doesn't work what does work and do from there Okay. Good. And I think we last year we also had an event with all the, we didn't orchestrate it, but the State Park employees, they all got together in the middle of the nation to us, they needed a lot of dog food, stuff like that, and they had a big benefit for us. So, but stuff like that, you know, our motorbike part time assistance, she takes the dogs down to the state park too. Make sure they have other baby shot stuff like that and she'll take the band in there, walk the dogs around, you know, trying to get people to rest in their dogs. Good. Any other questions? I just want to say thanks. Good. You got to do it. I mean, it's phenomenal. That's what I mean. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Davis. Good work. Thank you. It was a squirt. All right, my turn. Well, I don't have any pitches because they'll be breaking confidence. You have to use the music say, one of my roles, my primary function is to serve the Lee A's on between our CPFT and our FAT team. The FAT team pretty much in a nutshell, we get referrals from whether it's the course services unit, education, social services for kids in need in the community. And from their facts, we'll decide what services they think were best served that child in need. And from there, I'd take that to CPMT to get from the so that services can begin. So, like I said, I'm the liaison between both teams and I coordinate the implementation of funded services while making budgetary, operational, and programming recommendations. So my goals and objectives are to successfully manage the fiscal resources to provide the CSA the achieve the favorable outcome for the families and children's service and to empower the families and children to achieve maximum success at home, school and within the community. So here my budget pretty much is the same as last year. As far as expenditures and personnel and everything, you'll notice under staffing, it looks weird to say that I'm half of a full-time person, but as you all know, this is not the only role that I serve, so my other half was in the County Administration part as your FOIA officer and deputy clerk. For accomplishments and highlights, this in January, I participated and survived the audit with the Office of Children Services. From there, there was some things that she's seeing that needed to be changed, that pretty much occurred for years before I even took this position. So from there, me and members of the fact and the CPMT team were able to provide a plan to the OCS and then execute a plan to submit to them and they were pretty happy with what I submitted. So also something that hasn't been done as frequently as it should have was utilization reviews on the cases that we have. And what utilization review is, is we provide the services to the kids and we wanna come to the table and see, okay, how is this really affecting them? Is this the proper service for them or should we go in a different route to make sure that what they need is getting met? Every year I also, I go to the CSA, the annual CSA conference, which is always that hotel run-up. And monthly we have a rural CSA network group, which is me and other CSA coordinators around, because this is the only field to work in. It's a team of one. So you go together and you kind of figure out, okay, what do y'all do? What can we do? What ideas do y'all have? What situations do you have? Because CSA is locally funded, but it's state and minister. So sometimes you get lost with trying to figure out, okay, what is the state want me to do? And they're like, we'll go to your local government, but then the local government, I'm a team of me. Who do I talk to? So that network group helps me out a lot. I utilize mills, zones, and glutes, because he's the person in that group that I can most relate to, because he's also just a one person show as opposed to like, Powhatang, I think like three or four staff in their department. Also, for funding, a lot of our stuff, we get obviously a state funded, but they have a local match. A couple of our cases, we were able to get mental health initiative funding, which is through state, so that did not come out of my budget at all. So that helps a lot with the numbers when we're looking for funding to pay for these kids' services. For future outlooks and challenges, we've got a lot more cases since when I first took this role on. When I first became interim CSA coordinator, that was just to kind of fill in the blanks, but then I kind of liked it. But since then I've noticed my caseload has actually more than doubled. When I first took came on, I only had nine cases. I counted today, I have 19 active cases with with CSA and that number unfortunately continues to grow. So being that I share multiple I have where multiple hats do I the community after a while if those numbers keep increasing I fear that I may need to look for help. Right now it's manageable but if the case is keeping, increasing like this, I won't be able to do this, my other duties as well. It will be a little bit difficult to do that in a 40-hour week, so. Yeah. Yes. And that's on there twice. With that, I will take two weeks. You're right back. I'm good. No questions. Again, I don't want to sound like a broken record, but I want to say thank you, T, for the work that you do for CSA and for just county admin in general. It's tough shifting years between so many different roles. And I will say CSA is unique in that she has a lot of administrative genophonoses too. They spend a lot of time together administratively working through the process because of all the internal and external controls, but the work she has to shift to and then work with families to provide a positive outcome is it's a lot of work. And I just want to say thank you. You're welcome. I don't know if I can stomach a $7 increase. That's true. That's not right. OK, six cents. The you were just taking off, it would be a good improvement. We'll leave the lights off a couple days. Up front. Up front, left. Front, back. I'll sit here. Yeah, I'm here from Parks and Recreation. I'm Sam. Sam. And so Parks and Rec are, oh, yeah, thanks. Our primary function, basically we try to meet the recreation and leisure needs of the county. We provide entertaining and informative recreation programs to come to our residents and visitors. We assure that these programs are held in clean and safe environments and we strive to engage and connect with our community. We also serve as a conduit of community services as a whole, as in what Linda mentioned about partnering. So, our accomplishments highlights and initiatives. You'll see a lot of like new stuff up there. Parks and Rec is a new department. So, something also one of the highlights is that we have partnered more this year. I didn't put that on there, but during the winter, we found that participation tends to wane during the winter. So we partnered a lot with Linda with 4-H events and they held a lot of most of their 4-H events at Rec partnering But like I said you can see a lot of firsts up there. We also have a website now. I recommend that we could I should put a QR code on there with all the photos and stuff now like bomb that I didn't to do that as well. But yeah, we have a website now. So you can direct people through that. That's our calendars included on there, upcoming events, and just the regular programs that we have. With our budget this year, you can see that it's essentially kind of the same. Are we trying to streamline this year and look at budgeted items that we weren't utilizing as much paired those down? And then some went up to account for inflation, especially the rising cost of things. And then some of those line items are expenditure said increased. But essentially, our operatingsip gone down. And yeah, for the future outlook and challenges, we're growing in terms of programming. What we found this year is that we had a lot of programs on there that didn't get the participation that we wanted. We've sort of like, started to discover some trends during the winter. There's not as much participation so again we looked to partner with Linda Moore and partner with other organizations like social services and we'll have a couple of big events with social services in the upcoming months as well so be looking for for like a father, daughter, dance, and a field day too. So, but yeah, that's been one of our main challenges. And so like I said, we've learned that working with other community entities and organizations helped consolidate resources and get more participation out there. And yeah, the grants is the last thing that I wanted to mention. We are looking into some grants, and we were able to receive money from a few grants, and working with Brian doing most of the work there, some of the work here, with updating our facilities. So that's been a big improvement, too. We've got new backboards in our gym that raise up and down, and so we can get rid of the movable backboards that scratch up our floor. We've got new doors down there. I'm sure Brian will talk more about that. So I won't bore you too much there. Yeah. Um, go ahead. Next is questions. I think. Yeah. Next is questions. My wheels are turning. Have you thought about perhaps doing the summer partner with the YMCA to take kids to do swimming? That's a great idea actually. You know, parents could bring them to the rec center and then you know, have a van so take them to the YMCA. And then also perhaps see if someone can come into the county and teach them karate. Yeah, I've actually, I just talked to someone recently who's, who you reached out about that. So we're hoping to get him on the schedule to run a, he does jujitsu. So we're gonna be a jujitsuitsu. I don't think it's the same people but it's the same. Well, it's not doing good. Yeah, okay. But yeah, so yes, we're on the same page. Okay. Can you help us out by partnering with Camp Parsons this year? Yeah, I would love to. We're not to visit with Camp Parsons. Yeah, nice son off. They do. When he had his open house, he told me that over a thousand kids go through their last year and not one from Cumberland. That was oops. Yeah. It did a lot of opportunity. It did a lot of opportunity. You could leave the charge on that greatly appreciated. Yeah, they're not going to charge us anything. No, there charge at all. We may even have to do some team building. Yeah, and that would be excellent to have. Well, the problem with the Carmel, though, with the no-scallion programs right now. Yeah. We actually, we've been talking to the Scouts too, to try to help facilitate a Scalp program too. So I did not put it up there, but yeah And I noticed, so I just I have a suggestion which would actually add to the cost of the department for the year. First off, upset to see a dollar pay cut from somebody there. So I hear it from a lot in the community, especially older folks. They don't even know about parks and rec. They don't know about the programs available to them. They've expressed interest in when they have programs for seniors. And obviously you have those. They don't know about them. They're not online. You know, so my suggestion would be, it would be possible to do one or two maillars a year. Like, you know, obviously you can get bulk rates, whatever from the Postal Service, but just do a meal list. So, you know, a postcard or something with a calendar or, you know, these upcoming senior events, these upcoming, upcoming you know community events and I think that that could really get a lot of publicity and getting in front of folks so they know what's available. Yeah we were kind of noticing that like we weren't getting a lot of senior participation. So what I did at the beginning of this year is did a little happy new year postcard and sent it out to all the churches um with a return postcard a return stamp on there and with postcard stamps a little cheaper so yeah to let them fill out their email address so that I can send them on monthly calendar so we have a monthly calendar list started and it's only like two months old so but okay but that is something that we did you get back from quite a few of the churches I was back from yeah like 6-0-4-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6's okay. I'm surprised that we still turn in this time of the evening. But a lot of my seniors don't drive and they're home alone so maybe we can do provide transportation To not be immense. Yeah, you know, even if it's a dollar fee because I mean you know gas and everything But a lot of them will be willing to pay that you know to have that outlet because Perhaps their family members are working doing the day and and have you. So see if we can provide transportation, especially for like the seniors walk or whatever in the morning. Yeah, I like that. We started a senior shopping trip to provide transportation to like for them to just go shopping. We found that we did a app picket event. And it rained on us. Yeah. And yeah, we were like, what do you guys want to do? And they were like, can we go to Sam's Club? We were like sure. So that's what got us started our shopping trip too. And I want to sit down with you. You want to want to do some more ideas to you. Yes, man. You do WFL low. Like you do occasionally, but that is awareness, like that. There's a lot of programs, feedbacks, senior resources, places like that, age 60. The problem is getting the information out to people. You have the quarterly or manual magazines, which is fantastic. And what gets me when you do have this, right, have this right to know about that All that stuff's in there. I mean you open it up and it's in your face But people don't believe that we promoted them up and that's one of the things that we need to probably Five key points of interest whether it be in a gas station you know If you walk in here you'll get in there certain places you'll find. But I understand getting the message out and like I said, you've got great programs. But I'll watch things and listen to things and view things and I know it's out there but I do understand why people get frustrated because they don't see it. You know, it's just like a stop sign. When you run a stop sign, you know it's there, but you're just kidding, right? Well, perhaps quarterly, you can come to a board meeting and give us three events that's going to take place for the next quarter. You know, that way they listen for everything. They can do the toucher. Well, now many senior weeks. Listen WFLO. Yes. And now it's on what you call it. And I do laugh because I'll be spending a few times a few. I get a report back. Hey, Derek was on such and such. I heard him this morning. So people do listen, but typically in order on. But you know now you get it all over, beheading it on that news, whatever site that you pick up on the internet. So I mean, we just need to make it be better, promoted things that we have. Y'all do a great job. And the value there, it's like the SR or anybody else who's a quarter nose program., it's so many as good as a people that know about it that are using it. Word of mouth, once you like you said it, we just don't have a community center where people and me owe the jerks, we have a grocery store, you know, where you have somebody hanging around. If we had a hearty, and you could have that sit down breakfast, You know, it's a permeate to tend like you do and you used to be one in a may or crew. Here I am surprised when I hear that I didn't know we had a gem. And all of the sudden I didn't know until near an amp or so ago when you all started talking about it. It's a good use of resources. I'll send you a message to the ball. You know like a prompt. I'll say yeah. Yeah. So what is to go? One thing that the touched on, and she does a really good job with it is partnering. And she mentioned extension and partnering with Linda, but we're looking at ways to partner with animal control to help, we're trying to leverage as many resources as possible. She works with the schools on a whole lot of different programs. It just takes a while to get traction. But we're good there. But I'm all ears when it comes to going back. Okay. And ideas. I know we do mailers through the year with County for revenues. It'd be nice. I know you can't always put those little nice cities in here to cut down all posted. But there should be a release. even stuff that's tied into the school with the news letter chip folks about all the time. One more of the mouth is... You get like a list of senior incidents. I mean everybody's letter that's going to be coming out soon. Everybody's got a ramp here or a router. You have one but you touch one or two people and next thing you got eight or ten. And then my sense is those key spots and we just need to be better at we, everybody, promoting those spots. I want you to get in today and next thing you do, hey, we're so busy, you know, we need this as well. That's a good charge. That's a good charge, it's right, it's rigged negativity. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. I don't know what you're saying. I don't know what you're saying. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. They didn't bring you else's need of break and I had to get up and stretch my legs. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. All right. So first we have the Planning and Zoning Department budget. Planning and Zoning Office provides guidance and technical support to the board, planning commission, VZA, County Administration and staff as well as the general public, regarding land use and development activities. Staff administers the county zoning subdivisions, floodplain and erosion and sediment control ordinances. Staff is also responsible for enforcing the zoning code, processing development applications, which include zoning, initial use permits, subdivision applications, variances, and ordinance amendments. We review site plans, subdivision plots, and business license applications for co-compliance. And the purpose is to promote the health and safety in general welfare of the public and further accomplish the objectives of the state code, specifically 15.2-2200, as we serve the existing and future residents of the county. For accomplishments, highlights and initiatives, we continue to amend the ordinances to benefit the residents and to be more user-friendly. There were two amendments so far this year, including one for the flood claim zoning chapter, ensuring that the continued protection and safety of our residents. And the other amendment revised the outdated zoning fees, which have brought us more online with our neighbors and with the current rates in central Virginia. And this will also assist the apartment and leaning towards revenue neutrality. Staff has, oops, that's okay. Staff approved 32 subdivision plots, 21 surveys of existing parcels, 124 zoning permits as of December 31st of 24. We also installed a customer service window. I think that was last calendar year. And that has been a big benefit. I think it has helped us as staff feel more comfortable and safe in our office. But it also allows for more transparency for the community development department as a whole. And it helps them the residency that we're here and we're working. Instead of like if I need to have some quiet time in my office, Gina's there. So they can see that people are in the office. We've also updated the Department of Planning Department webpage. We've added a... Gina's there so they can see that people are in the office. We've also updated the Department of Planning Department webpage. We've added flow charts for the development process guides including resources and links to updated fees. The rezoning and conditional use permit processes, we've added those guides to the website as well. And the next page is regarding the overall department budget. I do have some few changes actually that I'm requesting this year and I do have some handouts for you guys. I've got three for you and four for you guys. Here I give them some tips. So the handouts Okay, I'm going to do it. Okay, here, I'm sorry. I have a next shot. Yeah, baby, I'm sorry. On one. Okay. Sorry. I have a next shot. Sorry. On one page you'll see or one section you'll see the monthly revenue and this has been since we've updated the fees and then on the other side you'll see the increase in workload since 2021 through December 30th of 2024. So that just goes to show the increase in the workload in the past few years as well as the increased revenue. If we're looking back at the budget, you'll see that I am requesting an additional full-time staff member. The Planning Department has had two part-time employees who have both left for full-time employment. This position is necessary to meet the basic needs of the office due to the increased workload. And the total expenditures, or sorry, operating costs. I do have specifics in your packet if you wanted to go over those for each line item for the extra costs here. So for $3,100, I'm sorry, mine's $3,100 for professional services. There was a cost savings of actually just shy with $1,000 due to utilizing a subscription service that's available through Civic Plus, who is our online ordinance contractor. So that one I am actually is going down. The adopted budget for $2,25 was $4,800 and I'm requesting $4,000 for that one. And the actual, the supplemental information that I've provided shows that it's actually $3,385, but that is subject to uplift. So I just asked for $4,000 just to cover that just in case. For line item, for advertising, the average cost of the legal advertisement is $495.10, and that's for per ad, and each project requires two ads, because we're required to advertise twice. On average with two cut amendments per year is a cost of $1,980. And so I'm requesting $2,000 this fiscal year for an increase of $1,450. For travel, subsistence and lodging, the lodging so far for FY 24, expenses is $904. This year I would like to try to obtain my APA, the American Planners Association certification, and attend the APA conference. This year it will be held in Virginia. This is the first time that I'm aware that's ever been held in Virginia. Normally it's like New York, San Francisco, Chicago. The cost for the lodging is $676 for a total budget request of $1,600. This is an increase over last year's budget request of $600. In previous years my budget line was approved for a thousand dollars which covered my RPC, Vezo conferences, which are required to keep my credentials, as well as the lodging for DEQ training, which is also required for my ENS credentials. And the FY25's adopted budget for this line item was reduced as were many other department's line items. I am respectfully requesting that this line item be at minimum reinstated to the $1,000 level prior to the FYE 25, if the FY26 department request amount cannot be approved. The next line item is for travel convention and education. The cost of bar for this fiscal year, $250 out of my adopted $800 budget. And this year again for my APA certification, I do want to attend that conference. The cost of the conference is $580 for a total budget of 1,000. Of course, this is a decrease from last year's request of 1300, but an increase over the adopted budget of a thousand. Of course, this is a decrease from last year's request of 1,300, but an increase over the adopted budget of 800. In FY24, this budget line was approved for 1,300, which covered, of course, my RPC in Bayzo conferences. In the FY25's adopted budget, again, this item was reduced as was at many other departments, and I'm respectfully requesting that this line item be approved for the $1,000. For DUS and Association memberships, the cost so far were $100 out of an adopted $700 budget. For my APA certification, this requires continued membership in the APA, and the cost for the membership is $653 for a total budget request of $800. And this is an increase over last year's request of $100. The last two that I have is for office supplies. And that is a $500 increase for a total budget request of $1,500. And then for furniture and fixtures, it's a $1,500 request. And that is specifically to replace a four-door lateral file cabinet. I do have two four drawers and one two-door lateral file cabinet. And both of my, one of the four drawers and my two drawer letter of file cabinet both are actually broke. We've had to Jimmy the doors open to where they do not shut now. They don't shut all the way because they're just so old you know they've moved from office to office that they would just lock and I couldn't open the drawers to access my files. So you've actually had to break the opening mechanism that keeps, you know, the safety mechanism that keeps one door or one door can only open at a time, one drawer. So now they just don't shut completely. That way I can have access to all of these. So I'm requesting to replace one four-door file cabinet this year, and then of course probably one next year. In the packet that I submitted, I do have the supplemental information for each of these requests. The office supplies line item was based on an average of what I had spent. And that was from, let's see, the office supplies was an average, let's see, for FY23, there was $1,172. That was spent, so that's why I was requesting the 1500. But I do have all that supplemental information too. If you have anybody has any specific questions. The back to the sheet that I have passed out with the monthly revenue. If you can see as of December 30th, the departmental revenue that was projected, the budgeted amount was $25,600. And as of the end of December, I was already at $20,100.9. So about halfway through the year, and I'm almost at my revenue, my budgeted amount for revenue for the entire year. So I feel like with the increased, know demand in the office with the increased fees obviously I'm going to exceed the revenue that was budgeted. So hopefully that money will be able to be put towards this full-time position that is desperately needed. When you reprised with when did that become effective? I think that was June of last year. June? Yes. And so you really are. I'll come look at it, Jennifer. Now we really haven't totally felt that for you. For you. No, sir. No, sir, but you can't see, you know, if you look at the past five years, each year, the workload has continually risen. And I don't expect that to change. We went from a total number of FYD-21. We only issue 317 permits, and each and every year it has increased. So feature outlook, I'm sorry, without additional full time staffing in the department, the required with the continued growth, the county has seen since 2020 staff has struggled to keep up with the demand. This department has requested additional full time staff for the past two fiscal years and that has not been approved. In FY25, we were able to fill a position for the part-time planning tech and there have been two part-time staff hired both of whom have left for full time employment. Without additional full time staffing, the department, in the department staff will continue to struggle to meet the basic needs of the office. Required approval deadlines will be missed and the customer service will continue to be affected. Staff will continue, however, to do the best that we can. while we are here in the office, we always strive to meet our customer service needs. That is our number one goal. But there's only so many hours in the day. And we can only do the best that we can do. Yes, and that's the thing you turn in this morning and in front of me, I think, it was maybe yesterday and we want to look it after seven. Yeah, I guess she's going to work all over it. Yes ma'am. Yeah. This one. And that's all I have for the planning department unless you guys have any specific questions. I know. Any questions? No. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Next we have is the Planning Commission budget. The primary function of the Planning Commission is again in accordance with state code 15.2-2200. Their job is to promote the health safety and general welfare of our citizens and to plan for the county's future development. The goals of the commission is to review the development applications and provide recommendations to the board supervisors, to revise the county ordinances to be more user friendly, and also to continue to push notifications of the commission activities to the public to include to this involvement in future development of the county. Complement highlights and initiatives of the planning commission has improved this and notification of activities and meetings thereby improving access and participation by the public. On this slide we do see the Planning Commission's budget request. Salary is staying the same. It looks like there is a little bit of an increase in the total expenditures. Sorry, in the operating cost. And I did not not print. Travel convention and education is about 250. Okay, so I'm sorry. That was for the increase in the cost per registrant for the Certified Planning Commissioners Program. And that's just again, just due to inflation. We had been previously able to send free planning commissioners each year to have the certification or to attend this class and with the increase in cost I think we're only going to be able to do two currently with the current budget but with that increase in the fees we'll be able to get the planning commission members sent and sort of brought in this training. Future Alloc in challenges, 25 will bring future zoning ordinance amendments to ensure compliance with state co-changes and that it complements the updated comprehensive plan and comprehensive plan, and effectively provide for the responsible growth of the county. And that's it. Any questions? That one was simple compared to mine. Nothing else. This one's pretty good too. Yeah, I don't think there was any changes. The board is in your field. Yep, that was the BZA here's and decides the appeals from any order of myself or variance from the zoning ordinance. The goals and objectives of the BZA is to provide for a fair and impartial means of appeals to the residents. In 2024, the BZA heard one request for variance. This request was due to the lot size. The track was originally one acre, however, when the state came through to include Perkins Lane into a state maintained road. It made the parcel less than one acre in size. The dwelling on the parcel was beyond repair needed to be replaced and the BCA approved the request for variance and the property was able to be, the old dwelling was able to be demolished and they built a new house on the lot. It is very nice by the way if you haven't been down that way. It's a nice little house and they've added value to the property and the neighborhood as a whole. Next. Here we have the budget. There is no change requested. Everything is the same. Future outlook with additional full time staffing, the planning department deadlines, sorry without the additional full time staffing, of course the application deadlines will be affected as well the customer service. And that's it. All right. You. Good job, thank you. Thanks, Stephanie. No problem. Appreciate it. Man. All right. Ready? All right. Yep. The public works is responsible for the operation and maintenance of all county owned properties and community-based government services. The department has made up with three teams, general maintenance, public utilities and solid waste. The maintenance team is responsible for the day to day and long term maintenance of buildings and infrastructure. For Comparison County, public schools and Compar County government. Sites include Compton administration offices, the courts, public safety building, Luther P. Jackson complex and the community center. Four parks, the three schools, mental, high and elementary school, and various other facilities throughout the county. custodial staffs provide services to the county administrative and court buildings, social services, extension, fire and rescue and parks and recreation facilities. The public works team is responsible for the operation in maintenance of the publicly provided drinking water and wastewater systems in the county. The public utility system spans from Bear Creek Lake State Park to the Tantle Farble Limits, equal in approximately 20 miles of service area along with water plant operations, state and DEQ requirements. Both maintenance and utility teams in addition to their regular schedule of work week our call for after hour facility issues that range from alarms and maintenance issues at facilities, the water and sewer issues which can result in multiple call outs day and night and requires both teams to be familiar with the facilities owned by the county. Own Call schedule is in every nine weeks. One individual is on call for a week at a time, Monday to Monday, with department supervisors for maintenance and utilities being on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Include nights and weekends, holidays, and bad weather. The Solid Waste Team is responsible for the operation of three refuge stations that operate seven days a week, post-closure care of the county landfills, which we do have three of them in the county and the LeechAid collection system that is at the Madison Laneville. On the maintenance side, I do have a printout here. If y'all would like to take a look at it, last year we implemented or two years ago we implemented IMGIS, which is a work order system. Year to date we have done 1,345 work orders throughout the school and the county and what's not on here is any projects and callouts. So to apply for the morning somebody calls about a water leak or a pump station it doesn't show up on the work order system just because that stuff doesn't get reported. Also projects like a truck or treat, the ball field project, any grants that we have, they're not only because this is just a work order system, not a project system. But the department's goals and objectives are as follows, maintain all county and school facilities and a safe and cost effective manner, utilize and best management practices to lead and coordinate all capital and site improvement projects to respond to all work orders within 24 hours. At least look at them and see if it's gonna be something that's equipped fix or something that's gonna take some time. Complete all work orders within five business days, depending on if we have to order material for whatever work order it is. To initiate field training and certification opportunities for all staff, address all utility emergencies within an hour or less in a professional manner. All the people that are on call, if they get a call from dispatch or from their supervisor, they're required to be wherever the entity is within an hour, if you get the phone call that's a requirement of when being on call so you have to stay close to home. Provide excellent customer service to all public water and sewer system customers and provide refuge in recycling services seven days a week to citizens. I am requesting a 10% increase in all public employees pay just because of the amount of projects that we try to do in-house and engineer in-house without having to go out to engineers for different things. The old school is one of them, the pay-beam. try to do in-house and engineer in-house without having to go out to engineers for different things. The old school is one of them, the paving and the lighting and all that. We did all that engineering and grade work kind of in-house and then contracted out a company to do the concrete and the asphalt for us. But we did not have an engineer help us with that project at all along with everything that was done at the ballpark. The school we did pretty much rewiring of the elementary school and the middle and high school and put exterior lights around all three of the schools and we did all that work in house and all that cost savings is why I'm asking for that because everybody in the public works department does a great job trying to do stuff in house to cut down on cost. The department is requesting to fill a vacant HVAC position. We used to have, we've had three of those in the past 10 years. Right now we kind of contract out which is rather expensive and we have to wait for them to get here. So when HVAC systems go down we have to wait a minimum of 16 hours or so to get them here. In addition to being requested for repair and maintenance supplies as equipment is used past life cycle, the repair cost increases and funds are requested to replace the HVAC unit for administration. That was for like Derek's office and the commissioner revenue. All four of those units are getting to the almost 18-year-old age. Just last week the Treasurer's Office unit just died on us. So that's we have to get that and that is getting fixed this Friday. We have a company coming in to replace that whole unit. Public Works and the Refuge, requesting an increase for uniforms wearing a peril and safety for when I plug in for transfer stations. We do require all of the transfer stations when somebody is on-site for them to be outside, whether it's raining in the snow or whatever. So we are requesting some money for that so that they can have reflective gear because of all the cars and stuff They're coming into the transfer station so they can be easily identified Requesting funds to purchase a work truck for the refuse department the current truck that we have for them is a 2007 Ford F-150 I think it's got a hundred and eighty six thousand miles on it and for solid waste person, he has to come over and switch out trucks with maintenance guys so that he can pull the tractors from landfill to bush hog and do that kind of stuff. So they switch out vehicles when needed. But I would like to get him a trucker so that he doesn't have to do that. Public Works, the Water Department personnel increase due the addition in that should say utility worker 2 and the water plan operator. The department is requesting an increase in maintenance service contract to cover the Southern corrosion contract that does go up this year. So the Southern corrosion contract is a contract that we have for our water tower. That's a Virginia Department of Health required us to get that so that they can get an annual report of the inside and the outside of the tank to make sure that it meets Virginia Department of Health requirements. So what that does while we're in this contract with Southern Corrosion, if anything happens to that tower, it is kind of their responsibility. If somebody comes by and shoots it with a rifle and puts a hole in it, it is on Southern corrosion to come out, weld the hole up, fix it, make sure it's structurally sound, and then repaint or epoxy. But that's all on them. The Public Works and sewer department, the department's requesting to fill a vacant utility work for one position for this department in the utility side whenever you you had to do confined space which we we do pretty much every week. You're required by OSHA to have three individuals, one to go in the hole, one to lower them down, and not leave that individual's site, and then kind of like I could go for one to go get parts of that kind of stuff. So that is an OSHA requirement to have three individuals. Currently, when we do have to do confined space, we have to either pull someone from the maintenance department, solid waste or I come out of the office myself to be that third person. Request include an increase in professional services. The department has spent 27,000 to date for 2025. The request includes an additional $800 from mis-utility tickets. That rate has increased in the number of tickets, has increased due to the broadband since Firefly and everything else. Contractors are required to put these tickets in and every time a ticket is put in, it's responsibility of the county to pay a certain price for these tickets. In here you'll see accomplishments, the Department of Public Works, successfully completed the following projects throughout the last year. Along with the library we oversaw the renovation for like two study notes at the library. We completed the Paving and Lighting Project at the Community Center and Social Services exterior lighting that I mentioned at both the Middle and High School and the Elementary School. The two-story school conference room update we renovated that in-house and didn't have to contract that at all. New in-p lot for the Sheriff's Department, Parking Lot Extension for the Courts and Administration right here out back. New roof of the Courthouse and Museum, Cosmetology classrooms, that's a new program they added at the school so they ended up taking a classroom and we had to put all new plumbing and I'm gonna say like wash stations and sinks. I think there was eight of them that we had to put in this classroom so we did all the work for that in-house. Shop put in discus pits at the football field and beside the baseball field at the school public work staff did all the ground work for that along with the footers pouring the concrete and finishing that and getting those set up for the school. Pump station three out front of the elementary school we did have a force main blow out on that and cruise state on site and got that fixed within seven hours of us noticing the leak. Water and sewer connections whenever they come in to the county we do those in-house, snow removal and debris from the last, the winter storms that we had this year along with tire day, truck or tree and tree lighting. These are current working projects that we have. We're wrapping up the Madison Ballpark project, which is new dugouts, new chain link fence, new gates. We relocated some of those. We completely re-did the bathrooms. And that was county staff. They went in, ground all the floors up, repainted, put up all the dividers, which has new PVC, dividers, new toilets, new urinals, and did all that in-house. The new concession stand roof, and then, like I said, the concession stand, a big shout out to home in masonry. We put out some feelers and asked for any masonry help, just because none of our guys are masonry guys. We can do concrete, we can dig footers and we can put roofs on them but none of us were block layers. They came in and pretty much they did all of the masonry work for free. And after talking with Johnny Holman it was like a $35,000 value that they donated to the city for that. It's awesome. So we need to recognize that. For that, that was considered where we're looking to get. In addition, you recognize the free advertising at the. Yeah, we're looking to get signs to put on the bags. That's all that dug out. You said 35,000? That was just a labor. Yeah, man, power and labor. Yeah, that was for the, lay in the block, just lay in the blocks. No. I think they were up here. The way they wanted to do it was a little different than me. They wanted to come in and lay a couple blocks and then us do the concrete and then come back. So they mobilized to the ballpark like 40 for times. And they came in to do it, I guess, between other jobs. So just the mobilization, they brought all their equipment, they had three or four skid steers and every time they came in to do it, I guess, between other jobs. So just the mobilization, they brought all their equipment, they had three or four-skid steers, and every time they came down, they had eight or nine guys, every time they showed up. So they did an amazing job for us there, and it all looks good. Also, up at the old school, the gym, we did get an affid grant for floor covering new backboards, doors for the building and audio system. And extension office foundation repair, we're currently working on that. We've already bought all the material for that structure, so we'll be doing that project here shortly. Next. Okay. No, give it. These are current identified projects that we just don't have money for or funding yet for them. So it's the remaining portion of the public works fence at the facilities to kind of seal us off so that nobody can kind of get in and just take stuff. OJL Roof Replacement, Library Roof Replacement, Pave and a Randolph and Hamilton Transfer Stations, which we're getting more and more complaints at for those two locations. LPJ, the two-story complex renovation, that's sewer line repaired Anderson, that should have been on the other slide because we do have engineers working on that. And V. has answered back some comments, so we should be moving with that in the next month. Public workshop upgrade and firefly installation, basement drainage issue, and then the Virginia State Police Tower project should have been on that last slide as well, since we do have a meeting next month on the 14th for the foundation part of that. Privacy Feds for the courts parking lot residents back here behind and just annual events, Tyred Day, Trunk or Tree Lighting. Future Outlook challenges, the Department of Public Works has been able to fill some of the much needed positions on the maintenance team. This allows for work orders to be completed faster, larger projects to be completed in-house and less strain on employees. In the upcoming year we are looking to keep moving forward by advertising for an HVAC position, freeing up two maintenance worker employees who currently respond to all HVAC issues. They know a little bit about it and between the two of them they do an excellent job at kind of troubleshooting stuff So that when HVAC guys come in we can kind of help them out so they don't have to spend so much time diagnosing stuff Filled filling this position would also provide call savings to the county currently We are paying outside companies to do major Majority of the HVAC repairs that be done in house for less, especially with like capacitors and things like that that we just don't have to test. With additional staff we are able to be more proactive with equipment issues instead of reactive and provide better operation of the county and the facilities. Department of Public Works perceives the need of the following items, pump station upgrades, which we do do these in-house. Six more to upgrade to include new stainless steel rails, risers, pump-based control panels, and new roofs and covers. The maintenance side, they can do the roofs and the covers for us and the utility you guys in the past we have coordinated with like a pumping company to do bypass pumps for us while we go in the wet wells and redo all the bottoms and the bases and cleaning them and then redoing the stainless steel bases and rails all the way up with the electrical wire and the new pumps for those pump stations. General maintenance equipment and adequate transportation to get the S2 in front of their job safely. I actually have a question for Jennifer. Okay. So they're like three or four pretty good sized projects for the schools. Do they get charged back. They do. Okay. The school pays for all the material and then we provide all the labor and then we charge. You know, you know, if there was three people, whatever their hourly rate is, they get charged. Plus overhead, such as fuel and winter tear on vehicles. So I guess what I'm trying to figure out is that are these charges baked in here and then we don't really see them on the school side or? So the charges are definitely in Brian's budget, but the revenue you will see actually over in the recovery piece from the school maintenance. That's part of the transfer back. No not part of the transfer back is what we charge to them and it comes back as revenue, but never really goes back into Brian's budget and we're really looking at how we're gonna change that up Because the problem with that is is that you have the revenue But if you don't have your revenue that actually meets the target Then you don't have that additional funding to be able to move over So we're looking at reorganizing that this year so that it doesn't look like Brian's budget is way over when really we've recovered that it's just not showing it as reflection as an expenditure refund. So we don't need to have philosophical conversation tonight because the river is probably getting worn out but if we're not charging the labor needs to go with the project too. So not just the high schools, I mean every project. So if we have a project that's partially funded by a grant, and it's probably a better example, and it's $30,000 for the project, if we don't include his labor as part of that project, we do's part of the end typically done through an incognomact Yeah, it it needs we need to make sure and all the labor is put in there too I guess at the point and so when that happens and the guys are required to keep their time separate and we tried to allocate Just a few people to those It's a lot It's a It is then for sure. It's a pain. I understand that. But yeah tracking with the project's really cost I think is important because some of them are going to be labor intensive. Oh definitely. Yeah. Okay. Any questions? Thank you. All right. Thanks Brian. Everything down at the ball feels awesome. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Thanks, Brian. Everything down at the ball feels awesome. Thank you. Absolutely. Next year put in a condition for. What's that? Next year putting the air conditioning for. We're looking to do outlets and Faes. Oh, thank you. You're welcome. Thanks, Brian. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Home stretch. Yeah, this is the home stretch. I could play firemen. I could play firemen. Awesome. I'm going to throw wheel out to put these on an arco clothing. Yeah, sure. And I should wear them. Yes, sir. You may can You may I think for us pretty damn Sure show, but Adam chair members of the board Mr. Samey and this cruise Darren Hurley here to report on fire EMS FY 2526 Thank for your call. Thank you for your time. And we'll go through this as quickly as we can. So everybody has questions to ask with the end. So the Fire and EMS department's budget primary function on the screen is the Cumberland Fire and EMS Department works quite politically with both volunteer organizations and a paid contract at EMS staff to provide quality, efficient and effective public safety services for common county residents and visitors. The organization consists of county administration, the coordinator of emergency services, three volunteer fire departments and one contractor EMS service. The coordinator of emergency services provides the administrative oversight to the three volunteer fire departments, one volunteer rescue squad and two of the contracted EMS service management staff. And then looking at our primary goals and objectives, we are here to support efficient and effective emergency services, which under that goal, the first objective is to adopt and maintain a capital improvements program for all emergency service facilities to ensure that those facilities, equipment and personnel are well maintained, efficient and functionally appropriate to meet current and foreseen needs of the citizens. The second objective is to evaluate the current EMS contract and service levels versus an in-county staffed EMS model, we're evaluating that now to make improvements for the future. And last objective is continue to work cooperatively and support the volunteer fire departments through service level agreements to include implementation of the new radio system, training opportunities, new equipment, and funding opportunities to include grants. This slide demonstrates the current volunteer membership of each of the four agencies. The first one is going to be the volunteer rescue squad. So there's nine active volunteer rescue squad members. They don't have any for an auxiliary anymore. CARSville volunteer fire department is 22 active members, six auxiliary. Convelyn fire is 28 active, five auxiliary, and Randolph is 21 active in 14 auxiliary. These are the 2024 statistics for each of the four agencies. So station one is the volunteer rescue squad with 1,376 calls for the year of 2024. Station two, coupled with volunteer fire 267. 1, stays the 3, car does 0 fire, 87, and station 4, Randumberland Voltaire Fire 267, station three, Carter'sville Fire 87, and station four Randolph Fire 145 for a total of 1,875. Pay attention to that slide, we might have to come back to it because it's all gonna circle back to the EMS services provided specifically at Randolph and Carter'sville at certain days of the week based on statistics. All right So some of the accomplishments since I started in October that we have achieved the goals of is the emergency medical dispatch implementation that went into fact January 25 2025 that was the system where the 9-1 operator screening the inbound call and if it's a medical reason, then they go through a script of questions to provide the necessary service and pre-arrival instructions to the citizen that's calling. That was an unfunded mandate as well. That is correct. That was unfunded mandate. But we did get grant funds to cover. Yes. Grant funds covered that to the tune of almost $70,000. The CUMLAH County Fire and EMS Pharmacy Room, that is an unfunded mandate of proportion, which we'll talk about that in a second. It's supposed to go operational April 15th, which is just a couple of weeks from now. It worked very hard to get to this point. I hope we cross the finish line successfully. It's all dependent on us getting our drug enforcement agency license, which I've already applied for. It's just a delay. It's government delay. The next bullet is the community soundly alarm smoke alarm program. That is going to be this Saturday at the Randolph Fire Station. and it's put on by the American Red Cross. I don't know if there's ever been a service in the county to the citizens like this but I'm proud to say that we're going to implement that Saturday and basically that's a door to door effort to check on smoke alarms and if they're not working then the resident will get a smoke alarm for for free installed they get a bucket of things a teeth excuse me a T-shirt some brochures and things like that because we all know smoke alarms are the first alert of an incident of fire or smoke incident and a home to get folks out of their house. Yeah oh yes now I've got the flyers the foot these here I had in the pass around those are posted on the counties Facebook page I just checked it before I walked in there. I didn't see it on the county website, but Thank you and the American Rick Cross representative today went to 60 residences in the Randolph district and Kimberly Hill subdivision and put those flyers in mailboxes. Now the reason we chose Randolph is because American Red Cross was looking for the most homes covered in one day's event. So we have members of the fire department will have I'll be down there there will be some volunteers from American Red Cross and we're gonna go door door to door. Side of the end of all the day. Now this program is also available for other areas of the county. I'm not disregarding the other districts. This was just the first time that I've done this and I didn't know what they had to offer and they expressed they wanted to go as many residents as possible. So I just just pickest neighborhood you can go trip or treat as I call it don't go to the door you can go to the door like quicker than you can drive up and you know half a mile driveway what's going to happen when you get there right but it's open to the whole county and if there's a need for anybody right now you know if anybody you can use this and say hey this program is for you too doesn't matter where you're at and it costs the county nothing. That's the best part of it and it calls anything. Including the smoke alarm, which you go to loads or home depot and see how much they cost. So that's a good program we're gonna do. Next is career day school events. That's an ongoing situation. We have any kind of career day or any kind of school events that work with Tiana and try to provide EMS and fire representation there. That was the last one. That was quite competitive with some other agencies that travel a long ways away. The career positions, not volunteer positions. I do them all south-hold and go leave me alone. So I can talk to people. And lastly on here is the Stars State Police Radio System. Remember we're one of three firing MS agencies in the state of Virginia to get this program? It's going to be great and wonderful. We're going to work through the details and hopefully have it implemented by the third quarter of this year calendar year and the only animal control Okay Going up so you can be working on it. Yeah Everything takes longer than it should all right and just just by Luck or fate or whatever you want to call it the alignment alignment of the stars is what I say. The new division department of fire programs, division three program director for training is a guy that lives here in the county. So we're gonna have incredible training opportunities for the volunteers as they want them. Some of them are no cost to us. And if it is a cost that the volunteer fire station can use your ATL funds to fund that. This past week in Carter'sville had seven members do a training safety program and seven up and past. We were hoping for more we opened it up to the area for the class driving class. Basically it's to help drive fire apparatus safely and operate it. You have to go through a course Just like you would for your driving license. So that has kicked off More training opportunities to come for all the county fire departments In the best classes too. We got a plan for that too Next one is the crew DMS building So what I have found out is the Medicare rates actually billable Medicare rates actually adjust every year. So we've been billing in the past at a lesser rate through Medicare. We weren't maximizing what we were allowed by Medicare to bill for EMS services. So there's been some loss funding there. We're going to go back when into this month hits and I'm going to evaluate the first quarter of 2025 to see what we retro the new billing rates back to January one of this year. And we're going to look at the three months that's passed and see if we've had a significant percentage upgrade in revenue for EMS billing. I think we will. I'm thinking 5 or 10%. I'm just guessing it's got to be better than what it was. And the federal government just extended a timeframe as well, correct? That's correct. I want to touch it. Yes. The federal government approved by the president has extended through the end of September of this year for those rates. There's to continue. I guess it was supposed to stop at some point, but anyway, that's something we've tightened up so that we can improve our revenue for EMS Billing. The next bullet is segues into the last one is the, there's corrections to formulate act actor billing processes for improved revenue. The way that the billing services were being done were kind of old so we updated them and they're being billed at the correct rate now in comparison to the other rural jurisdictions around us. We were on the lower tier of the billing now we're kind of toward level which is okay. It's okay to do that because that helps us recover for EMS supplies, medicines in the pharmacy. We're going to have all those unfunded mandates. And lastly, Carter'sville fire station is wanting to use some of their property in the rear to put a helicopter landing pad for state police for a pre-established landing pad similar to what Buck and Ham has. So I had state police helicopter fly out here which was pretty cool I got to ride. I don't ever have never ridden all one. All my past history I've never been on the helicopter so we got on the helicopter we rode around. Yeah. Yeah. It was great. We went over to Cobb Creek Reservoir and looked at all that because they wanted to do a pre-plan you know for emergency responses and all up there but I got the flight yes me he was sending videos and running it Yeah, it was great. We went over to Cobb Creek Reservoir and looked at all that because they wanted to do a pre-plan you know for emergency responses and all that there but I got to fly it. He was sending videos and rubbing it in. Yeah, I got to have my fighters. I know, I should make a lot of your money. Anyway, Carter'sville's Technat Initiative to do that. At their expense, they're talking about doing this at their expense, putting the whole thinking they're at their expense on their property so some grant funding. Yeah, maybe we could give them some grant money for it too. We've talked about it. So what type of cost is associated? You can go 15,000 to start. If you go really elaborate with it, you can get up there 50,000, 100,000 dollars But three donations, you know, they can ask for donations for rock and some math and the lighting, electrician to put the lighting and things like that. But that'll offer a safety when the helicopters come out here, they're landing in fields and roads and yeah, it's dangerous. It's really bad. But that's just the way it operates in a rural setting. All right All right, and looking at this chart here we personnel calls as me and Those are the adopted and requested amounts you notice that doubles Because I'm a part-time position and all of the of. It's a very overwhelming situation a lot. I'm requesting another part time staff member, part time no benefits, same pay base, if you look at the last bullet on the slide. Part of that is to manage the pharmacy. The pharmacy in some agencies is literally a full time job. It is so much responsibility because we have certain things in there that have to be accounted for. EMS supervisor, I'm having to spend a lot of my time managing the EMS folks out here in the contract and watching what they're doing and quality assurance checking and things like that. It needs to be a separate person to do that or a duplicate. And just the basic assistive coordinator emergency services which needs to be an EMT Virginia State Paramedic. So that way we can duplicate efforts. If I'm off they can assume the role. If they're all if I can assume the role. So this weekend was my wedding anniversary, right? I should have went out of town, but I spent part of my Saturday and part of my Sunday, coordinate and fires, broke down names, and this is things like that because there was just nobody else to do that. It would have been nice to have a part time person to manage all that stuff for that time, you know, and just a can't. I can't get away from it, not that I want to get away from it, I'm responsible, but it's hard to go and do anything when you have just one person. Yeah, it's tough. Looking back at the operating calls, total expenditures, the majority of that funding there is for the EMS contract, which I have that on another slide coming up on how much we're literally paying in the second of five years on this contract for EMS services. The revenue line is money that we're taking back in through EMS billing, which we're trying, like I said, we're trying to improve that. That I think will go up some percentages. It's not going to go down. It's going to go up because of the, what we've done to figure out some of the billing inaccuracies and then you have your neck county funds at the bottom. So first bullet, pharmacy room medication supplies, a mast and medias gonna cost. This is unfunded mandate. Again, $25,000 extra dollars just to stock that room. That is currently being managed by the hospital pharmacies at no cost. That's something they're passing down to us. And if we want to maintain that service out here, advanced life support services, we have to incur that. There's no way around it. Either we're going to do it or we're not. I mean, just to put it belonging. It's some of the worst legislation. It's horrible that I've ever seen. It is. And it's on the fly decisions they're making. Every time we have a plan they change it. They change it. They change it. And it's just not. It wasn't handled very well at all in my opinion. The increased cost. Did you have something? No go ahead. I'm sorry. The increased cost in general medical supplies, that's an inflationary situation. I have checked the inventory at the rescue squad for medical supplies, and that is gotten out of control, meaning we're getting too many things. We need to back it down, reduce the expenditures that are going out. There's too much of some things, not enough of others. So we're working on that to tighten that up. So it's not so much outflow of money for things to sit. If you need five things, you don't order 20 or 30. It just sits there. It's my point. Quality control. Quality control. One thing I did want to bring up, Darren, and you mentioned it about cost recovery and identifying ways to increase the percentage through Medicare. The Darren's also actually taken the initiative to change, just tweak the process for when the provider transitions the patient to the hospital. Something as simple as how they document the transition leads to more revenue recovery. So it's attention to detail. I'm glad you brought it up. I'm glad you brought it up. Slip mom. Yeah, but you know, he's taking little things like that add up and I just wanted to point out. I would like to see you implement Fire Department building. We've now for everyone gets excited. Not for house fires. Do not do it for house fires, please. But for vehicle accidents, those are recoverable just like the animals. Yes, sir. We've talked about it. We just haven't gotten to it yet. It's fairly simply just have to have a menu of your cost and you use the same bill in agency. I mean We can check on it But I wouldn't As another consideration if you do that you may just want to have a good right back to the Volunteer unit not necessarily come come into the county the that's right right yeah so they they I'm just to their contribution yeah we figure that out yeah that's good point okay all right so some of our future outlook and challenges is the lack of additional state volunteer funding initiatives sustain equipment and operations so in the General Assembly this year House Bill 2069 and I printed it off just to make sure we all know what we're talking about. And I got one to make sure I had it right. This one didn't pass out of General Assembly so basically this bill was to provide a portion of the fire programs fun allocated to localities that could be used for additional purposes of constructing and proving or expanding fire station facilities, providing mental health resources for fire personnel, or hiring additional fire personnel and funding recruitment and retention programs. The hiring part can be for career or it could be retention and recruitment and retention of volunteer. So that whole bill of funding didn't even make it out to provide additional funding at the state level. So with that said, it's a shame, but we've got to find other ways to get money into the county where we're relying heavily on grants, as you know. The EMS contracted services, that's a five-year contract. We're in the year two and we're currently paying 97,728.75 cents a month. And that increase escalating cost to the county every year to the maximum of 113,133,25. I think we can personally, I think we can do better than that. We're working on it. A plan or plans, other opportunities. Lastly, the grant funding amounts. The grants that we go after in fire in the UMS are very, very competitive. I was just up and down the hallway working on one this evening and just getting a narrative together and it's it's very competitive. This this grant opportunity they they only take 600 applicants nationwide and if you miss one thing on there like you miss a name of somebody on there that they said you're supposed to have on there and they kick it out just like that. So I'm working the grants, Miss Cruz is working the grants, Mr. Stamie's working the grants, we're doing all we can do to get the grants. Sometimes we're all working on the grants at the same time. They're just competitors. They're competitors. They're competitors. Oh, I can. I can give you a live video feed if if you want. Okay, next please. Okay, I started October 1st and it's March. We had one week that we had all six ambulances mechanically in service since I've been here. They have stayed broken. They have been in shops. We only have two in services. I'm speaking right now. The other four in shops. But we'll have one back tomorrow. Right. And one more than that. That's right. So if we have to provide a minimum of two amuses for the contracted service, if we have to use one of theirs, there's an additional fee to that. We pay what is a $200. I think it is. 150. So my recommendation and there's ways to do this is we need to buy at least one new animals. Okay, go back just to say. So the RSF grant, we did apply in March for this, but I think that's 280, 20. 70, 30. It's a 70, 30. Great. I applied for the 70, 30 under hardship, but it may get shifted to a 50, 50. But that'll get us mostly on the way to getting a, these, this ambulance is similar, the style of ambulance is similar to what we're running right now it's no extra bells and whistles I cut a lot of that out I spent two hours with the sales guy that I know from my past a goodman truck and tractor we sat right in here in this room and we went through all the specs to get it down to we wasn't so expensive it It doesn't have all the bells and whistles, but it has what we need out here. What's the overall cost? This is $405,000. What's the lead time? We could have one by the fourth quarter of this year that they're already building. It has a CIP request also. Because I know in the past, we've heard as much as two to three year lead times. Oh, yeah, if you order one and see as you sign and say I want that, it's 30 months minimum to get a brand new one. And that's in the ambulance industry. So what's the difference? Why the quick turnaround on this? Because this one, the companies, the manufacturers build a couple demo models, but they're not used. And I talk to the sales guy and he's like, we can build this to accommodate you. And if you don't get it, then we can equally sell it to somebody else. Zero miles is brand new. It has all the warranties, which is on the next. You want me to go? Yeah. Next slide. This is a new vehicle like you just saw on the screen and all of those warranties come with that. So if we have a breakdown, electrical issue, paint peeling, something that's with the chassis, triad submission, all of them things are covered under a warranty program. It comes with a vehicle. Obviously you can upgrade those but that that comes with the vehicle. On the right side which I was asked to check on remounts. So years ago remounts when there was a metal shortage under I think it was the first Trump administration. Remember the tariffs on metals and there was metal shortages and it was incredible cost to get something new but if you took the box off the ambulance and put it on a new chassis you could save you a little $100,000 to $200,000. That's not the case anymore is what I've been told. Plus you get less you get less warranty. Part of it is the box has to meet meet new specifications and everything we is so old. You'd have to gut it down to the metal and redo all the electrical and oxygen hoses and compartments and what lights it doesn't make you worth its while. So that's why I put that up there. Where did you get the information on the redeemer? That came from PL Custom Representative a good metruch contractor. Now another thing is that the boxes that we have each one of them is a different manufacturer. You know you got PL Custom Excellence Horton all these names. So they're all set up differently. So if you go through you take a box Horton box off one of the chassis and put on a brand new AM and what's chassis all the boat patterns and all that has to match up all electrical wiring and all that stuff and the warranty drops out to nothing and if you go through PL custom which is one of the cheaper ones to get if you really want to spend some money you get a Horton, that's like a Cadillac. You're really going to spend some money on that. That's why I went with PL. But it won't be as much money spent to do that. The remount with them. I'm going to go to the next slide. Does that kind of describes that a little bit more? Yeah, and here's, these are some of the reasons, like the emmels as we have, if you look at number one, it might not have 43 inches of head for him because it's so old, above the CPRC, which is a little short seat on the side. And I know none of them have a six point seat belt harness that those are all upgrades you would have to put on a remount that adds to the cost to make it $400,000 the same. And then battery systems are different. The flooring might not support the power load stretcher system in there. Your electrical system option just all those Ancillary systems in there would have to be, you know, it's a cost to it. Okay, next. Like I said before, we're seeking additional grants and funding for fire fleet replacement water rescue, better water gear, self-contained breathing apparatus. It's the bottle. The firefares were on their back. So the first one, Department of Fire Programs mini-grant,'t get awarded that I tried I'm gonna try again with another agency Gary Senees Foundation Grant I applied for some water rescue equipment that's in progress to the tune of ten thousand dollars That's a fully 100% funded Effort if we're awarded no cost to us Firehouse sub-foundation grant. That's what I've been down the hallway working on. If we get that, I know it's crazy. If we get that, then there's no cost to us at all to get a UTV to respond into the parks. Got a pre-preservor, a hybrid trail. It gives us fire fighting and the M.S. response capability. I've already asked the surrounding jurisdictions not all of them have what I'm trying to get. When cost county anything, if we get awarded. And if we don't get it on this quarter, we'll try the next again. Rescue Squad Assistance Grant, that was for the ambulance. We were just talking about, and then Department of Forestry Grant, $10,000. That's on the whole, just because they're not doing grants right now, I don't know if it's something to do with President Trump's initiative or not. That's what everybody says, but I can't. I've checked. That's on the whole, just because they're not doing grants right now. I don't know if it's something to do with President Trump's initiative or not. That's what everybody says, but I can't. I've checked on it and I can't get into the portal and everything's frozen out. So we're just going to have to go after another grant to get that done. That's interesting, because that's a state program. It's a farm and a forestry. All right, next. As you know, the volunteer membership is declining. It's increasing costs of medical supplies, mainly due to the pharmacy remanagement. We're trying to build back as much as we can to the patient's health insurance providers as they have health insurance. Many do not, so it's ability to pay and I don't think we're covering a lot of that. The pharmacy rem requirements are an unfunded mandate. These pharmacies are all the agencies that are requiring it. Virginia board of pharmacy, Virginia Department of Health, all the many of the MS line drug enforcement agency. They're all putting the rules out there and they're not giving me the funding to do any of it. If we could invest somehow in a full or part-time grant writer, that would benefit the entire county, not just Fire and EMS. That is, you can probably worry one grant and pay for their whole salary at one time. I think that would be a wise investment. I know we could get some Fire and EMS things Wait. Um, the National Fire Protection Agency, 1710, that addresses the deployment of fire suppression operations, but emergency medical operations, and special operations to the public by career fire departments. Okay, so this portion, I'm calling the contract at EMS service a career response initiative because it's people staffing apparatus trained to respond when the alarm goes off just like a career fire department or EMS agency would do. So the key performers objectives for EMS responses the turnout time is they receive the alarm they give dressed and then they market routes into call. The first responder arrives with an automated external defibrillator or higher capability in four minutes. That's a pretty short time frame. The AAL Advanced Life Support Unit arrives in eight minutes. So the eight minute, just remember the eight minute benchmark for Advanced Life Support units assumes that a first responder minimally equipped with an automatic external defibrillator arrives in four minutes. and so we got eight minutes just remember the eight minute benchmark for advanced life support units assumes that it first respond or minimally equipped with an automatic external the favorite later arrives in four minutes so we got eight minutes let's let's remember eight minutes in the next slide please. Okay so these from 2024 or the average response times of all the agencies but we're going to look at the second one which is EMS EMS, Cameral and EMS. That is countywide, 2024 statistics, and that is that time clock starts when they say we're on the way. And then when they say they're on the scene, it's 14.40 minutes average response. We need to be there in eight minutes. Now a lot of that has to do with where they're strategically placed throughout the county, the annals, as we know. Once in the center 24-7 and then we have three days in Carter'sville for 12 hours and four days in Randolph. So that has to do with that number there. We're going to work on improving that. Okay, next please. NFPA 1720 talks about deployment of fire apparatus to fire, fire suppression operations. So the third one down on the list there is rural area that's us. We're less than 500 people per square mile. Minimum staff to respond to six, but the response time in minutes is 14. Okay, remember 14 and then the next slide. So, Carter'sville, not bad, they're a little bit over, right? Third one down's Kamalun, they're meeting it. And Randolph is meeting it. So that's a success. That's great. That's something to celebrate for the volunteers to get there and do what they need to do. And that's a county-wide average. So I'm proud of that. They're doing well on that. Dear, quick question. As far as the average of call dispatched on scene minutes for the volunteer fire departments, so if Converland is dispatched to back up Carter's bill, is that baked into this number? Or is it just for the first on scene? This first, I just want to click. First on scene. Okay. And there you go. Is that statistic available on the account of assist for the various departments available? When they assist another... Like a mutual laid out accounting response? I can get that. I can get it. I don't mean for the response, but I just made this part of your report so we can, because you've got the primary ones on the call and the statistics are reporting correctly, but we never see the assist. Two other jurisdictions. Where the assist to, even with an error in account, even in the second view. Yeah, yeah, I can get it. So that'd be wonderful, I think it's good to know too. Because I think it's more of an accurate picture of how much a particular firehouse has been used. Just real quick question since we've hit this a couple times. There's a little bit of concern, I eat when to meetings or having people, let's say John Randolph's been a guest, with the radio, the communication, the pages and all this stuff. Not so much with fire chief, let me know, but people within the organization. And I understand too, when I pay fighters, the people we have on limited old recent ones. Right. Is there going to be a meeting with you, fire chiefs, and whoever else, displaying what we need to do right to fire. I understand your limited old radio is a state police stuff. I understand there's some hesitant, as the old folks on the side to make sure they're getting updated and no, they're used to carrying a brick. There are now a meeting, if they lose a radio at $14,000 that they're gonna have to pay for. There's just, we need to have somebody sit everybody down and say, hey, this is really what's gonna happen. The other's gonna be some pain and suffering, but what can we do to alleviate some of the concerns about being notified, sit around the house? People are used to taking these dangers and radiating it to them. And you know, you have those, you talk about response times, to me that affects response rank, and people aren't out getting. So in a perfect world, we'd save money by going on to the state police, certain things, but we also lost some money. So I'm starting to question about maybe it was the right move across the board because connecting and are connecting with other jurisdiction as a concern. But we need to resolve that because we did, we've had several people come to me three more at the firehouse and we also had one that I've known for years come up here and a board supervisor to me and address that concern to it for playing a viscer. Playing a commission? Yeah. So, and they're from the same area and I'm sure you have one I'm sure, you know, but again I do not know the time to amix but that needs to be addressed kind of like yesterday and I know you've heard rumbleings about it, but we're starting to hear more. Right. And I know until it's figured out, we're going to continue to have Romney's there. Right. So April the second, which is the volunteer chief's meeting at the Rescue Squad Building, I've invited state police, project manager Mark Keane there, so he can feel the questions that they have. I have communicated to the chiefs. This is what's getting right and the first thing needs to be done is everybody needs to be finger printed. Some of them don't want to get finger printed so they can't have access to the radio. April 2nd. Yes, sir. That's a state police mandate. Not mine or. Yeah. Yeah. I understand. But sometimes we again we put ourselves in that. Right. Pickle barrel based on what we're using. And it or may not have been the easiest thing but like said I just want to I mean we're dealing with people getting a bond here as I know we're looking at limited money we've got older older groups of people who are used to that sometimes the bias like computer 30 years ago I want a computer and I say you know but so but we need to make sure we're not creating waves and we'll give. Some of that is a lack of communication, sometimes with the chiefs, farjades. And also lack of understanding by the people saying that's really not as bad as it appears today. Because again, we're shifting gears. And nobody knows what we'll get. It's a major shift. Now they're each going to each of the volunteer fire stations is going to get brand new 25 each, pages. They just can't talk on them. And again, I think, again, you can't talk on page anyway. Right. But I guess the sensation is they don't know this or it's not being passed around. Okay. And I think that in itself will passify. Right. In the case you're getting paid, you know, pick a button. Right. You've got a pageer, you know, those things, you know, way back. Oh, yeah, I've had one. That time. I'm so excited. Now we can purchase additional radios that don't have all the functions for them, but that's going to be an additional, you know, for nine thousand a piece. Well they can work that out. The likes of my fingers, disconnect, communication. How much do you piece? Nine thousand. The ones with the portables were getting or nine thousand dollars a piece, but they have everything in them. Everything but the whole scale version. Right, so the other precalities that are getting on the state police system, are they volunteer? Part of the party, sorry, they pay. We are the first. And see, I think that's part of the problem is because this wasn't designed for a rural volunteer fire department because we've got guys that are working their jobs. They're out in the community. They get paid for, or they get called for a fire. Right now they got a radio. Hey, I'm three minutes up the road. I can be there in three minutes. I'm on scene, you know. With these radios, they don't have a way to communicate that. And that's something that, again, I was made aware of several weeks back. And I felt very upset because that wasn't communicated to us when we made the decision to join that program. So again, it doesn't feel like it's designed for a volunteer force. It's designed for guys who are at a firehouse that everybody's paid and everybody's getting a call so you don't have people from all over the community responding. In the connectivity I guess between the dispatchers and jurisdictions and all I don't know. Yeah we're working through that. That's a concern too that I guess people, some of our people just throw their hands up and I don't know I know, I'm lost. And again, I'm not mad, Malik. Just lack of communication and like said, like you know, taking the keys away from your grandma again rather than your mom. Right. And not to come down on you because obviously this was done prior to your arrival. You're just here to fix it. That's right. Question about ambulance. Sorry. And with our contracted EMS, because I know a lot of the issues, or maybe some of the issues we've had with our ambulances have been caused by drivers of DRT. Is there any charge back, any cost recovery per our contract with DRT if they're destroying our equipment? Not that I'm aware of. That being said, we have instituted policies that they're supposed to follow to let us know when there's issues. We've also installed cameras. So three of them? So that we can actually go back and evaluate what happened. Even if there's a hard stop, right. You can pull the video and say, yeah, there was a deer there. So yeah, I mean, there's no cost recovery though. Right, they're tearing it up. They're no skin off their back. Right, but we're still looking to pay on how we are. Paying by a new ambulance. And provide uniforms as they retake their many people through Cumberbersome yeah well I echo what Derek said I say to every chance I get I think you're doing a heck of a job I appreciate and I think we're we're very lucky to have you and I'm I'm excited about things to come me too thank you Thank you for all you did. Thank you. Great. You know, any other questions? You all don't have any more questions. I mean, I think that. I'm just going to circle back around on CIP real quick if you don't have any questions with Darren. I provided a CIP to the board at the first workshop and I've also had the opportunity to present to the planning commission and get their feedback. I was going to share that with the board real quick so that I can go ahead and start working on the county administrators recommended CIP because this was requests. Just some background preliminary requests of CIP presented the board at your workshop on January 23rd. Press the CIP presented presented the planning commission on March 17th with a subsequent workshop held last night. They did provide some feedback. They did group priorities related to the ambulance, the IT switch replacement, the roof of the elementary school, police vehicles and the Luther P. Jackson roof. Remaining items to be pushed out for the years or repairs conducted as failures occur and continue to aggressively see grant funding, corporate partnerships and donations. So you can see the items there that were really focused on from feedback from the PC. I did include a picture of the Paving Work or the lack of Paving Work at Randolph. You can see that that's looking pretty darn rough right now. And we're going to have to do something with that here in the coming weeks. Next steps, any additional board feedback from me on the CIP, and then I can begin preparations for the County Administrator recommended request for 26. So. I'd like to know where the cars that came from Hanover, the police units. So the vet, you know, Sheriff's Asking for how many three? He wants to. He's reduced it. Yep. And he told me we met yesterday and he said that they are not adequate. Even though they are retired police vehicles vehicles from hand over he says he can't use them long I think one was related to the Didn't they break down at the training that they went to it wasn't adequate for them to use at the police again before the Travelling right he can use it as a backup vehicle and a transfer vehicle So there are times when the sheriff's office has to transfer people. They can outfit them and use them for that specific purpose so that helps them in some way, but they can't use it as an everyday type of road vehicle. So it's the same model as they have now. I understand. It's a 2017. That's what he told me yesterday. What's the mileage one? About 90,000 between 90 and 100. And the turn back is 150 because that when they liked her place, when did they say it was a weird number. 100 when they were 70,000 and what the 90. Yeah, it was 150,000 is what we have in our policy. Yeah, it's the same thing with idle time with these people. Look at that, you know, by all interest as ours. And I know that that's a conflict with some of your people's understanding too, but it's amazing. You can keep on 450,000 now. So that's it. Unless you want me to go back. Well the switch replacement too. Is that a Cisco switch? Switch replacements for IT. We'd have to get with Daniel. You asked me about that because you might be able to. Is there a hospital? You Cisco equipment. I've noticed that. So the question is that a Cisco switch. If it is, we should ask for Cisco for a grant. We do have some, but I don't know about that one specifically. Right. When you find out, or if it can be replaced with a Cisco switch, if we use our equipment, can you still get it around? Yeah. I've got it inside. We try. I'm just saying so. my son's a pretty senior person there. Well, Fred's Fred, right? Yeah. I mean, don't hurt that. All right. Beel. Anything else? Any questions? Any concerns? But do we have a motion to join this meeting? So? So much. I guess. I guess. And be able to askn this meeting. So moved. So much of a second. Again. And being in front of me. Hi. Mr. Newman. Mr. Tyree. Hi. Mr. Thompson. Hi. Mr. Saunders. All right. Yes.