Okay. Good evening. I'd like to call the meeting of March 12, 2025 of the Ashland Planning Commission to order and we'll begin with our roll call. Miss Camille. Miss Amy Hay. Here. Mr. Brent Chambers. Here. Miss Linda Wright. Here. Miss Sylviavia Bowman here. Dr. Tim Merrill. Here. Thank you. That seems to help with our determination of quorum, I would say. That we're all present. We have next on the agenda, unless I'm stepping on your toes, Bernie, by claiming that we have quorum based on everybody being here. It's... Wait a minute. Wait a minute. I'm hearing something in the delay. I'm being here. I'm hearing something in delay. I'm running the system. I know it. I want to echoing what's coming out. That's something new. Okay. I don't want to get ahead of our I see system. No, don't apologize. We're recording. I'm in. OK, I was saying I took the lead on determining quorum if that was OK, figuring that we were all here, and that didn't take much complicated math. Let's look through the agenda. If we don't mind a first reviewing what has been presented to us, either in advance of this meeting or here, if any of my commission members or Council member has anything to adjust to the agenda as presented otherwise we'll take a motion to approve as presented I move that we approve the agenda for March 12th 2025 as presented Thanks Linda. Thank you miss. Hey, I Aye. Mr. Cham, Linda. Thank you. Miss Haye. Aye. Mr. Chambers. Aye. Mr. Wright. Aye. Ms. Bowman. Aye. Dr. Merrill. Aye. Motion carries. Thank you, Bernie. Thanks, Linda. So we move to the citizen input portion of the agenda where we invite anybody here who has something to offer that is not already included in the agenda for tonight. We have Ashland by the numbers and a social media presentation. No public hearings or action items, but if anybody would like to speak now as an opportunity, we welcome input from our neighbors and colleagues. Hearing none, we'll close that portion of the citizen input for this evening. And our next agenda item is the presentation of the minutes. So again, from the feels like it's been a little bit since we've met. It was early January. And again, Bernie, thank you for putting together the 15 pages worth of notes. That was a long conversation. But did anybody have any adjustments or corrections or modifications? The only small, and I can't remember the page Bernie, the only small typo that I found, one time Lacey Park was spelled with an E. So find and replace Lacey's, I think just Lacey Y, Washington Park, as it was coming up with our discussion about that part of Asheville. Now we saw that so I think a fine and replace would be easy peasy. Excellent. Any other observations, comments? Other than gratitude, thank you Bernie, that was nice capturing all that. So I'll take a motion to approve the minutes from the 8th. Yeah, I move we approve the minutes from January 8th. Thanks, Brian. Thank you. Ms. Wright. Aye. Ms. Bowman. Aye. Ms. Hay. Aye. Mr. Chambers. Aye. Mr. Dr. Merrill. Aye. Motion carries. Great. Thanks again, Bernie. The presentations section tonight, we have two. I assume we're going to hear from Mr. Bannon first in terms of our order. I should say Mr. Lucker to be official but Ashland by the numbers were We're excited to hear the presentation. Thanks, Bannon. There's spare hard copy floating around burn. That's cool. I guess New Orleans or maybe somewhere in Central America. Let's see. This way. There we go. I'm not too used to Canva yet, so I'm getting used to this presentation mode. Okay. Well, we saw it a minute ago, but now we're back to the desktop. I just didn't recognize it in the finish one, but it's not too much. It looks like the Dunk a comprehensive and We go. All right. Good evening. Good evening. Planting commission. I'm going to present Ashley by the numbers for the 2025. I'm going to take you through a couple of different chapters through this report, trying to provide more of a comprehensive and very top down snapshot of Ashlyn at this time. I understand that this report wasn't done for the last year or so, so this is a collection of data from all years from 2022 to present day. I'm going to, we know Ashland pretty well, but the purpose of this report released to, for those who don't know Ashland very well, and so this introduction section is to provide a brief introduction of the town, introduce our community and our values. And for the purposes of this presentation, I'll go over the data sources I was working with, as I put together. The majority of the support is using census data and Esri data. That's both from the census and also the American Community Survey the ACS. I think it's important to note that since these are, a lot of these are five your estimates. There is a level of margin of error. So, again, I'll stress this that this is a very top-down analysis of Ashland, and so there will be all the data is very generalized. So economic data was also provided from the U.S. Census in Esri, and then I'm going to provide a couple of unique things identified and then some small takeaways as we go through this. All right. Again, just a brief hit again for this introduction, there's a brief overview of the town's history, and then a clarification of the town's mission to provide transparent governance, leadership, and have a efficient delivery of services for this community. All right. We'll start with the town's population. So, the Comprehensive Plan highlights Ashland as a diverse place to live. And through the tracking of population's trends, this can help us identify needs for the public and aspects of the town that we need to adapt to. In the comprehensive plan, the population growth rate is goal is set between 1.25% and 2% annually. I've included a chart of the total population of Ashland from 2000 to now or the most recent data, 2024. You can see a very gradual increase over the last two and a half decades with almost a pretty, I recall a decent increase between 2023 and 2024. Bannon, what's your preference? Would you rather us wait and save questions till you're done so we don't interwrite? Yes, that would be great. Let you get through it. So what we're looking at now is the total some population data. I have an important aspect of Ashland by the numbers that I forgot to mention is that what we What we like to do is compare Ashland to a couple of comparable towns within Virginia And the town selected were farmville Avigdon coal pepper and Perseville And then we also include a handover county in Virginia in the United States just to provide those larger benchmarks to compare Ashland to yeah, Ash will be encircled in red, and sometimes what you'll see is it'll be used as a benchmark that other places will be compared to. So Ashland enjoys steady growth. Excuse me. Fun times with Canva. Sorry, I'm having a good. That's all right. On our screen, we see page. Yeah, so I'm just trying to, I have some notes here that are not on the... Oh, I got you. I got you. Sorry, give me one second. I've only made stuff with Canvas. I've never done a presentation. I've never done an option. I love using it. It makes you feel so creative. Like you can add in all these cool little features that make you feel like a little techie. I think it's better than PowerPoint, maybe. Oh, yeah. It's way better than PowerPoint. I'm like, design, make, made for presentation. Better than what's the Google version? slides? This is for fancy stuff. Yeah Hmm, they have like templates and stuff that you can like copy and they can change different trend. Correct. The template. Correct. Again, apologies. I'm just, does not let me scroll through my notes here. You're doing great so far, whatever you are looking at. If you want to put the notes on the side and the presentation made, we'll have one bother us. We have hard copies too. That's right. Whatever works for you Yeah, we don't mind seeing the notes and the slides Yeah, I just have it on the side here and then I just that's just all so now that's all right Whatever's easiest All right, I think Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that'll work I do apologize. Yep, good there. Nora's ESRI, that labor market data company, is abandoned or with it. I didn't want to throw questions at you. I'm going to hold my questions to the end for your instruction. As I figure this out on the fly here. Yeah. I didn't want to throw one more curve at you while you were navigating. If you don't win. Fritting the notes out, I don't know. Yeah, if you've never tried Canva, you have to show and I think you have to show and I think you have to show and I think you have to show and I think you have to show and I think you have to show and I think you have to show and I think you have to show and I think you have to show and I think you have to show and I think you have to show and I think you have to show and I think you have to show and I think you have to show It makes it just elevates the presentation. It's so effortlessly. It's so good. So good. Let's try. It makes it just elevates the presentation. It's so effortless. You know what I'm talking about. It's so good. You want to try. And it's really. It doesn't look straight like page 234. You can jump around, you've seen some of it. Yeah, I can. I can. I can. I can. I can. I can. that idea is that you scroll through. That must be above my big grade. I just do what I do. Which is. Yeah, the food notes. Well, I think that was on the stake, because on the table, I have this question. I think that was just a... Yeah, that was the... Yeah, that was the same. I have a stuff for later. I'm just gonna... Whichever is... Wait, it's right. That's right. They just have the label. Okay. I'm a, yeah. Yeah. I was looking like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, Okay, I have text and I've got that in. I was, you know, it's still like code. Well, one of my questions is, as well, is a call pattern. A lot of elements that you can add. Why would I call it a dance here? Because it's really times the same. Yeah, like you could pick up this picture and it's like, I want my angrily, like this to a spot even put your pen on the right side of my face. I wish you a background one that would have that when I go to prison. And I feel like it's just like stuff that I've been doing. I am like, I'm not accepting, I'm like, I don't think it. maybe there's a reason why. But then we can see this. It doesn't matter. Or small. Or wasn't letting me go. It's the best. So I think it is it doesn't matter. Or small. Or wasn't letting me go. I don't know the full list. It's the best. Sorry, I think it is the full screen part though. I don't understand. That's what I was just gonna look up. Like Virginia Town sizes to see all of our Virginia cities. I was on the 15th. I think I was on the 20th. Smithfield the floor. I was on the floor. I was on the floor. I was on the floor. I was on the floor. I was on the floor. I was on the floor. I was on the floor. I was on the floor. I was on the floor. I was on the floor. I was on the floor. I you know, thinking about Lexington would be interesting to compare it. That's a college town. Right? Is Lexington? I don't know. I like the great. You know, I don't know. I don't know. Reform the. They got farm. That's right. That's right. Farm for listen. If we're going to, but I think also, of directions would be I can also bridge water bridge water yeah that's what I do now I think it also would be, I can also have bridge water. I don't know, bridge water? Yeah, that's what I do. No, I thought it's smaller, right? Yeah, that's interesting. So we can ask about that when we get to that point. But it was just the call pepper one that in the past has stood out from me. And I thought, why not think about other small or other college towns that are similar size and bridge with the town of Bridgewater, right? It is a little bit smaller. His question if you can answer a bridgeways, what is Ezra's for the Harris? It's really light. That's right. Okay. While we're setting it up, I can actually, what Ezra is is the world's largest geospatial information systems company and what they do is provide a lot. What their main product is, a software called software, primarily ArcGIS Pro, which is a mapping software that I use here. They also do ArcGIS line, which is like a different mapping service, but just through your browser. So a lot of the maps that you've seen through the reports, through planning commission have been made using those services. And so what I also do is collecting compile, a lot of census and ACS data. And what you can do is you'll generate reports based off of your selected area. And so that's what you'll see later on when we actually get this show running is what we've compiled and collected. So I knew that acronym from a labor market data company that used to be ESRI and they changed their name to Lightcast. and so I was curious if it was the market data that you were pulling in. But thanks for teaching me that it's not. Yeah. All right, thank you. All right. Thank you. All right. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Okay. So, I was going through just to catch back up. We were going through starting on taking a look at the population data, and I was explaining that we, what we do is we compare Ashland to some other comparable towns within Virginia, and then also Handover County, Virginia United States. What you're looking at here is a comparison of total population data from 2024, 2023, and then 2020, which was the last major census, and it was what'll be used throughout this presentation. A projection of growth rate, the median age population of from zero to four, our senior population, and then our agenda breakdown of the town. So Ashland has seen some steady growth now with 7,927 residents as of 2024 We've experienced a 0.74% growth rate so a Little a little below what we are target goal in the comprehensive plan, but that is for comparison double roughly double Virginia's and United States's overall. So we're growing much faster than the state and the country for comparison. Since 2020 we've seen 362, roughly 362 residents be added to the town. I can't think of one of the takeaways from here is that Ashland is a growing community and one that is highly valued. So Ashwin has a younger median age compared to Virginia in the United States with a median age of 34 and 34.4 compared to Virginia which is almost 40 and then Virginia which is also almost 40. We have slightly lower the amount of children's age zero to four, with 4.7% of our population or on 371 children, compared to Virginia, that would be Virginia's which is 5.5. We do however have a slightly larger senior population within the town 18.2% of our residents are 65 or older that's around 1,0444 43 residents of the town compared to the Virginia that's 17.5 but Actually below the United States which is at 18.4. Our population is, would majority female with 4,071 residents, and then with males, 3,856. And that's roughly on par with Virginia as a state. Comparing our growth to our peers, we're outpacing areas like Coal Pepper and we're outpacing places like Coal Pepper and also way outpacing areas like Farmville and Addington. So some of the kind of takeaways from why are we growing much faster? It would be our general location, our location to I-95, our proximity to Richmond as people move and spread from an urban center. We are seeing the scent of the ripple effects of that growth. So I'm going to move on to our next slide here. And I'll try to help understand that gender breakdown, also a cause to our growth rate and median age. And next we're going to look at a breakdown of race within the town. Our white population has increased from 2020 to 2023, increasing from 67.1% to 70%, while our African American population has remained roughly around 21%. Our Hispanic population has increased from 11% to 12.3%, And then what's really been interesting to me is some of these smaller groups have really expanded. Our age population has almost tripled from 96 residents to 284 residents. Almost a 2% increase Our native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander total population also increased from 0.4 to 1.1 and what is categorized as other races not included in this chart has also increased. This is the, these, you'll see a lot of charts like this and this is where I've pulled in these reports from Ezre and so what something I wanted to incorporate into this report is an understanding of our at risk population and this is a variety of different categories of people including households with a disability, the elderly, households of the vehicle, households below the poverty level and then people who do not have English as a primary language. But I find very interesting about this is our 13-percent population of households below the poverty level, significant aspect, significant element of Ashlands makeup. And then also 112 of those households do not currently have a vehicle, I think, providing transportation options for these households can be a priority of the town, provide a lot of impact. So moving on to, I'll backwards. All right, moving on to housing. The Comprehensive Plans, as written in the Comprehensive Planner, the town's commitment is to providing more investment into higher value homes, primarily single-family homes, into the town of Ashland, to kind of balance out our current housing stack. And so we'll look at some more data that will break down the housing element of Ashland. Again, we'll be comparing to those other previous towns. So Ashland as experience, the growth in total housing units since 2020, a 5.1% increase from 3,025 in 2020 to 3,079 homes in 2024. And that's outpacing coal pepper and handover county as a whole. The medium home value, this is something you were interested in when I asked you in January's meeting. The medium home value is $335,523. And homeowners spend around 34% of their income on their mortgage within the town of Ashland. This is compared to 24.9% compared to the state. As we provide a data that's called the affordability Index, the explanation is below, but it starts at 100 and it tries to represent where a B in income is sufficient to qualify for a loan for a home at the media home price. So anything greater than 100 indicates that the housing stock in an area is more affordable on average, when anything lower than 100 would indicate that it's less affordable on average. So Ashland is at a currently at a 74. That's compared to Virginia's 86 and Hanover's 107. We're going to, I think that is an element of this data that we'll definitely want to deeper into further, as affordable to how that doesn't. So, so, so, Percival with the average, the median home, home value is 665,000, but they have nearly 100%. So their incomes are just so much greater than what they were. Yes. So they can afford, they can afford that as well. That's correct. That's correct. That's part of their. Percival is located on Northern Virginia. Yeah. The, yes, much is a much wealthier area. So that definitely has excused that index a little bit. So I think it's important to keep in mind. Owner occupied units within the town of Ashland have increased 18.5% from 10478 in 2020 to 10751 in 2024 and the total number of renter occupied units within the town has actually decreased since 2020 down from 1,308 units to 1,226 units. Yeah, thanks, Panne. That's what, so, so, so, renter and do, renter, yeah. I'm gonna knock out this one. I'm gonna knock it out. Okay. Just moving on what units went away. I know we've had some significant rent increases and upgrades and apartments and things, but that's two feels like two big and number to be some random houses that are owned and used to be rented. Taking a look at some more housing data, we're thinking looking at more household specific data now. As you'll see now, the, we're now using Ashland as the benchmark to compare to other localities. So, Ashland's medium household income is around $61,000 and with that disposable income, around $51,000. The average household size is about 2.25 people. And that's actually a slight decrease since 2020, which was at 2.28. And the, Inc, the median household income is actually happy to see that is increased since 2022 from $58,904 to $61,388. So, Ben, I'll go back, that 12.7% on the far right, that jibes with the 13% from the SRI, is that sort of measuring the same thing? Households below the poverty level at 13%. Those are for different years. Okay, but sort of measuring the same thing? Yes. Okay. So I mean close enough for me. Yes. Okay. Because I was curious about the comparison. I'm excited. I got you to other to these other areas. So thank you. Thank you. You got it. Okay. Is the housing affordability index the higher was was the more affordable right? Correct. Yes. So even the Housing so much more expensive a handover they make so much for money. So that's why it's more affordable The houses are less than it is striking to people can right that's a dramatic compared to me Yes, the median household income. Yeah, it's such an odd I'm like yeah, that's a big difference. Because a few Gucci ones probably big on the two wires that ski. I'm like you. That's a big difference. Yeah, it's a big difference. Because a few... Gucci ones probably have a big on-liers that skew. Right. A really big problem. Thanks, Bannon. I know we're supposed to hold our questions. I apologize. Oh, we're... I know you're all very... This is... Good stuff. This is good stuff. That's right. Amy's reminding us. This is now more of a again moving to this Report on the housing market and some of the takeaways that are to, as a percent of income, though average home value is around $400,000 or below primarily within the town. Most of the property built within the town was built between 1980 and 1989. With about 10% built within the next decade, the next decade and the decade after that. Again, we see kind of this disparity between, I guess, these two housing markets of Ashland where mortgage as a presented salary is either on one side or the other. It's either roughly around 10 or 14% or it's much over 50%. And like home value, right? That mirrors that either 400,000 or this big chunk under 50,000. Yeah, this good stuff, thanks. Kind of looking into this business, elements of home ownership, the majority of homes, majority of home owner, majority of people within the town of Ashland own their homes at 58.8%. Specifically a call out to Hispanic owner ownership of the 14.6% Hispanic people who own homes in Ashland, the majority actually rent versus own their home. Majority of homeowners are white within the town of Ashland and on average much older, around 65 to 74. I said, people around my age, not as likely to own a home. Yeah, that's right. Majority of people who own a home in Ashland moved in between 2010 and 2017. Wow. That's interesting. Rising. And the majority of vacant housing units are once for rent. That's a neat style. What's for rent? They are the the majority. They can. Yes, so rent. Well, this high-metership, that's increased. I think in the last one, because that was about 50%. And then we have a chart on the bottom looking at the growth of rent within the town, roughly around 1,200 to 1,500 dollars. Yeah, that's cool stuff. So moving into the breakdown of the economy for the town of Ashland, it is of course the town school to provide a strong economy for its communities. So one aspect of this report is that I have asked our economic economic I've asked Kelly, Kelly Frankie, to give me the totals for business licenses, both renewed and new within the town for the last two years. So we've actually seen a small decline in the amount of total business licenses within the town from more than 23 to 409. So there were 46 new licenses in 2023 and then 47 new licenses within 2024. Only 362 licenses are very renewed in 2024. So that's where that decline occurred. But we are adding businesses roughly the same frame. Looking at this map that I pulled from, our census data is a map of employment density within the town. It was the recent year they had was 2022. You can see where the majority of jobs are located within the town, right in that core, and then upward are along Route 1, and then concertrater Route 1, which is probably of no surprise to everyone here, but it's still interesting to see visualized. And so now moving into a breakdown of the labor force. So R, I'm on a... And so now moving into a breakdown of the labor force. So our unemployment rate is slightly above the US average, but just ever so slightly at 3.7% compared to 3.6%. Our labor force participation rate is at 62.8%, which this roughly aligns with the U.S. average, especially for small towns. Well, what's classified as, I guess, prime age workers between 25 and 54. We're seeing an 88.9% participation rate. So so that's the core of our economic activity, which is, see, perfectly healthy. I think what stood out to me the most was kind of this gender disparity between with employment. So men in the town, CS 6.8% unemployment rate versus women who are at a rate of 0.9%. Women also saw a 67% participation rate within the town and is pretty incredible. I think kind of taking a look at employment based on race. We still see that black community members are experiencing an 11.8% unemployment rate and that's nine times higher than white workers within the town. Sorry, just to make sure I'm just for clarity, is this black age 16 and up, that's not the same as the 16 and up at the, oh, the 16 and up is all the categories. That's correct. It's all pro, it's the total, yeah, it's the total. So this is the total, okay. Okay. Yeah, I was, I think I was to add a little bit of the next thing to see. So, I'm going to add a little bit of the next thing to see. So, I'm going to add a little bit of the next thing to see. So, I'm going to add a little bit of the next thing to see. So, I'm going to add a little bit of the next thing to see. So, I'm going to add a little bit of the next thing to see. Workers between the ages of 16 and 24 have the lowest participation rate between 43.2%, which makes a lot of sense. Most of them are either in school or in schools. You see a lot of maybe that can be an opportunity of a town focused on I think the internships or apprenticeships. If we have so many, if we have this high rate and people, young people looking for employment opportunities within the town. Kind of mirroring nationwide trends, seniors are staying in the workforce for longer and longer. 31% of the town of Ashland seniors remain in the labor force. This could be for economic for out of economic necessity. We'd have to dig more deeper into that, but it was something I found rather interesting with it. Within this data. Is that specified between full time and part time work or just work period? I just work period, Okay. Does not specify Couple maps here to break up the numerous charts we have so on the on the left here we have a of a shows that kind of it's a heat map of all the businesses within the town. Again, it's no surprise to see Route one heavily heavily lit up and also the downtown heavily lit up Comparatively and I kind of mirrors that employment density we were looking at earlier and also what we're looking at on the right is a map of the daytime population of the town daytime population Is the total amount of people that are within the town during working hours? So we see that concentration up at the Up at the top of Ashland here and then around the bottom, which makes... So, breaking down employment data by industry. What we see here is the largest section of Ashlands industry is kind of a tie between retail and manufacturing and then we also have a large section dedicated to professional scientific and management administration and waste management services which is in my opinion a very large category of groups but this is how it's done in the census. And then we also have a rather large population within arts and entertainment and recreation and food services. services. So those are kind of our main, main four pillars of industry within the town. What you'll see here is kind of a fluctuate between 2010, 2020 and then 2023. I'm going to have to look more into why certain industries have seen such growth or seen decreased within this time period. on to education within the town. 63.06% of adults within the town of Ashwin only have a high school diploma. That's above Virginia's percentage, that's 21%. the town 5.41% of people lack a diploma. That's higher than Virginia's average. And also Percival, which is the town we were talking about earlier, is average. 8.71% of people holding a least an associate's degree. That's above Virginia's average and Copepers average. What I found interesting is that Ashland kind of starts to lag behind when it comes to to bachelor's and graduate degrees. So, we are at 21.59% of people who have a bachelor's or bachelor's degree, that's compared to Virginia, which is at 24% and then Hane River County, which is almost at 28%. This could be for a number of reasons, just a lack of those opportunities to utilize those degrees within the town. It's also entirely possible when these people are moving away from the town and search of other opportunities. So a potential brain drain away from the town. Sure. So what is the missing percentages? Up at the top? Yeah. So why don't they add up to it? Yes. So we are I'm using Ashland as the benchmark. Okay. So the above and below benchmark doesn't exist for Ashland because we are the benchmark. When it comes to graduate, specifically graduate degree and professional degrees within the town, we're at 14.9% of people. Virginia as a whole is at%. So we'll for roughly 4% difference and then In Percival, like we talked about as highly educated, they're at 25% through that very drastic difference in community type. Okay. I didn't know this, but Ashson actually has three different school districts within it. So we have Elmont Elementary School, the Henley Gray, Henley Gray, John M. Gandy, which is now New Ashland Elementary District, and then the Cursey Creek Elementary School. And taking a look at the total number of children enrolled within the different grades within Ashland. We have 43 students in nursery school, 277 children between an elementary school. In middle school, it's 158 students, and then in high school, it's 381 students. That's within the town boundary. Taking a look at some statistics from the college, Randolph-Macon has seen a lot of growth, especially within the last year. You can see the total head count kind of jump up there right at the end, but it's still following that, um, quite, um, almost, uh, pretty linear increase since 2019. Um, uh, I found this interesting is that they've now started their, um, offering professional degrees at the town. So now, uh, at the college, and now you'll see that reflected in their total head count. Um, and again, the jump again, the jump is much more noticeable here as well. Yeah, worth one weird reporting here. 2010, that's something. 2010. How much? A majority of the, yeah. So the last thing we're going to end on transportation and health within the town. On the right here looking at the Fall Line Trail. Ashland of course is incorporating the Trial Line Trail into Fall Line Trail. We've completed, we've done our part and so we look forward to having that as accessible as an amenity for the town. I pull kind of some report related to commuter data within the town. So the vast of almost three quarters of people still drive by themselves to work. Around 8.4% are core pooling, only half a percent are biking to work, 8% of people are walking to work and then 1% of people are taking public transportation. The majority of people are taking around 25 minutes to get to work. I'm happy to contribute to that aspect of the chart. And these are town residents traveling in the race. Yes, out of town. 20 minutes to Richmond or whatever. OK. I'm hoping the 1% of people who are taking public transportation are incorporating the use of the GRTC's link micro transit service, which is now operating within the town. This is a point-to-point service. That's correct. Residents can operate the app to request pickup from any location and then can be transported within the service area to multiple different locations and now it has been connected to the GRTC's fixed service for more access transportation within the region. Some historical traffic data for the town, you'll see 95 pretty clearly within the town and then the majority of our traffic still resides on Route 1 and then within the downtown around the downtown district. There's nothing about it. I pulled this, this is our breakdown of all of our parks within the town. and trails within the town where parks and trails within the town, where they're located. Yeah, we got to update this with the new Berkeley Park now. Yes, right? And finally, I'm going to end on some information regarding health care and insurance within the town. So at least by age range, 19.1% of people younger than 19 have health, have at least one type of health insurance, between the ages of 1934, that jumps up to 24 and then drops off a little between 35 and 64 and then at 65% that number completely falls off to 8%. As a percentage of the population stays at the youngest it's 20.5. From 19 to 34, it's at 34% and then at 28.3% 35 to 64. You'll see the largest percentage of people are between 19 and 34. That's about 66.4% of people who do not have any form of health insurance whatsoever. Almost half of people within the town exercise at home, at least twice per week, with 12.3% of people who exercise at a gym or a club, at least two times a week. Kind of looking at a breakdown of Medicare within the town, 550 residents are Medicare only, 206 are direct perched and Medicare, 198 are employer and Medicare and that's kind of reflecting we talked about earlier with that larger senior population you would continue to work and then 28 are Medicare and Medicaid. And this is kind of an annual expenditure within residents that the town, what they expect to pay between different appointments, different testing and such. The average person within the town spends around 4,000, 84 on their health, and then specifically roughly 2,000 on medical care. And that's the end of my report. And now you get to ask me. That's a lot, Bannon. Nice job. That was a very comprehensive report. Nicely done. Nicely done. And then, so for minor things like, caught typos and stuff, should we email them to you? Should we assume you'll catch them and read through? Write it on your packet, if you want to keep that packet you can also just email me them. Okay. That would be great Yeah, just notice a couple of things on slides that sort of stuff I have a few bigger questions, but we can start Sylvie if you have some yeah Just could go back to education. I still don't understand why we're missing 27% because that's a bigger group than any single group. Which one? On page 21? Yes, on page 21. So these groups add up to like 73%. What am I missing? Which, so? So the ad there's up, it doesn't get 100%. Yeah, it goes to 73. I was just wondering what I was maybe not seeing earth. There's a group that got left off of the chart or something. No, I think it's sort of an alignment with the state. Is that sort of what you're pointing out that? No, I'm saying that the percentages don't add up to 100 across the top. But maybe the group is missing. But this is of people. These are people who got something. Yeah, so 70% of the top. But maybe the group is missing isn't it. But this is of people. These are people who these are people who got something. Yeah. So so 70% of the population don't have a don't have any of these degrees. But this one is no diploma. Which one? Oh, the very first one. I thought it was high school or no, but they didn't complete the high school diploma. Got it. I think 27% of people didn't attend high school. I mean, that would be the biggest group missing, just 27%. I think the rest of it would be under. What's that 25% and up every single category? No, under the age. This is 25 and over. These are all 25 and up. So shouldn't it be ratioed percentage of? No, I think they're saying the rest the population is under 25 so they're not included in this You're only counting if you're 25 years or older but then you should but if your compares comparing what percentages have what you should Maybe I'm understanding it wrong no because our Population that's under 25 would be different from Percivil and other counties so they're're saying these categories, that ratio percentage compared to those counties. I think that's, that's exactly it. Okay. So 27% is under 25, that's what you're saying. Okay. Interesting. Okay, that helps. Thank you. Anything else, Sylvia? That's the other. That's the other. That's the other or other things you deserve. And I'm happy to tweak. I think that is, I think to your credit. I think that is kind of confusing from this chart. And I might be dead. Yeah, I just thought that like, tweak that and make that more clear. I did write related to that though. I think, Bannon, you did a nice job of summarizing in person some of the highlights. I do think a bullet or two on each, if this is gonna be a produced PDF or something as a report, I do think a bullet or two on each, if this is gonna be a produced PDF or something as a report, I do think some of your insight to a company, these tables is helpful. Not a whole paragraph, but maybe to address Sylvia's observation, just clarified, we are only talking about. Yes, originally to a peak blind, I I had a lot of this written out yeah, I was a little too much too too much next okay, so yeah I think I'm he take away one or two yeah, so one more than on page eight Our when you have Divided by ethnicity are some people represented in both? Yeah, I saw that to their way. It adds to like 120%. Yeah, some people are represented. Some people. So that would be another clarification. So two or more races. To not expect it to total 100 because you can be. I think that's it. Like when you see percentages, you expect that it's a percent of the 100. Yeah, because I was trying to jive that with, well, if there was a three percentage point increase in That's what I like to like everybody increase everybody only one small The peak freeze look small That ratio up correctly. Yeah, that's what I thought it Yeah, so just clarification you should respect it to add to 100 because of XYZ Thanks Linda did you have some observations you want to make? No, I think I really need to look I think I need to look it over a little bit more. I think I like the way you've highlighted some different things. I have to dig into it and offer a happy event. What's our timeline? You're presenting this to us, we should ask, as if we were given the opportunity to give you some feedback and input. is there a timeline you want us to operate within in terms of getting you? I will also be doing this presentation to Townsend. It's that we don't have a set. Okay. So we have a little bit of a... It may, so yes. All right, so that's the time. Yes, granted the time to go through this and email you with some thoughts. Yes, please. OK. Other quick observations, Linda, I can ask. I think I will take advantage of sending some notes. I like some of the different breakouts and different ways of showing the data. In some cases, as we've seen, it then raises a question like, why did, why did Randolph Macon's population drop so much in 2010 and why is, you know, how do we have this many houses that are less than $50,000 and things like that, which would probably make more sense to kind of lame out and you can do more research when you figure out, is the numbers right and that needs a bullet? Is there something missing or is it some double counted or whatever? But overall it's really I always love this Part of the year because it's really interesting to see the numbers and try to try to see what we can glean from the The trends or the changes. Yeah, so Amy any Overall observations from you or specifics you want to speak to? No, I think it's great. OK. I will give my feedback to I think the big things that I saw as I love the opportunity at the beginning to be included in terms of the comprehensive plan was referenced a couple of times. And I think it would be great to have a part at the beginning where you say just the guiding principles of the comprehensive plan or some acknowledgement, that that's another one of, I mean, because it's personally me, I feel like that's one of the things that can influence and impact some of this. I would also be curious we were sort of snickering nuts. We were discussing this very professionally while you were working with your time about the rationale behind the choices that were made for comparison purposes. Sure. So as we went through the data, the Perseville one was striking to me, because they seem to be very much of an outlier in some of this data. Maybe there's a reason in a rationale behind why they were selected originally. And the same with Culpepper. Those two to me stood out as not quite as equivalent to Ashland. And maybe there's a history as to why they were chosen originally. but we were sort of thinking Lexington, Virginia is a college town that's about the same size as Ashland. Franklin, Virginia is about the same size as Ashland and Crozet even is about the same. So again, I would welcome the opportunity to learn why it was these one, two, three, four, four comparison towns. And if we have to hold on to those for some reason, if it's in town code or something that I don't know about. Oh, no. So these were towns selected in previous reports. Yeah. So I was working on that. That's a history, sure. So we lose that historical connection. But again, this is, I appreciate your, I'm gonna appreciate and you feature feedback and I appreciate your current feedback on this. This is my like first crack at really yeah, adding together. No, and it's great, right? And again, overwhelmingly yeah, really impressed, but just for my, I guess we've seen this in prior years, but this is my first real engagement with it and nor is tired of hearing all the details, specific comments from me perhaps, but when you all give me something to look at, I really wanna give you some thoughtful feedback. So I'll send this stuff to you, Ben, and this was really great. I was so excited by the ESRI data that you included that was really thoughtful. I have seen somewhere and for your consideration, I'll include this. Some sort of sense of you had the travel mileage down and I've seen some report that sort of indicates direction of where people are traveling. So when you choose to leave Ashland for work, I would guess most people travel south, but I also know people go to Fredericksburg, people go west, people go east, people go all the way to DC. And so I've seen a fun visualization that kind of presents and maybe all that'll be on me to go see if I can find that. But if you have seen it, I thought that would sort of add a fun bit of information about if people choose to leave town to go to work, where are we primarily going, which direction are we traveling in? And then I had one other that I thought would be fun. You know, I love maps, so that I think the other, oh, the other observation was just, I think when we were thinking about the rationale of our comparison towns, Linda had to teach me that Percivil is near Fairfax. In Fairfax. Thank, loud and counting. Loud and counting. Would you have any more? I didn't even know that. But I think it would be fun to say a state map here. Here's an Ashland again, center of everything. And then here are comparison towns dropped on a map somewhere, just an idea of another visualization. But I'll send you this stuff. That's a good idea. Just sort of a friendly. Right, geographic. Yeah. Because Abbington's in Southwest Virginia, and you can see there's numbers going down. right. It's a beautiful little town but it's declining and then. And South Boston used to show up sometimes and that was always kind of quirky to me. I thought on some of, maybe not this comparison. Well, it was quite a bit larger. Well, it was bigger. So I'll send these to you in an email but fantastic. Yeah, but really fun to see this information presented this way. So great. Great job. Thank. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it nicely done So Miss Cornelius are you addressing us about this social media Elected officials presentation with your name or is the same as I'm doing. Oh, you're gonna simple it is. Great. Okay. In your packets was just a real brief staff memo and the actual social media for elected officials appointed members of public bodies, you know, the actual document that the town council adopted. That's right. It is on the agenda because this is my formal way of dotting my eyes and crossmanatees that we have officially informed you that there is a social media policy and it is on record. There's no need to adopt or approve. This is just an information piece. Acknowledgement over. We're sorry. And please, in the memo I gave you a link. If you want further details besides just the text of the memo, Martha Miller gave a presentation to town council and it will link to her more personable explanation. That's great. And she's also happy to answer any questions at any time if you all have any. Yeah, that's great. Any questions from the commissioners? I did glance at that in the packet. And it seemed to be just sort of providing some guidance about careful behavior or appropriate behavior. So it's going to change Amy's millions of Instagram followers. Right? You'll have to adjust that. OK, so no questions on that policy. OK, we don't have any official public hearing or action items, so those parts of the agenda unless something's changed in the last few minutes that I didn't know about. We'll move on to our report of committee's section then and ask Council Member Barnhart to. It's nice to see you on. It's hard to believe it's March. Where's it going? But anyway, Patriot Glen is going to be coming. The proposal will be coming in front of town council next week. We had to defer that because we were unable to sufficiently advertise because of all that wonderful snow that we enjoyed. So it will be next Tuesday. We will have that on our agenda. Also, just a couple of things that have really nothing to do with planning. If there's anyone interested in running for town council, we are going to have two seats that will be up this fall. If you're interested or know anyone that you think would be wonderful and needs to consider, all the information is on the town website, but you're welcome to call. If you want to talk to someone directly, I know that Doug Munger-Goodman would be happy to chat with anyone about the process and answer any questions that you may have, which also brings me to our citizen leadership academy. If you haven't done that, it's a six-week program that talks about, shows you, walks through all the different aspects of the town government. It's really a great program. It gives you a wonderful appreciation for how effective our town government is and how efficient our town government is. I think there are two spots still available. There were as of last evening, if anyone's interested in that, call Martha Miller or again it's on the town website. So those are the only things I want to share with you. All right. Any questions from the commissioners? Anita, can you remind me, it's coming the Patriot gland particularly, because we've spent a lot of time on that. It's coming back to the council. Is, can you tell me what the council is, what the council's options are for that presentation? I am, but where is she? Okay, I would like to have Nora do it only because I want to make sure that everything's done correctly. Yeah, I got that. He's been working very closely with that gentleman. Yes, and so has Mr. Lockert. Yeah. A lot of work and there have been some changes. I think changes that you all would have appreciated. The public hearing is on the 8th at 630 in front of the town council so if you'd like to come and hear the updated presentation or provide input to the town council that is your opportunity. They have now formally given a transportation proper in the amount of $4,000 per unit plus $200,000 for the commercial. They have committed to do at least 50% of the commercial before doing more than 50% of the residential and they have gotten rid of all of the town homes. They are now down to a density of two units per acre. So staff is now recommending approval of the proposal and it will go to council like I said next Tuesday. So we chance of us seeing it again then are low. I don't think it will be coming back. Okay. Okay. What was the acreage before? The acreage. The acreage. The acreage. It would be something. Two point three. Yeah, before. Okay. with the entity, two point three. Yeah, me. Oh, okay. So it's down to one, two point. Yeah, I think you're the numbers now. You said, was it one, 31 when it came to them and now it's one, 14? Number of units? No, like three months ago. Yes. And now it's one, 14. Right, right. And I thank you for doing that. I haven't seen that yet, so I wanted to make sure it was correct. I know we spent a lot of time on that, and I think mostly we were encouraged, but I just was wondering what the council would be considering. There were a few things missing from the application last month, and wasn't necessarily snow. The Richmond times dispatch. I don't know if you've noticed we haven't gotten a mechanics bill local in a while so they had a cyber issue perhaps. Yes, one of the company that puts everything together had a set was attacked. Yeah, and so our, yes, snow sounds better but so that's one of the reasons you haven't seen them at Kingsville local. They still, it's our understanding they're still not being published so we are now putting all our ads just in the Richmond times to Spanish. But they are supposed to start publishing again next week. Fingers crossed. Yeah. This may be, and you can tell me if this is inappropriate to ask, is there any sense of the volume of public comments delivered before, not what people are saying, but I'm curious if there's. Shocking in the Mew. We sent letters out every time there's no caring there have been a lot of them right a lot of communication about this I was just curious and put it all okay yeah all right it's on our website it's in the paper and everybody's gotten a dozen letters yeah I was just curious about okay thanks yeah okay, so actually plan RVA is next on the agenda. Unless Nora, you're ready to roll and Brent wants to defer. All right. Mr. Chambers, Flora Zures about plan RVA. Thank you. I did not bring my notes from the most recent plan RVA meeting, so I don't have any particular updates. I think I mentioned last time that we've moved regular cadence to be every other month, so there's been less meetings to talk about here recently. The plan RBA does a community outreach meeting, and that's actually me this Friday down at the Convention Center. They've changed the name to exchange, I think, but the idea is to working with various community groups, let people be more aware of what plan RVA does and to have various speakers and things like that. So it's a broadly open day from, I believe, 9 to 2. I think a Convention Center is this Friday. So. I will say, I think plan RVA was mentioned. Linda remind me, you and I went to, I think since the last time we were together, the Richmond Housing Authority meeting. Is that it? For housing, affordable and. And plan RVA was referenced a couple of times in that. Josh was there and Steve was there and. It was a really fabulous keynote. Yeah, it was a great address. Anyway, I was thinking when you were mentioning no updates, I was thinking about that meeting, but I was some glad we attended that. Any questions for Brent? Thanks, Brent. And the director's report from Miss Amos. Okay, okay. I will say, I to say Bravo to the other. Again, he took our old model and revamped it a little. I would ask that you wait two or three weeks to do too much review of the document, because I think we'll make some tweaks on now that we've presented it and had some questions. Let us make some tweaks before you do too much work on it, and we'll send it back out to you. Remind me the audience of that Nora, it's designed for... It's a public town primarily. Right, to go to koanas and the Ruaton and share with folks who may not realize what our poverty rate is, may not realize what our population looks like or about housing issues. So we really just wanna educate people who may just be living in their little bubble that Ashland is a little bit bigger and what our issues are. That's great. It accomplishes that. Is there a suggestion of frequency? We've been doing it annually because of staffing issues and because there was some hold up from the census 2020, that information didn't come out and it got leaked slowly in 22 and 23. We put it off and then we had staffing loss and so. Now we're back on we would like to do it annually in July and one of the things I think we'll add is making sure that you have that 10 year comparison so what happened 10 years ago or it might be 2010 or 2014 compared to 2024. Great, great, great. Thank you. But excellent work. I'm so excited about it. Yeah, very much. So in your manager report, happy to answer any questions you have with the manager report. Is this lovely little flyer? We have this on our website. If you go to the QR code, it's on our website. If you could please, please, please share this with all your friends and neighbors. If you live in the historic district or your property owner in the historic district, you should have received this flyer or you will be in a day or two. Hope Becker in our office has put together in coordination with the Black Heritage Society and the Ashland Museum, historic district kind of education seminars. So we have a significant inventory of historic properties. And unfortunately over the past 15, 20 years, we've lost some, and whether that be through demolition, or we've lost their contributing status because replacements have been made to roofs or windows or porches or significant changes have been made that make them no longer contributing historic structure. And so we would like to kind of educate folks on the possibilities of historic preservation and renovation and the fact that it doesn't necessarily have to be too expensive. We can help you find ways to do it more affordably and to get historic tax credits. And also just educating folks on what is appropriate and what that impact is, not just to your property, but to the town historic district townwide. Tom Wolf, who I'm sure many of you know, is going to help us in making training videos and we'll have those available on YouTube. The kickoff session is more of a fun wine and cheese session at Caravades on March 27th at 530. So hopefully you can join us. We'll have representatives from the Department of Historic Resources and the Caravades will be there to give tours and kind of speak to what they do because historic preservation is what they do. And then we have several speakers lined up through June. If you have any questions, please let me know or I think hopes contact you as down there on the bottom. Next is, I don't know. Council member Barnhart, I don't think you mentioned budget. If she did mention budget, I want to mention it again because it's important. And there is a work session coming up. They just held one last night. There's another work session on the 25th. That's where I'll be presenting mine. And as well as some of our community groups will be there to present their request. And so this is a great opportunity for you all to provide feedback. I don't know if you've ever seen Mr. Ferris budget schedule, but he kind of says, this is great time. the okay time, please don't come and talk anymore. So we're in the, this is great time. So if you have any input on the budget I mean this is what determines what happens in the next year and where we're spending our money and what improvements happen so remind me of that the budget the 25th at 6 o'clock I think here here do you You know, is it six, six o'clock? Here. Yes, sir. Great. Thank you. So to Randolph-Macon updates, they announced yesterday that they have hired Dr. Michael Hill as their 16th president. And we are working and hopefully we'll be participating in a celebration for Bob Lingerin coming up in, I believe, April. So there is a lovely video. We can send that out, kind of introducing Dr. Hill to the community. I thought it was really well done and we're excited to partner with him and work with him in the future. One of the things we're working, gonna be working with him on is the implementation of the master plan. So next week we'll have what I believe is the formal presentation from the consultant to the master plan committee. And then after that I have let them know that they need to bring it to a planning commission and maybe town council to get adopted through the comprehensive plan. And so yes, say that again about the meeting. Is that just for the town? No, next week is there's a master planning steering committee. The steering committee is meeting next week. I don't know anything about this. I'm just curious. It's representative. We have a community representative. I'm on it and then there are people from all the different departments from the college. Yeah. Okay. And so that is next week and they will present the draft and then I don't know what the college has to do to get that approved but then we'll also bring it to you all. Great. I did talk to Mr. Young about doing a joint work session with the Planning Commission and Town Council before it comes through a public meeting. Yeah. We will keep you informed of that. Ashlyn and its Wheats update. I can't remember what I told you last time but we went to court a week or two ago and I'd say we won because they were convicted of what we charged them with and they had six weeks. Oh, it's a year. I, I like that. All right, we don't need the details. So the issues were maintenance and safety violations. So they have six weeks to mitigate those. We had already given them several years. And so if within the six weeks those aren't mitigated, the town and county will jointly go to demolish the building in probably middle of May. And so that's already being advertised. It is my understanding that the property may also be foreclosed on by a lean holder. Wow. So. What built? You just said some building. Ashland in its weeds? Oh, you said it's a one week. Did I still some building? No, no. I said. I was just a waste. I was like, are you a fan? I'm sorry. I am. Yes. The one behind Fenera. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Could I show some building? No, I said. I should say something. So I was like, are you a man's heart? I am, yes, the one behind Fenera. That's Ben. Yes. Yes, yes. The turquins. Excuse me, the turquins. It used to be happening. We, and here's some, you might want to write down dates, exciting stuff. And we can send this out to you as well. Around the table is having their ribbon cutting for their expansion, the Economic Development Authority gave them $20,000 in a grant to expand over to, if you're looking at around the table, to the right, is having their ribbon cutting for their expansion. The Economic Development Authority gave them $20,000 in a grant to expand over to, if you're looking at, around the table. To the right, there was a barbershop, and so they've expanded into there. There's additional eating space, and some storage area, and they have an office now. And so we're excited to cut the ribbon on that and celebrate with Amy and her partners tomorrow at 11 o'clock. 11 a.m. And then Harris Automotive is now at 10389 Dowgill that used to be Honda repair location. And now Mr. Harris has taken over and we are having a ribbon cutting for him on the 17th at 9 a.m. We invite you to all of our ribbon cuttings. There are a lot of fun and exciting. And then last but not least, the Berkeley Town Heritage Park is having their big grand opening. It's already open. You can go up there, you can walk. It's beautiful. We're still working on signage and such. But all that will be done and we'll have a big celebration on April 19th. Do we know the time that one? What was that? I think it's at 11, but that is a TBD, but it will be on our website. Yeah. That's right. And so last but not least, kind of getting back to these historic district sessions, we do not have anything for your agenda next month. If you would like us to find a speaker and bring to you, we could, or I could suggest that you attend some of these sessions in a place of a meeting if you would like. Yeah. Or you don't have to. So we're unlikely to have an April planning commission meeting as what you were saying. We have no action or agenda items for you. If you would like us to find someone to come and present to you, we can or you can take the month off. I know you were off last month as well, so it's up to you. The only one out, no, I don't need to have a meeting for the sake of a meeting, but I think learning more about the budget would be great. So I... I know you were off last month as well, so it's up to you. The only one, and no, I don't need to have a meeting for the sake of a meeting, but I think learning more about the budget would be great. So I made a note to try to come to the budget meeting on the 18th, but I wonder about our discussion. That would happen later, anyway. The 10-month-old. Budget meetings on the 25th. 25th, sorry, 25th, that's right. That's good. So now we won't need anything, but I was just curious about that. And we possibly may have an additional work session about the master plan. 25th, sorry, 25th, that's right. That's good. So now we won't need anything, but I was just curious about it. And we possibly may have an additional work session about the master plan, right? Is that what you said? Yes, we might. It would probably be late. In a bit, right? Yeah, yes, yeah. But that would be great. Make it great. And if you're interested in the departments that presented last night, that should be available shortly on our website if you wanted to watch the video for the budget presentation. If it's a copy paste exercise when you were talking about all the significant population of historic homes, I was thinking that would be another nifty point of information for Ashen by the numbers. Oh absolutely. Right. Just not to create more work for Bannon. He has already created a map for us. Last one, I think he created a map for us. We can include that in there. That would be a key point to include, right, to remind people that we do have this population of historic homes. Great idea. So, it would be good. Thanks, Nora. Any questions from the commissioners to Nora? I have a compliment for Nora. to the committee on the planning commissioner class, the first half of the class. Oh, wonderful. Probably were like 60 people in the room. Oh, yeah, the VCU class. Yes. And they mentioned Ashland three times the first day. Will Clockton? I might be friends with them. Oh, because they know. Yeah. He's the only Nora. So the guy that was sitting next to me is like, oh great, and Ashley did again. It was like for you, like the smart kid without having to do the homework was like, yes, like for Ashley. So they had a big screen up, they had three master strategic comprehensive plans that were the examples. Well, was Ashley? So it was just really, it was great. So high praise, so it was definitely, I just thought that was something really fun to share. Yay. That is good. That is good to share. And I'm so thankful that you're able to attend. No, I was just, I've shifted my view. I wrote a minute in message about... definitely I just thought that was something really fun to share. That is good. That is good to share. And I'm so thankful that you're able to attend. No, I've shifted my view. I wrote a message about the other day saying it's really, it's like you're looking at it from the inside. It's just really, I've learned a lot. I really appreciate it. That's a great class. That's really how much I didn't know. Linda, for me, yes, it is. Amy, have you done that class? No, I do it actually April. Oh good, you're signed up. It's got her books. I do, yes, I do. Oh good, that'll be all of us. Shoot, it adult. Amy, have you done that? No, I do it actually April. Oh good. You're signed up. It's got her books. I do. Yes, it's like a tea party. Oh good. That'll be all of us. Shoot. I did it in my book still run about Virginia Tech. Oh, I mean enrichment but it was the Virginia Tech but it's the same content. It was probably the same content. But you'll be the teacher's pet now. Yeah, I was just really nice to be. They saw so many nice things. He really had so many kind of things to say about Ashland specifically Nora. I just wanted to pass that wonderful compliment on to you. Oh, Nora. Other notes of interest or comments? Just I will say please put the 29th and 30th of March on your calendar, the 29th, the Secretariat, or Virginia is having a party at Oakdale. It will be, it's a $100 ticket to raise money just to maintain the statue and clean them in, you know, whatever maintenance. It should be a great party. It's gonna be a lot of fun, and you can go online, Secretariat, not the Ashland website, but the Secretariat website, part me to purchase your tickets. And then on Sunday the 30th, 11th, four, all kinds of activities. We can't have just one day to celebrate secretariat. We have to have multiple days. So on the 30th, there are going to be some activities around the statue from 11th, four. The movie is going to show cupcakes, good things. It's going to be a lot of fun. Right, so if we don't meet in April, we won't get a chance to talk or hear about the train day, right? Because train day is April, right? So another thing for the record. And I think they still, they need a lot of volunteers. So if someone has a few minutes here, they would really appreciate it. Right. Okay. Great. Thank you for that. Lots going on. That's good.