Yes, sir, Mr. Bikesman, whenever you're ready. I'd like to welcome you to the May 20th town council meeting. I'm your vice mayor, not your mayor. Mayor Trevette is at home with his wife providing care. She had surgery today. I think he's in the right place. I'm going to try to fill his shoes. If you don't have an agenda, there are genders in the hallway. We usually start our meetings with a moment of silence, given the mayor's lead, what asked us to think about the caregivers in our lives that have provided for the health and the quality of life in this community. A moment of silence please. Thank you very much. Sparn Hart, would you like to lead us in? I'd be happy to stand if you are able. I pledge allegiance to the lie of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Thank you. Under announcement of Council business, we have the minutes from our May 6th town council meeting to approve under consent agenda. We have three end voices for Italian Armstrong to approve, one to cover water line betterment on England Street and 2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2 one item for council information to pay Mullins marking ink for pavement marking throughout the town. Later on the agenda, we have a presentation, the reading of the public works, Proclamation, which is part of the consent agenda. And then Council recognition of 2025 community leadership academy graduates. Welcome to you all this evening. We'll have an opportunity after the presentation for citizen input. Citizen input is intended to provide an opportunity comment on something that's not on the agenda. So that is your opportunity. And then we have the public hearing on ordinance 2020-5-04 public camping. Following that, we have an action item to reappoint members of the Planning Commission. And then reports from the Planning Department, the Finance Department, the Police Department, is the agenda sufficient for council? Yes. Yes. Thank you. Do I hear a motion? Mr. Mayor, I move to approve the consent agenda and pay the invoices as presented. I second. Mr. Clerk. Vice Mayor Hodges. Aye. Dr. McGraw. Aye. Ms. Barnhart. Aye. Ms. Soapall. Aye. Mayor Trevett is absent. Next under presentation I've asked Ms. Soapall if he would read public worksclamation for us. Okay. Whereas the town of Ashland relies heavily on public works, infrastructure, facilities, and services for the health, safety, and well-being of residents, visitors, and commerce. And whereas public works, employees dedicate their time and expertise to planning, designing, building, operating, and building local streets, sidewalks, stormwater facilities, public buildings, and other infrastructure. And whereas it is in the public interest for citizens and civic leaders to maintain an awareness of public works, needs, and programs in order to support the best options for the town. And whereas this year marks the 65th anniversary of the American Public Works Association's National Public Works Week. Now therefore, on behalf of the Ashland Town Council, we do hereby express the gratitude of our community to our local public works employees and proclaims the week of May 18th through May 25th, 2025 as public works week in the town of Ashland. In doing so, the Council calls upon all citizens and civic organizations to equate themselves with the issues involved in providing the Public Works services upon which we all depend and to recognize the contribution public works officials make each day to preserve and improve our health, safety, comfort, and quality of life. Data at this 20th day of May 2025, Stephen P. Trivett Mayor. Thank you, Mr. Fowl. Thank you, Ms. Sofall. Applause And thank you to our public works department, all the good work they did. The next item on the agenda is council recognition of the 2025 community leadership academy graduates. We're happy to recognize the 19 community members who participated in 2025 Leadership Academy. This program ran for six consecutive Monday evenings with the participants being exposed to all facets of town government. That's a lot. As a council, we thank each of you for your dedication and look forward to ways we can involve you in the future. It does make you eligible for consideration for committees and other things we hope you continue your participation. I'm going to recognize Ms. Martha Miller to give a quick overview and then recognize the participants. Thank you members of council and to our graduates who are here this evening. We had a really great group this year and we're really excited they're here to join us. Some of them with their family is recognition for all they accomplished. As you all know, CLA is a great pipeline for public service. And a lot of our CLA graduates go on to serve on our boards and commissions as well as many on our town council. Miss Sopal being one of our more recent graduates ahead of her election here to our town council. So again, we thank them for their civic involvement. Mr. Goodman is gonna read their names and those that are present, I ask that they come up and receive their certificate as well as their official CLA swag t-shirt that they can sport around town. It's a hot item. and those that are present, I ask that they come up and receive their certificate, as well as their official CLA swag t-shirt that they can sport around town. It's a hot item, and you only get it by completing CLA, not available for purchase. And then at the end, I would ask our CLA members to join me outside for a group photograph. All right, thank you. Mr. Terry, a brief. And I'd like to recognize the former council member, Mr. Obrey. Yeah, it's OK to plot. Thank you, Mr. Obrey. Mr. Scott Anderson. Mr. Stewart-Bahn. Mark, if I get your name wrong, please apologize. Colleges, and Big Orr. Miss Sylvia Bowman. Miss Melanie Gubbles-Bump. Mr. John Cross. Mr. Dean Decreece. Mr. Dairy Edwards. Cynthia Folly Miss Trish Higgins Miss Paula Long Gwendolyn Merrill. Ms. Michelle Proctor. Ms. Natalie Quintana. Miss Charlene Smith. Miss Jennifer Smith. Wic stands Mary. And Miss Mary Walker. What's up? Is that the last? And sure, that's the last one. Please stand. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. It's a big part of what makes Ashland a special place to live is willingness of folks to get involved like these. The next item on the agenda is citizen input. It's an opportunity to comment on any item not already on the agenda. Is there anyone who would like to comment during citizen time on any item? It's not on the agenda. Not seeing any. I will close citizen input and move on to the public hearing. It's my understanding that there will be a staff presentation and then we'll open the public hearing for comments. And if council members have any questions, just let me know. Thank you, Mr. Ferrer. Yes. And I will say throughout this council, if you have questions throughout the presentation, don't feel the need to wait till the end, jump right in. I'm happy to try to answer them on the fly. But tonight we have a much shorter presentation for you following up on our discussion from May 6th. My intent tonight is give you much less background, touch a little bit on what's happened since the May 6th meeting, but also go into a little bit more detail about the ordinance specifically because that is the acute issue that's on the agenda tonight. Give you a little bit of a summary of what the ordinance does do. And then we'll put it in front of council and provide you some options for how to move forward through motions. So as we discussed on May 6th, town staff, six to probably nine months ago started receiving significantly more calls from residents and business owners concerned with both public people camping on public land but also storage of personal property on public land. So once we started seeing that the issue was coming to the attention of the community, we did what we would normally do for many of these types of things, it started to look internally of what the staff have available to try to address the issue. We've done that review and I'll touch on that a little bit here but then we also knew that we had to reach out to resource providers and our partners in the county to make sure that this is a full picture, not just the town trying to go it alone. So as we move through the background here, this is the same slide as last time. I do want to review it so that there's a few updates here. We saw it as we had two options. There's an enforcement route and then also a non-enforcement option on the enforcement side. The screen. it so there were a few updates here. We saw it as we had two options. There's an enforcement route and then also a non-enforcement option on the enforcement side. The Supreme Court case grants pass versus Johnson did allow local governments to restrict camping on public land. And so our ordinance that we have in front of you tonight is specifically drafted based on that Supreme Court decision and that gives us pretty strong feeling that we would be confident to go through a constitutional scrutiny if someone did challenge that particular ordinance where you pass it. So that will go over the details of that in a little bit but do want to provide more background on the non-enforcement side. We talk about improvements to the high impact areas and generally even though we don't have slides on at this time The concentration focus here is bordered by junction drive, cottage, dream, green, drive, hillcorder parkway, and route 54 And so one of the thought things that we could do is go ahead and actually start to improve that area ourselves When I look at that, I see it through two lenses one One, just do a cleanup. That's pretty easy to do. And we'll go ahead and do that. But also, when we talk about improvements to the area, the town for actually many years now has had a plan to improve the trail and the stream in that area to make it the kind of east-west version of the North South Fall line trail and rail side trail. In addition to that, we hope to be able to connect it to each of the businesses so that you could hop off the highway, get your sandwich, and rather than eating your car in the restaurant, take a walk, enjoy getting your dog stretch their legs, and be able to go out there. I do want to be very clear though, we do not have funding for that right now. It's in a plan. It's not at the executable stage, but it is what our plan was for that area. In the second bullet, we talked about this last time as well, the public information campaign with the focus being trying to encourage local folks who are giving directly to individuals in need to reconsider that donation and potentially give it to a service provider where they can actually, rather than meeting maybe the acute need of the day, try to actually help the folks get to a better place in life and largely be able to use those donations as whether it be flexible funding or for service provision. On that point, we do have a few updates, a few things have happened since the last meeting. So as I mentioned last time, we will staff are looking at draft MOUs largely so that we can have an agreement by which the Ashron Foundation ultimately even though it would have town input would be giving out any funds that they raise. So we're working on that. We also the same week as the May 6th meeting, the Ashron Foundation which is a 501C3 that the town works with. We've perpitched to them being the basically financial warehouse for this endeavor and they did vote to approve that and so they will be happy to take those donations and for zero administrative costs pass it on to the service provider of the town or action foundations choosing. And then finally on that note, we've also made some progress on the campaign end of that where we've got a draft, it's not live yet because we haven't released the campaign. Donation website where you can go in and actually get to the website on the foundation, gives a nice background of why you would want to potentially give there and the reasoning for it. So we are making progress on the staff side to start working on the things that we identified on May 6th. And then the last one on there, and we talked about that last time, was to outreach to Hanover County and our regional providers to assess other options. As we continue moving through, when we did talk to those providers, we went over that last time and then you heard from those providers in the room at the last meeting but this slide for me is largely intended to give a little bit of what I hope will come out of the next few months as we try to work with groups of people to address the non-enforcement side of this issue. And so we are hoping that we can assemble the right people in the right room that can actually try to make a dent in this issue. I don't want to certainly want to be the one to choose those. I think the folks who are actually doing the work know best who can actually move the needle on this. So Miss Miller will certainly be working with those folks over the next few months. It's my hope that what comes out of that is two things. The first being all the other options you heard beyond just service provision whether it's housing, whether it's camping, all those types of things. Let's just develop the list so that we can actually understand the options available to us. staff and the group can do a little assessment of whether those are applicable and really work for the town size and scale and bring them to town council for recommendations. In addition to that, this is direct response to some of the council members. I think the folks in the room at the last meeting did a good job of giving us a wide breadth of what options are available and the services they're available, but I don't think I've been able to articulate to council a really clear path of how that process works. We find someone who's in need, you check in here, they move to here, they move to here, some kind of flow chart service provision, even if it's a narrative to help council better understand how this process works that they're eventually going to support. And so I think that's something that could certainly be done over the next few months. And so we also committed that we would come back to you based on your vote tonight in July. I'm expecting that to be the July 15th down council meeting where we would report out on all the things that we've shared with you on this slide. And so that is the regional approach. Obviously a lot of that will be dictated by the expertise in the room of the stakeholders. At this point, I can't tell you what will come out of that meeting, but we hope we can use their expertise to assist in this way. So as we move from what we've done in the past, what the app ordinance in front of you actually says, it largely addresses two issues. The first of which is the storage of personal property on public land. And I'll just go through some of the bullets here of how that technically works even though the ordinance is in your packet as well. So basically you may not leave public or property unattended between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. on public property without approval. And a couple of you have asked what does that mean? That is largely to give us the out for special events, those types of things. If Miss Richards wanted to hold a camp overnight day in Carter Park, we wouldn't be going against our own ordinance, those types of things. We will at the point at which we find the public property, and don't know where the owner is, post notice for 24 hours, and that basically means put a sticker, a letter, a note there in addition to that at that same time they would inform local service providers of the location of the property and largely that's to kind of bank on the connections that those service providers already have. There's a good chance that they may have more access to contact information, may know the individuals that had been in that area already and again, trying to make it as easy as possible to get it back once the town has eventually taken it. So after 24 hours, we would remove and store the property. In accordance with our unclean property process, this is a very common thing for us in our police department. We've been doing it for years. The most common item actually may actually be bicycles. They often either get stolen in or left places and we have to find those and take care of them. But we've done it, other instances, and even as recently as I believe it was late March, had to remove property that was stored and appropriately on public land, and the individual was able to access it and get it back several days later. And so that's the personal property side of the equation. The other part that addresses is camping on public land. The generic details of that are it may not sleep on public property again without approval. The campsite property will be treated in accordance with the previous slide. If we go there and find trash, we'll get rid of the trash. If there's personal property, we'll be clothing, rail, tent, all that, we would treat just as we would the public property mentioned in the last slide. We talked about this last time, but first offense would be a class three misdemeanor, but the Commonwealth's attorney has agreed to a deferred judgment of six months, which basically means where you, to talk to the judge and it would be your first offense, you would essentially be allowed to not go to jail or have a criminal conviction or pay a fine, instead you just need to move your stuff and not do it again for six months. I will be honest and say thereafter a second offense is going to be a class two misdemeanor and the third offense would be a class one misdemeanor. So as we've gone through this, what to expect going forward. May 20th, the expectation tonight is we do want to hear from you on do you want to adopt an ordinance and then if so what's the timing of that? Do you want to do it now? Do you want to delay implementation? Do you want to defer your vote? So we'd be interested in hearing from council on that. And then May through July and town staff will coordinate with local stakeholders, try to do all those meetings that we talked about so that we can be available for you on July 15th To come back and report back on all that information I shared and then August or later depending on what your vote is Implementation of the ordinance would actually begin depending on what your vote would be So with that town staff's recommendation is adoption of ordinance 2025 04 as presented with an effective date of August 1. And you'll see here there are other motions that you can somewhat pick your own adventure and choose as you see fit where you would like to take this. With that, I'll take any questions you may have. Are there any questions for town manager at this time? Just Dr. McGraw. Yeah, I'm just curious. Why the 24-hour notice? What makes that the magic number? I don't know that it's a magic number in legal accounts or reviewing multiple ordinances as we were looking at this. That kind of seemed to be the most common or the consensus pick of what other localities have done. You could certainly extend that time. I would recommend not decreasing that time in any way. Right. Yeah. I'll just chime in real quick. So all the statutes involved involve reasonable notice, but the statutes don't define what reasonable notice is, but all of every case I've ever found or anything like that, 24 hours is usually consider reasonable notice. It's consider reasonable notice if you had an operable motor vehicle statute, for instance, where someone has a bunch of, you know, cars up on center blocks in their front yard. Browers of reasonable notice to tell them you need to get you need to move this longer we're gonna tell it or remove it so that's usually that's 24 hours is usually reasonable notice for these types of kind of hygiene police type police just in the sense of keeping things tidy statutes or ordinance. I was just curious that didn't I was trying to figure that out. And then the second thing onto that, if this were approved, would APD be storing the personal property for an extra number of time and how long would that be? I believe, and Chief Aaron Holt, I may need to look to you or tolly here for the time frame, but that property would actually be stored up at the town shop. It's locked, gated, access there, and we would keep it in an area where it wouldn't be subject to weather or anything like that. I did make note in one of the previous slides that we will have to purchase a few more containers that are more suitable for kind of someone's personal property than some of other property that we've had to get in the back pass but that won't be a heavy lift. Do you have any info on time frame? or containers that are more suitable for kind of someone's personal property than some of the other property that we've had to get in the past, but that won't be a heavy lift. Do you have any info on time frame? Yes, sir, Mr. Mayor. State code, Virginia State code 15.2, 17.19 requires for us to maintain our private property for no less than 60 days. 60 days? Then we would have to send out reasonable notice and defer that any property is not clean. We have to make a we have to make it allowance for the State Treasury Department whether or not they will accept it or not. After that it can be summarily destroyed after the commons attorney determines it's not needed in any future prosecution. I could chief. Any other questions before we open the public hearing? Not seeing any. So at this point I'm going to ask or I'm going to open the public hearing at S that when you speak that you identify yourself and provide an address for the court. Are there any folks here present who would like to address council on this ordinance? Thank you Dr. Cook. Patricia Cook for a two Virginia Street. I would like to recommend that you defer the consideration of the issue till August 5th so that it would give the stakeholders time to figure out what options are because it could be that we come back and say recommend that you add some more language to the ordinance in terms of what things can happen beforehand. And then you wouldn't be in a situation where you've already approved something and going back to renovate it. As I said at the last meeting, I personally am very against the public camping part of the ordinance because I don't think it that we want to, I don't think it moves people from homelessness to being housed. Right. It actually to me creates a barrier to them being housed, especially if they get to the second or third class to misdemeanors. It keeps them out of public housing in most communities around the state for the rest of their life. So it's not something to me. We's some opportunity to make that better. There are opportunities, I think, to take the resources we have without adding additional resources, financial or manpower and streamline them and let them work together better and let them cooperate better to actually address the situation that the person's in. I am not in any way saying we can solve the problem of homelessness. Homelessness is a growing problem across the country. In the first five months of this year we've had 152 outreach requests at our agency that serves this area as well as Richmond and Reiko Chesterfield last year, the same time period we had about 50. So it has tripled in the number of outreach requests that we get. It is a growing problem. There are many, many people out there that are one step away from being unhoused. And so I think it's a good time to take a thoughtful look at how we can bring the limited resources we have together in the best way for them to be synergistic. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Cook. For clarification, the number was 152 this year and 50 last year. Yes. I just want to make sure I got the number correct. Yes. Record. Thank you. Anyone else to speak to this issue? I know we had a number of speakers at our last meeting. In some ways, the de facto hearing of this ordinance, so there's a lot in the record but yes this sir please join us. My name is a neutral tell of the street outreach work with the day of the minutes I agree that I do not live in this town so I would have no vote here but I would just say just say that I hope, sorry, can you hear me? I would just say that we have been making an effort to continue to work with other agencies and all around different agencies that be coming out. So if just we could show even more numbers outside of the average requests, just to see who we've been up and what we've been trying and what has been working and what hasn't been working. So I would encourage a little bit. I know we haven't been here consistently, but we will continue to come out with other agencies and coordinate as much as we can if given. I appreciate it it. Thank you. Thank you. I'm Macon Compton. Any? Yes. My name is Betty Hayes. I work with moments of hope. I'm sorry. Could you wait for me? Thank you. Betty Hayes, moments of hope outreach. I live right outside the town limits on ash kick road. I cut through Hill Carter Parkway. That's my way to work. I cannot speak as eloquently, but I will say please, please defer. Give us time to put something in place. The agencies really do work together to make this happen. I don't think I have a day that goes by that I don't get called by social services in Hanover County. I got a call today, went out. Just please give us some time to figure some things out and you'll realize that we are working as hard as we can, but it requires the people that we're trying to help to work equally as hard to overcome some obstacles. And I also agree that once you get banned from section 8 housing, you don't have a choice below income. If you think about your own families and you think about that one person that is a mom and a dad and two kids and they're working a basic job and they're making $15 an hour and they're paying for two kids in daycare and their car breaks down and their insurance goes up. It doesn't take but one paycheck for that family that's in your family to be homeless. One hospital visit that you don't pay a bill can get your power cut off. Please, please, please defer. Please think about it. Please give us time to make things a little more understandable for the people. Thank you. Anyone else who would like to speak? My name is Charles Strashley. I live at 402 Duncan Street. And I come in from a more ecological viewpoint. Mansions Creek is the beautiful little creek. And it has been, you know, has trash in it now. And I would encourage the town to appropriate funds and to, the high impact area, as they say, to discourage the homeless from camping in this area. I actually investigated after seeing the pictures of the different camping locations. And I've lived here 50 years, not even where this trail was. And it's hard to find. It's not the first signage is inside away from the road and you don't even see it. And there's several entrances to it. And they're all from the back parking lots of what you see the Ponderosa. And Mar and Marcos Italian place and the Chick-fil-A and the Popeyes. They all have trails back into that area and I only found two active camps. I mean at night I'm sure they're more but there's one was a small tent and it had a bicycle which was chained up. And the other was a very large tent that has power running to it from the Chick-fil-A light fixture that's in their parking lot. That's glaming in my world. But I took the issue up with the Virginia Master Naturalist and I take care of the Bluebird Trails, one right here in the town council outside here. And I took it up with the Master Naturalist President that could we take this all on as a project to help clean up this stream. And they said, well, what we normally do is we partner with a friends of the park, like Brian Park has friends of Brian Park, and we go over there and pull out invasive species that clean up the lakes and streams there. And they do that all over the Richmond. And I think if we organize to like a friends of the parks in Ashland, we could help out the town to clean up this area and keep it clean. And if it was a little bit more signage and kept up there is one trash can back there. I'm sure the town empty set out because it was empty. I filled it up with things. But it would be used by people that are in hotels and you know that don't come into the downtown area. They're just maybe spending one night here. And if people look at their dog there or something and use this trail more, I think it would discourage the hump from camping in that area also. Thank you. Any other comments? Patricia Higgins, Ashland Presbyterian Church. Just wanted to point out, make sure that everyone was aware that not only before the May 6th meeting, but significantly since then, there has been an increasing momentum of interest among different providers, agencies, churches here in Ashland. And also a group of students that Randolph-Macon College have formed an organization with this as their focus called Hearts to Hands. I don't know if you've heard about that. Hearts to Hands. Hearts to Hands. And its focus is meeting needs of the homeless in the community. And they will be another ally in all of this effort together. So I would also ask to please consider deferring until August 5th and allow all of us to be able to work together. Thank you so much. Thank you very much, Siggins. The opportunity is still there. You would like to comment. You don't have to comment. Good afternoon, everyone. I would also just like to. Can you identify yourself? Oh, I'm sorry. My name is Michelle Proctor. My address is 13429 Kerasway. I would also like to encourage you guys to defer the decision to after or on August the 5th. Definitely the goal would be, if you arrest someone in violation of the ordinance, you wanna have a plan in place to ensure that, you know, they're not a repeat offender. I think it would be beneficial to the community of Ashland and to that individual. And it sounds like there's a lot of people that are working to come up with a plan that will be doable. So I would just like to ask that you defer the decision. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Going. Going. I don't see anyone else. I would ask the clerk. He's advised council that we've received written correspondence and as in the meeting that we had earlier in the month those that didn't show had the opportunity to have their comments read. I would point out that we had I think 11 speakers at our last meeting commenting on this ordinance and I understand that the clerk has a way of linking that information to this public hearing so they can those comments presumably can be incorporated by reference. Yes sir I will make sure that's reflected in the minutes tonight that a hyperlink will be placed from the comments that were made on the May 6 meeting to ensure they aren't lost in this meeting. Yes. Would you like to go ahead and? Yes, sir. We received one piece of public correspondence before 3pm today that I will read as we have done in our past practice. This letter comes from David F. Vaughan of 221 Thompson Street, Ashland, Virginia, 23005. five, addressed to me assistant town manager, Town of Ashland, 121 Thompson Street, Ashland, Virginia, 2, 3, 0, 0, 5. Addressed to me, Assistant Town Manager, Town of Ashland, 121 Thompson Street, Ashland, Virginia, 2, 3, 0, 0, 5. With the intent to share with Council. Dear Mr. Goodman, I attended the Town Council meeting on May 6. I was somewhat confused by the makeup of individuals who step forward to voice their opinions. Only a few town residents, but a never ending line of representatives from establishments who have interest within the town. Asking for understanding on behalf of the homeless and non-government organizations, requesting enhanced programs that would further fund activities on behalf of the homeless, none of which live here. How did the representatives and NGOs come to inform the town business? Question mark. During the open comment, Tom, one resident encouraged council to adopt an ordinance to address public camping, i.e. homelessness. I was subsequently informed that after my departure, one council member mentioned that the actual residents of the town of Ashland should be considered. The residents who pay staff salaries, infrastructure costs, EMS services, et cetera. It is my understanding that the charge of the town council is ultimately the welfare of the town residents. I heard nothing about the welfare of the town residents from the NGO representatives. And NGO representative made the comment directly to me, maybe quote, maybe I should find out what side of the fence you're on so I can decide whether I want to sit next to you, end quote. I've refrained. I heard suggestions of creating a homeless community paid for by the town. That has worked out so well in Portland, Seattle and LA, like Moss to a flame. Build it and they will come. Another NGO stated that was not fair to police officers to make them enforce a public camping ordinance. I argue it is plain disrespectful to ask them to keep addressing the same problems associated with this situation over and over and over dot dot dot. At what point does the town show our officers the support they deserve by addressing the root of the problem. NGO say an ordinance will only punish the poor while the next speaker to step forward declared there is no need for an ordinance because the homeless are making progress in the town. And yet the town manager says the homeless and national have been offered help and they do not want it. So the NGOs declare there needs to be more programs, really, question mark. I have seen the inexperienced property firsthand. People in poverty accept help and do not want to dive further into that existence. My father had a rule he would help anyone he could if they were willing to help themselves first. That rule included his own son. No need for an ordinance because of progress, question mark. I conclude an ordinance would have no effect on the homeless under that premise. Therefore, the ordinance would serve to protect the residents of the town. If the NGOs are making such progress currently, there should be no homeless population as a result. And if they are not making progress, why not? Question mark. It always seems to come down to throw more money at it. Who are the true benefactors of that philosophy? RMC was represented and stated that we, the town, should be compassionate. I argue that RMC with its background of wealth should convert an old dorm for the homeless. They can provide housing, food, medical care, and training by degree seeking students so that the homeless participants can learn life skills and progress forward. Yep, that is complicated. First, the homeless that exist in town do not want help. They want to be left alone. Second, and is probably more disgusting, that not in my backyard mentality. It's accepted, acceptable if it's not in my backyard. As long as general crime theft, begging, drug use, and everything else, everything that walks hand in hand with homelessness stays predominantly near Walmart. It is acceptable. If the homeless do not camp it on the town hall long. As long as crime theft and drug use do not set up shop in the downtown shopping district, then out of sight out of mine and the Norman Rockwell mindset continues. Town Councils should consider the main tax base of our town, this area between Route 1 and 95. Personally I'm tired of seeing the trash and being approached for money, when all I want is the gallon of milk. Honestly I worry about about the time me saying no to giving money goes terribly wrong. Ashland does not need to be the spotlight of the sanctuary city for people who refused to help and are unwilling to help themselves to start with. I can only assume that allowing public to occupy public, excuse me, I can only assume that allowing someone to occupy public land as a domicile would compromise the identity of the public land and convert it to a private holding. Permits would only further identify the land as private. They have a lease situation. Please support the residents of the town of Ash when the ordinance against public camping. The residents, you know the people you seek out when the next election comes up. I'm willing to bet not a single campaign speech has ever been given next to a contaminated stream, next to a Walmart. Respectfully, David Fon, that is the only written correspondence we received before 3PM today. I can ask Goodman that would close the public hearing officially and bring it to council. They obviously have a number of options. We've had a number of, I think, excellent presentations to prepare us for this. It's not an easy issue, that's what everyone has impressed upon us, but it is an issue we need to deal with. Council members, do you have any thoughts? I have a comment. I just want to say that I moved to the town of Ashland 41 years ago and I was told that camping in town existed. I didn't believe it because I did not see evidence of it. I have known though for quite some time that it was and is happening here in town. I don't think numbers are decreasing when it comes to people camping in town. It has not been safe for residents, people walking in town, and visitors to allow this to continue happening. What needs to happen before something is actually done? Are we thinking about their safety? Are we thinking about having safe access to places here in town? Is it safe for a visitor to leave a hotel room not knowing this town? And they want to walk down Hill Carter Parkway or Ashland Junction to get where they need to go. You know, if the weather's good, they say, let's go out for a nice walk. Maybe they want to walk and they don't want to drive. Last night though, I thought about an incident that happened a few years ago. I was shopping at Walmart at night, and I was going into the store. A lady was standing to the left of the door. I had seen her working there many times, but I never had conversation with her. She was crying, and I stopped and asked what's wrong. And she said her ride didn't come to pick her up from work, and she didn't have a way home. So I asked, where do you live? And she said, I live over there behind food lion in the apartments. And I thought to myself, that's not far, because I would walk if I was her, but I thought that's not far, she could really walk. And then she did not want to walk the way that she needed to walk to get home. She would either have to go down, her old Carter Parkway or Ashland Junction to get to her apartment behind food lying. My husband was with me and I thought, well, you know, since he's with me, I feel safe, so I'm going to offer her a ride home. When I told my husband we needed to take her home, he said, okay, I'll go in the store and you do what you need to do and I'll just wait until you come back. So that's not what I plan for him to do. I had a weird feeling about taking her home because I didn't know her, but I took her home anyway. We the members of Ashland Town Council are elected by the residents of this town. We have to think about what's best for them when we make decisions, and we have to think about what's best for our town. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Silver. Thank you. Any other council member comments? I'll be happy. We'll go right in. It's hard. Chiam right in there. One of the themes that I took from our last town council meeting was that of being compassionate. And I have to ask myself the question of how compassionate are we when we are dealing with the five to seven people that are camped out on our town property. I do want to emphasize that here on town, I believe we are an extremely compassionate group because we wouldn't be struggling trying to find the perfect solution to this. And we realize that there's not a perfect solution, but we are certainly trying our best to find a solution that is going to meet the needs of everyone. Since our last meeting, it's been over 90 degrees some days. We've had several inches of rain. We've had severe weather watches. And that's just the beginning of the weather that we're going to experience over the next few months into summer. I also think about all the snow days that the kids enjoyed this past winter, but those folks were out there in that weather, which was extremely cold, obviously, with lots of snow and ice, et cetera. I just don't think it's very compassionate for us to turn a blind eye when they're out there living in unsanitary conditions. And as I know one of the members of our public has spoken, has mentioned this evening, that's an area that we're concerned with as far as the environmental concerns that are taking place. I also think if we don't do something about the situation, what happens if, what happens if something occurs and someone becomes ill or they die or someone is hurt, then that is also going to be our responsibility to deal with that and that's something that I know I don't want to deal with. And as Miss Opel said, we are responsible for 7,800 people in this community. Those are the folks that do pay taxes and they want this living situation addressed and they're the voting community that put us. And I've said, you need to make decisions for us and sometimes they're not fun and sometimes they're extremely difficult. I've had a lot of reflection over the last two weeks on this and I bounced around a little bit because again, I'm trying to find that perfect answer. But I'm in support of this ordinance passing so that we are going to eliminate encampment. I believe that if we pass this ordinance and I wrote down here a deadline, I don't think there's a big deal between August 1st and August 5th, I'm very comfortable with August 5th, but I think it's, I'm of the opinion that it's gonna be a starting point for us. It's gonna be a starting point for our town, our community, our faith-based organizations, for us, like I said before, to join together with our resources because each of us have a piece of the puzzle and we can address this very important concern. My concern is if we delay this situation and addressing this situation, we're just going to continue to kick the can down the road and then we we are not going to tackle a very difficult problem. Thank you, Ms. Marlowe. Thank you. Dr. McGraw. I know it's unusual, but could I ask a question of one of the people who spoke just because it will help me. Would you like to yield your time for the last one, too? Yes, Dr. Cook. Could you come back up, just draw's, I'm listening to any objections from Council. Well, I don't have any objections. No. Okay. Because I wrestle with this and you gave me a lot of information when you sent us your first email and I'm not at a place where I feel like I've done my due diligence enough to have enough confidence, but I'm cute right now. It may change to this discussion. But you mentioned August 5th as a time to defer. What would happen between now and August 5th that would happen that wasn't able to happen prior? My thought would be that we can have a series of, like, Mr. Ferrar suggested, have a series of meetings with the stakeholders to figure out is this, what's our best response? What is there anything we can offer alongside, in addition to or instead of this ordinance? And just a little more time to think because I feel like this has unrolled relatively quickly. The first time that we got involved was at the end of April. I think it was the 27th, 28th, something like that. And then we had the last town council meeting and honestly I've had a really busy two weeks and I haven't. Understand. It's okay. Engaged in that task force yet because I don't think we've quite made the task force yet. Okay. Thank you. I just, just, just, Sherryson, that was just the one that, thank you. I don't know if I want to continue, but I just, that's what I needed to, to hear. Thank you. And I still have quite a few things. Oh, we're here. Not done. And the vice mayor has comments coming. Excellent. I want to start with the vice mayor because you you are in my head a lot when we come to things like this, that we don't zone land. I mean, we don't zone people, we zone land. And I say this because I was having a conversation with my own pastor, and the compassion piece came out of Mr. England, who was a homeless man, who recently passed. And I believe his family, like the England street, is connected with the name of that young, according to my pastor, what he was saying, I don't know the story. I didn't know him as much, but it was, when people say, well, this is an Ashland, if we, I can see the, I can see the compared, like this is, we have street names after family members that have found themselves there. However, with that, I do think there needs to be some type of enforcement as you've mentioned, Mr. Manager, because in our conversations that came across it, while our town members will go out and try to make arrangements to help people in the need, they don't always take advantage of it, and without having an ordinance, there doesn't seem to be much that could be done. And having an ordinance, I think also, I think it gives an impetus to some of the nonprofits to say, hey, we've been talking about it. Now let's be about it. Let's go do it. Or maybe they're already doing it. And I don't know what they're doing. And now they can share with what they're doing. And so I think I noticed that there's going to be a type of clearinghouse, if you will, of services. Is that correct, Mr.? Mr. I mean I think that's what we're hoping to bring back to you is here's how the services we think our right would work you is here's how the Services we think our right would work and then here's alternatives that aren't necessarily service provision whether it's housing that kind of thing Okay, and we would not be the ones necessarily implementing that that would be the nonprofits or churches or people Individual volunteers that would be Emplening that it was looking to take advantage of what other people are already doing and just help and understand the coordination of it better. Okay. Well, here's some things that I'd be in support of. If there's anyone listening and says, hey, I have an idea, I want to implement this. Will there be some type of partnership, private public? However, I would support some things like this. Tiny homes, community that allows people to live with dignity but in a smaller, maybe a smaller community, that's not something I think the town should run, but I don't, I would be in support of the town partially funding something like that. Or there being an incentive program for it. But I don't have the time to write that program. So I mean, I would need help from people who are in the know and do this. I teach Latin for living. If you want to ask about classics, I can tell you all about it. I can't tell you. I can't solve this problem. I would be in support of converting trailers and train trucks into small homes. I think it's been mixed successes in places. Some places have seen it. It worked well and others. It didn't go away. They want, they expected it to. I thought the campground site was an interesting site, but I do agree with the public comment that said public land should not be that site so again I would support a private organization wanting to buy some land to make something that's like livable but it has to be with rules and it's got to be clean and it's got to be it's got to make sure that it doesn't hurt our environment. I heard the discourage people from not camping, but I don't know how to do that. I can discourage people from planting my backyard, and the boy hits the ball over the fence and he's a kilometer of the fence to get it. I know that's not a good analogy, but I don't know what the limit is if there isn't going to be an ordinance. Like, if it's not going to be an actual consequence, I don't know I don't know what the limit is if there isn't going to be an ordinance Like if it's not going to be an actual consequence. I don't know how to discourage it without I just don't know how that's all I did a quick dive into the hearts to hands. I found that there is an organization in Charlotte, North Carolina They've raised over a hundred twenty thousand dollars already. They've helped 55 different, they call missions, I guess. I was reading that quickly while they were talking. And so there is an organization there that didn't look like Randolph-Macon has created that organization. It looks like they had a meeting back in April 21st to discuss it. So I say this because some people on council and some people in the audience might be, oh,, I want to find that organization. Well, it's not developed yet from what I can tell online. It might be developed, but it's just not. It doesn't have its online footprint yet. But there is that organization. There is a model, what I'm saying. So let's see. I am support of us finding funds to put into the Ashland Foundation for nonprofits to then develop a plan to help house people so that they're not living in tents, so to speak, or if they found another way to serve them. I guess there's the question, and I don't know if anything's changed since Monday, that was yesterday, but Josh has anyone reached out to you and said, hey, this is what we're looking to do with our organization and in the town or this is what we've done and this is what we could duplicate. Has any of that happened? I think the one direct email we received was from Safe Place and it was exactly the thing that we're talking about. A, we're thinking about trying to coordinate the stakeholder group. What do you think? And I believe that was to Miss Miller. And I believe was encouraging. And yes, let's go down this path. Let's do it. Let's just say a place. But it hasn't been created. I don't know that the meetings have happened. But I think I've shared with you in our meeting that I can give a little bit of a pass for that, or a long pass for that. and we struggle to get three staff people that work in the same building in the room, coordinating schedules amongst multiple organizations can be very difficult. Okay. And let's see. I can't say I deferred. So if this were to pass, it would be an implementation date that we set or is it the one that's our understanding? The staff have recommended August 1st, but I've given you motions where you could insert date as you see fit or at least the majority of the four of you see fit. Yeah. All right. Yeah. I'm just still at the point where I feel like I want to hear more before I make a vote. I don't know if I need to go as far as August to make a vote for me. Because then we can delay the implementation. But what I what I haven't seen for myself yet is what the consequence, unintended consequence might be. And I'm sorry I didn't ask all the questions correctly. I just, I still have wrestled with this. And I will just say what I had a conversation with Ms. Barnhart. And I appreciate your sentiment. And I agree with what you're saying. And that's, and I just wanted to share my thought process. And that is, when I first started teaching, I had to come up with a philosophy of education. And then I had to come up with a philosophy of learning. Then I had to come up with a philosophy of instruction. And when I wanted to be a administrator, I had to come up with a philosophy of leadership. And those did not happen. I read a book and it's like, oh, I'm going to go do this. It was a lot. It was very painful for me. And most of the decisions those did not happen like I read a book and it's like oh I'm going to go do this it was a lot it was very painful for me and most of the decisions if not all of the decisions that I have made on this dice have been where I've taken that painful deep dive and I haven't done that with this yet and so that's kind of where I'm at there even though I I'm pretty confident I'm going to come around to what I'm hearing on the dice. I just for me personally I haven't gotten there and so I would appreciate a deferment at least at least one more month if not what was what was requested however I don't want to lose momentum. I don't want people to say oh well we well, we're going to defer defer, and then we'll just ask later on. And then it won't happen, because I will tell you, this is the topic that comes up on my dinner table a lot. It's what my spouses, with my children, are like, dad, what are you doing about that? What plan does the town have? And when I tell them the town has resources, and the town offers resources sometimes, but not everyone accepts the resources, or not everybody takes advantage of them, and then they're like, well, we got to do something, we can't just do nothing, because it's just not acceptable. So that's where I'm at. And I know I probably talked around the topic and never really told you exactly where I stood, and I apologize for that. But it's just letting you know, I haven't done the deep enough diet to come in here and feel confident that I'm ready to make the hard decision, even though I'm pretty sure next time around I will be willing to make the hard decision. Newtled. Is that? Newtled in your head. Yes, my noodle is noodle-ling. Newtled. That's it. Thank you. And you for that time. And, and. Yeah. I think Dr. McGurll. Thank you. This is a tough issue. I'm in favor of an ordinance, but in my mind, it isn't the ordinance that's taking the lead. I think that's something that we've agreed on. It's a collaborative effort that involves law enforcement and the agencies that deal with homeless. I think the staff has done a great job of creating stakeholders and starting the communication. And their plan is to continue that conversation and report back to Council on July 15th with the results. My concern with adopting the ordinance tonight with an effective date means that should there be during this collaboration period between now and July 15th something that comes up that the agency say to Dr. McGraw's earlier point, we really need 48 hours, not 24 hours in order to provide notice and to get the homeless into an alternative solution, which I think is in everyone's best interest. I'm not suggesting that the ordinance should be amended, but that's the type of change or type of conversation that could occur. If we were defer action till August 5th, I know that's a long time, but it would allow for that discussion. And on August 5th, if there were substantive changes, which the chief and the staff and others feel that we could do that would also help the service agencies out, then I think that would be a better course. I've had a conversation with Mr. Wynn, our attorney, and he's indicated to us that there's an unusual amount of flexibility in town code. That on August 5th, should there be a change, and you can correct me, Mr. Wynn, from 24 to 48 hours of notice to the agencies. That would not require another public hearing. That's something that we could do. That is correct. So I think the effectiveness of the ordinance could be improved with a deferral to August fifth to allow collaboration between the review agencies or the support agencies that we're in conversations with and with law enforcement. So it's not an ordinance that we adopt now and is frozen for implementation in August. It is an ordinance that's open for discussion and could be modified August 5th. So we've had a lot of discussion and I could go on, but I think that's the direction I'm going in. But being in the chair position, I will entertain a motion from that. Well, I have a couple more comments I'd like to make. I just first fall I want to say we have to remember that the town does not have the financial means to do any kind of state-of-the-art facility etc. unless we work together with these different organizations we just will not be able to go forward on this so we have to have that cooperation. One of my concerns is I need to make a correction because I said something but there was a much difference between August 1st and August 5th. There is a big difference because August 1st is when we may put the ordinance in effect and August 5th is we're talking about deferring. So I spoke incorrectly. I stand corrected there. But if we wait till August 5th to vote on this, that means the ordinance is not going to go into effect until later in the fall or maybe next January. And that's a concern of mine because we are talking about another six or eight months of people living in conditions that are not healthy and are not sanitary. And is that what we really want to do. And mass the attorney on August 5th could the ordinance be adopted effective August 5th? Yes, the ordinance could be adopted effective immediately. So as of August 6th then we could our police force could go out and start. Yes. As long as the ordinance says as much. As we say it that way. Okay. Just to make sure that's clear. And I understand the concern that the goal here is to bring it to resolution. And I think, you know, practically, if there was something to come up in the discussion with the service agencies and the support groups, if we adopt the ordinance effective August 1st tonight, we would have to, I'm looking at the attorney, we'd have to re-advertise to make any changes. So strictly speaking no, so 15.2-1427, just checking my notes for the citation there, does not require additional advertisements for town to change the ordinances. That's not it is for the town code. There is some confusion sometimes when you're talking about zoning. That requires a whole separate public hearing, multiple notices, all the rest of that. However, since this would just be a town code provision, it does not need any advertisement. Yeah, so that's that, the public notice two times notice all the rest of that's for counties not for counts So because summarize I think we would have met our legal requirements and if council decide to change the ordinance following the July 15th meeting We would have an opportunity Well, we wouldn't have an opportunity before August 5th, but we'd have an opportunity July 15th after having a report from staff to make changes in the ordinance before its effective date. Correct. That would not be an issue. You'd be able to amend the ordinance at that time. I don't know if that helps or not. No, I does help. I appreciate the comment Dr. Madrull. Yes. Mr. Manager, I remember in our conversations you were suggesting a deferred implementation to give people time to collect their thoughts about what's getting ready to happen so that they can make plans and adjustments. And some of our agencies would have time to get together. Would you then, if we were to move this tool later date to make the decision, would you again recommend a deferred implementation, or would you say we've made enough inroads by that point that implementation could be effective immediately? Did I say it? I understand what you're asking. I'm struggling to say because I think we're going to learn a lot over the next two months. But from my perspective, the delay to August was kind of, that's why we added multiple motions. That was my initial stab at an appropriate time frame to allow that work to at least start happening and get that done. If you adopted August 1st, I guess we may learn more that we need more time, but at that point, we're recommending August 1st. I would say you would still do the public hearing and adopt on the August 5th date. I don't know that you'd need to have a delay in implementation if you've already allowed what we thought we were going to allow time for it to happen. But again, I do also at the very same time, believe we're going to learn a lot that may change the words I would say to you at the next meeting. Okay. Well, I am prepared to make a motion, but we're in a weird situation where if two of us vote for and two of us are made, it just nothing happens. And that could be a slight move on to the next motion. We've gone that route before so I'm prepared to make a motion. I don't know if anyone's prepared to second it. I will share with you, Dr. McGraw. I have a back of my pocket out for you all if we get to that point. Okay. May I ask one more question? Yes. So if we defer to August 5th, I wanna know how we're gonna make it clear that as of August 6th, this is gonna go into effect. I don't wanna kick the game down this road in longer. Okay. I'm prepared for that. I am prepared for that. On August 5th, I'm ready to make a decision. I will have had plenty of time to have my deep thoughts. I will have had plenty of time to do the things that some of the members of our community have asked that I do, and I want to do those things. And I would be comfortable with an implementation of the very next day or the day of. I just feel like if we're going to delay it to the August 5th anyway, what's wrong with delaying deferring to the same day that we're going to delay the implementation unless people needed even more time after we make. So it sounds like they don't need even more time. We've made it clear that something's going to happen. Something's going to happen. And maybe between now and then we learn other stuff. I don't know. But I will be ready for a vote on motion. I do have a motion. I just want to make sure that my peers, I am not kicking the can down the road. and I am comfortable making a decision. I just me personally I don't feel like I have done enough myself yet but I will buy it. She's giving me the look. I just want things to be clear. I don't want it to be a lot of gray areas for people. I want them to have time obviously to put things together. I want to have time for us to work together with our community organizations and our faith groups, et cetera. Again, I'm saying we have summer coming up. We're going to have a horrible 100-degree weather and humidity. And then we're going to make it move the fall. Maybe maybe it Christmas. I don't wanna go down that road. I don't think that's fair. Well, I'll be as clear as I can. I believe that we should have an ordinance that says no can't be without approval on public property. I'm just not ready to vote on that that has been proposed. And I realize that staff has been working on this a lot. lot. Staff has been a year and a half maybe longer working on this. I haven't been. I can promise you by the fifth. I will probably be ready by July because I will have done my thoughts. Is there a motion? Yes, sir. Mr. Vice Mayor, I move to defer consideration of this issue to August 5th, 2025 at to say nay. I'm going to say nay. I'm going to say nay. I'm going to say nay. I'm going to say nay. I'm going to say nay. I'm going to say nay. I'm going to say nay. I'm going to say nay. I'm going to say nay. I'm going to say nay. I'm going to say nay. I'm going to say nay. I was going to support this ordinance, and I am going to say nay. The soap all may Dr. McGraw aye vice mayor Hodges hi I'd like to offer substitute motion and I know the manager has an alternative maybe you should mention that that first. If we really feel like there's going to be deadlock and no action motion that the four of you can agree on to get something to pass, staff's recommendation, if that is truly the case, would be that you just simply defer until June 3rd meeting. At that point we'll have the mayor here. All five of you, we won't have split votes because you would have a majority on council. Is that clear? The alternative that I was contemplating would make the ordinance effective August 6th and adopt effective August 6th, allowing the opportunity of July 15th and August 5th to make amendments as Mr. Glein has indicated we can do. And that would provide an end date, signal to the agencies that it's going to go into effect unless there are amendments that need to be made that we can agree with. Okay. Then I would second that. I didn't hear that. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Because I'm not sure I put it in the form of a motion. I. Correcting that. Or correctly. I move to adopt the ordinance effective August 6th. That would be the motion. The practical impact would be that we would, that would provide an opportunity for staff presentation on July 15th and consideration of potential amendments on August 5th at our next council meeting. With an implementation date of August 6th, being the day after our 5th meeting, and that would provide Ms. Barnhart and potentially, Ms. with the assurance that the ordinance would be going into effect by August 6th, but to provide for at least two opportunities for considerations of amendments that would enhance the ordinance if council feels that's what it would do. Okay, so you're looking to put it into effect August 6th. August 6th. But you're still wanting to maybe look at amendments? Yes, that seems to me there's a conversation going on here that may produce, we're assuming the ordinance is going to, I mean that that's a pretty fixed spelled out legal document, but there may be things in the non-legal side that would help the providers, again, I mentioned the 48 hours instead of 24 hours for notice. An extra day could make a world of difference in terms of being able to provide the homeless or the folks in that situation with an alternative without giving them a criminal record. Okay, so is that possibly the only amendment you're looking at, the 24 to 48? That's the only one at this point, Ms. Opal, because they haven't had the conversation. In other words, right now it seems like we are hearing from the service delivery side and it may with the flow chart and there may may be some minor modifications to the ordinance, effectively making camping a criminal offense, but there may be things that'll lessen the blow and make it more workable. I'm sorry, I don't mean to be difficult. No, no, no. good question. It would lessen the blow. I suppose we went to 48 hours on notice. Right. That would lessen the blow. Okay. That would give the service agencies an extra day to find out if there's a resource or a donor or something that would allow that individual to be addressed. If anything, I've learned from this process that the homeless are not one situation. They're everyone's different and there may be some that are chronic and incorrigible, but for those that aren't chronic and are legitimately trying to improve their situation. I would try to take care of them as opposed to just deal with the interest. It's a possibility the 24 to 48 that's not bad, you know, that's not bad. That's a possible event. But an implementation date of the August 6th. August 6th, okay. And not having to stretch that out anymore. No, it would be the action of the council. Okay. That's my motion. And I would second that. Thank you. No longer. Do you want to clarify the motion just for my records? Please. I don't mind me at all. I appreciate that. I would because there was a lot of action that might happen between the time. So the vice mayor your motion is to adopt the ordinance effective August 6 six That's my motion and with a second from miss miss Ornhart to go into effect August six. Yes Dr. McGraw Miss Barnhart I miss so Paul I vice mayor Hodges I Motion passes The healthy discussion. Yes. Well, and I appreciate the manager's suggestion that's always, if we can, if we can act online, move them forward. You came up with a better one, vice mayor, Mayor. So, who does? Whatever, thank you. And I thank folks that came here tonight. It's not an easy decision. And there are two sides to the issue. And hopefully our discussion makes you feel like we're respecting both sides. So, moving right along. The next item on our agenda is an action item and I've recognized Ms. Barnhart for it. And it's right. Ms. Barnhart, the reappointment of Planning Commission member. Right. We have two wonderful people that have asked to be reappointed to our planning commission. The planning commission is made up of five wonderful members are our community who each bring special talents to the deliberation of the commission. Dr. Tim Merrill and Mrs. Sylvia Bowman have been serving with distinction and after meeting with both and learning that they wish to continue their service. We would like to reappoint them for another term. Therefore, I move to reappoint Tim Merrill and Sylvia Bowman to the planning commission for a term commencing July 1, 2025 until June 30, 2029. Mr. Beckett. Oh, sorry. I'll recognize Ms. Soapall. That's right. That's good. Thank you. The motion made by Ms. Barnhart, second by Ms. Soapall. Miss Op right. Okay. That's good. Thank you. The motion made by Miss Barnhart, second by Miss Soapall. Miss Soapall. Aye. Dr. McGraw. Aye. Miss Barnhart. Aye. Vice Mayor Hodges. Aye. The next items on our agenda are reports. I'm taking Miss Amos's report today. All right. and I apologize it will be read because she gave me notes to share. So I will try to answer any questions you have. But today town staff in addition to Miss Barnhart went to the Hanover County Community Development Committee meeting where they discussed the request for proposals that will be going out in the next month or two for Henry Clay Elementary. So they talked a lot about process, they talked some about the criteria that they would use. The town was offered the opportunity to offer some comments on the RFP and we are still negotiating with the county how the town will have decision making authority or some level of decision making authority on whatever body gets created to make the final decision. But they are making progress. I know they will post the minutes and background data for that meeting very quickly on the website. There is a engage handover website that is a project page that I would encourage folks to go check out if that is a project that interests you. They're trying to do a really good job of tracking all the minutes and talking points for that project going forward. So, the owner of Ashland Inn in Suites, which is the building that has been demolished, has added the remaining portion of their building to their demolition permit. This is good news for the town because that in the long run means that the town and county don't have to fund the demolition of the remainder of the building and it ensures us that the project will actually get done and we'll have a demolition there and then we can look to new owners to do better things. Happy to share and we may have touched on this before but Miss Bernie Cornelius from our planning department has received the first level of certification from the Virginia Institute of Procurement. She's become a VCA, Virginia Contracting Associate, and congratulations to Bernie. We are doing some succession planning with her that she will most likely be our next purchasing agent when someone retires in a few years. We're also working to fill the now vacant business development coordinator position that is on our town website and on appropriate websites. Miss Kelly Frankie who was the incumbent in that role has actually accepted a new role with the town as our marketing and events coordinator part time position and that will start in the month of June so she's going to help us transition take on the new role and then we'll find her replacement thereafter. And then finally there is one more historic district education seminar scheduled for June 5th. Tom Wolf will present short how-to videos for small repairs and projects such as porches, windows, siding, roofs, and doors, as well as personal experience from other homeowners and contractors. They've been very popular so far and staff is looking forward to having the videos that we can share thereafter with the community So even if you couldn't make it you can get the good information And with that I will attempt to take any questions you may have on planning the so far The hotel that's being demolished the whole entire building all things coming down So the remaining part they'd originally left off their demolition permanent. They've now added that part back. Thank you Yep. Any other questions from Mr. Ferrer? It's not really a question, it's just a comment. I just want to draw attention that we're getting a 7 brew and that it's fantastic. That's the work that planning has done to attract a business like that. It's young adults will like it. People might age and older will like it. It's pretty cool. It's pretty hip, if you will. So I say, again, it's Seventh Brew. Look it up. It came out in 2017 and it's an interesting way of doing business. Anyway. And for those wondering that, we'll be going into the old pizza hut building on route 54. Yes, right Any other questions not seeing any I call for miss sugar Who can talk about our tax base? Good evening vice mayor members of council tonight before you we have the April 2025 financial report a few Items of importance the end end of the fiscal year is June 30th. So we're in the process of reviewing all the accounting work to ensure we have a successful audit. Delinquent notices for real estate are being mailed out currently. So for any citizens listening, please be on the lookout for those and contact us if you have any questions or concerns. Personal property to link what notices will be shortly behind those. On the financial side, Doug, can you, do I have a... Sorry, but I thought... Sorry. Is that for now? No, you can go to the next slide, please. Okay,, so Meals Tax, the last couple of months we have trended lower than projected, but overall for the same period last year we are up by 1.6%. We have a couple more months of collections left in this fiscal year, so we will see where that puts us for a year end, but I'm projecting that we will be very close to budget on that revenue source for a year end. The next one is lodging tax. So lodging tax, April revenues collections were higher that is due to prior months' balances being paid during the month of April. Overall, collections are below, and I've said for the last couple months, we're a little bit down on those revenues, and I do anticipate that this revenue source will probably not meet budget for the end of the fiscal year for lodging tax by a slight amount. That's significant. Yes, sir. Okay, the next one is sales tax. We're ahead of the same period last year by 9.7%. I did look at the revenue which we haven't received yet. We should receive it for May. Those collections were very strong. This revenue source has been month over month. You can see it have been higher than the previous period. So we are expected to meet budget in this revenue source. And these are projections. Obviously don't have a crystal ball. So that's my projection with the information I have at this point. So for real estate and personal property, there's not a whole lot of transactions that happened this time of year as the bills were doing February. So you will see we get some in small amounts through the remaining months until the bills go out again. And I did want to mention as noted in the town manager's budget presentation, there is everyone's here in talks of economic uncertainty. I just want to let everyone know we will continue to monitor those monthly and bring anything that might impact the talent's finances to you as soon as possible as we as we hear them. That's all I have. The last page shows our investments in the earnings through April for the calendar year. I'll be happy to answer any questions if you have any. Any questions from us? Who got glad that you're monitoring what is going on at the state and federal level and keep us advised? Thank you so much. Thank you. Next I have Chief Aaron Hope. Mr. Rise Mayor, members of Town Council, in your packet you'll have the month of your report for the month of April. I'm happy to report that we're continuing to experience a decrease in Part 1 crimes. Currently we're 40% lower than we were this time last year. Also heading into the summer, I do say that heading into the summer. We are also experiencing a 42% decrease in motor vehicle collisions when compared with last year as well. But we all know that 95 with the traffic upon us could change that so I say that bit of breath. Also we've increased our traffic summons as an issue that we've issued over last year. We're also continuing to focus on streets we're receiving complaints on such as Thompson Street and continuing to monitor those. I'm happy to report that we did not have any major crimes to report this month that I have, and I'm going to speak to, but we did have a lot of events this past month. Train Day was won and we also held the same day our drug take back at the police department. We did have 29 pounds that were turned into police department. This is substantially less than previous years, but I do believe this is attributed to businesses taking unused prescriptions year-round, CBS, a Bremau pharmacy or just two. So that is having an impact. So less prescriptions drugs out there are certainly better for the community. We also participated in a kickball match at Hanover Academy and we had a crisis event, the crisis drills handled there as well. Also Watts participated in the triad view drive for seniors, so we took part in that. And we also hosted a group of Randolph-Macon students, the police department from the criminal justice program, to take part in our simulator, the use force simulator that several of the citizens leadership Academy members also partook in. We also participated in a mortal day event at Hanna-Rarge's and Activity Center to pay homage to our veterans that I attended with the mayor and the last thing is we are in the final stages of bringing on a candidate to the police department. So we have the psychological portion to do in medical but everything so far looks really good. So once that has officially been named I'll be naming our new officer but I'm also happy to report we do have two positions and in this latest application process we did have 57 people who put in to become members of the action police department, and for those who are certified officers. So. and in this latest application process, we did have 57 people who put in to become members of the Ashen Police Department and four of those are certified officers. So I feel fairly confident that we'll be at 30 by September, which is the perspective higher date. So thank you for all your support. So just keeping us competitive with surrounding jurisdictions. So that's 30's 30 looks like it's within reach. So that's good good news. So with that we'll be happy to answer any questions they want to have. Any questions for the chief? Not hearing any thank you chief. Thank you sir. Thank you. Is there any more business to come before council? Not hearing any meetings adjourned.