Good evening. Welcome to the May 6, 2025 meeting in the Ashton Town Council. We appreciate you being here. We want to start off tonight. We have a council member who's attending remotely. And so I'm going to read the Virginia code and then ask for a motion from one of my peers. A pursuant to Virginia Code Section 2.2-3708-3B&D. Vice Mayor Hodges notified us yesterday that he would not be able to attend tonight's meeting in person and would like to participate by electronic means remotely. Through the power of technology, Vice Mayor Hodges will be joining us tonight from his home in Ashland due to medical necessity. This remote participation meets the requirements of council policy, COU-114, electronic participation and council meetings. Is there a motion to confirm that this request is within council policy, COU-114 and is approved? So moved. A second. Dr. McGraw. Aye. Ms. Pornhart. Aye. Ms. Soapall. Aye. Vice Mayor Hodges. Aye. Thank you. May I hear your vote? Aye. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Glad you're here. You're there, but you're here. And we're glad for that. Next, we have a moment of silence. and sometimes I'll interject something, but I think we've got enough on our agenda and enough on our minds that I'll just invite you to join me in a moment of silence to reflect that you see fit. All right, please join me. Thank you. Chief Aaron Holt, would you lead us in the pledge, sir? Thanks for having me. I would like to thank you for the great support of the United States and the United States and the United States and the United States and the United States and agenda which includes minutes from April 15, 2025, Council meeting. We have an invoice for paving. We have two proclamations. A proclamation from Miss Anna Winston Shelton. A 9-third birthday proclamation. That's a fun one. We have our peace officers Memorial Week proclamation. Anotherage agreement. After our consent agenda, we'll have a presentation and we'll read our proclamations at that time. Then we'll have a presentation, background information on homelessness and the region brought to us by Ms. Kelly Kinghorn, staff's presentation from a local perspective on the same issue, town staff, and then the Downtown Ashton Association quarterly report from their Executive Director, Mr. Miller, market, Ashton partnership, introduction of officers, Ms. Frankie. And then we'll have our citizen input time. Our citizen input time is generally an opportunity for anyone to come forward and speak to Council on a matter that isn't part of a public hearing. And I would ask tonight if anyone wants to speak citizen input time, if there's a matter that isn't on our agenda that I'd invite you to come up first, but individuals that want to speak after concerning the presentation that will have on homelessness, I would offer an opportunity for people to come up and speak at that time. Depending on how many people want to, we may need to limit the time. And as always, we'd ask people, if you have something on your mind and you've heard it already expressed, that if you forego maybe repeating that. But again, I don't know right now how many people want to speak and so we'll review that when we get there. All right. And after that, we'll have our two public hearings, fiscal year 2526, real property tax public hearing from our town manager, Mr. Fairer, the second fiscal year, 2526, budget public hearing, and after that reports, from council member reports, mayors report, public works report, and the town manager's report. All right, and then agenda. Following that, do we have consensus council for the agenda as presented? Yes. Mr. Vice Mayor. Do we have your consensus for the consent? Yes, you do, I'm sorry, I was slow on the move. That's all right. All right, thank you, sir. All right, is there a motion concerning the consent agenda? Mr. Mayor, I move to approve the consent agenda and pay the bill is presented. I second. Spawnhart. Aye. The so Paul. Aye. Vice Mayor Hodges. Mr. Right. I'm okay. Yeah, it might be a little delay in the time you two. So that's all right. Dr. McGraw. Aye. Mayor Chulbat. Aye. All right. Thank you all. All right. We've gotten that business end of it, taking care of. And so now we get to do the more fun of reading the proclamations. And I'm going to be selfish and read Miss Shelton's proclamation. So, whereas Miss Anna McLean Winston Shelton was born in April of 1932 at 104th South James Street, Ashland, Virginia, to William and Carrie Winston, she was born a twin to Ellen Girlian Winston and is the last survivor of nine siblings. And whereas Miss Shellton is a lifelong resident ofland, with most of her life at 226 Berkeley Street and currently residing on B Street, and whereas Miss Shelton attended the Hanover County Training School, the precursor to John M. Gandhi High School, and whereas Miss Shelton contributed to the prosperity of her family in the success of several Ashland businesses, such as the Ashland shirt factory in McDonald's, where she served over 10 years as a kitchen supervisor. And whereas Michelleton was a veteran employee of Randolph-Macon College in the dining room, greeting and serving generations of students, faculty, and staff. And whereas Michelleton was married to Mr. Earl Scott Shelton Sr., and they had five wonderful children, Juanita Scott Winston, Karen Denise Winston, Christie Reed Bryant, Earl Scott Shelton Jr., and Marlon O'Neill Shelton. And whereas Miss Shelton remains active in her civic duty as a registered voter, community activists and life member of shallow Baptist Church where she was baptized at eight years old. Now therefore be it proclaimed on the occasion of Miss Winston's 93rd birthday that the Ashland Town Council celebrates her life, her accomplishments, and her legacy and encourages all Ashlanders to join in honoring her as one of our eldest members of our community. They did this sixth day of May 2025. So we... We'd like to turn down and present you with this proclamation and do a photo if you don't mind. I'm going to Wonderful. Absolutely. Is this in the deep field right there? I saw that in the early and same bad birth as the low. I saw that in the early and same bad birth as the low. I saw that in the early and same bad birth as the low. Happy to see you. Happy to see you. scoot in a little so I can get everybody in. This bar and cart are beautiful. I want to try something new. I'll scoot in a little so I can get everybody in. This bar in heart if you don't want to scoot in a little bit. Thank you. All right. Cheers. Here we go. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I'm sorry to interrupt, I have a prior engagement. I'm sorry I'm in a rough, I have a prior engagement. I just want to say you guys are doing a great job. And it's a pleasure to be an action with people like you guys. All right. Thank you guys. The force is foreign against you. It's a tough job, but you're doing the best you can. And I can say for myself, I appreciate it. All it. Thank you, Ali. And now our police officers, Memorial Week Proclamation, will be read by our Dr. Damma Grah, not Vice Mayor. Whereas the police officers of the town of Aksan safeguard the lives and property of our community without regard to the peril or hazard to themselves, and whereas these officers perform their work to the highest standard of integrity, selflessness, professionalism, equity, and devotion. And whereas through the enforcement of law, these same officers provide our residents, businesses, and visitors with freedom from the fear of violence and liberty to exercise the rights and privileges afforded by the Constitution of the United Constitution of the United States and the Commonwealth of Virginia. And, whereas by their service, these men and women have earned the gratitude of the town and, whereas, theance of peace officers Memorial Day and Police Week have honored all law enforcement officers and particularly those officers who have given their lives in the service of their communities every year since 1962. Now therefore on the behalf of the Ash and Town Council we do hereby proclaim and affirm May 15th, 2025 as peace officer's memorial day in the town of Ashland in honor of those who have served and are currently serving to protect our town and be it further proclaimed that the week of May 11th through May 18th, 2025 is hereby designed as police week in the town of Ashland, where in all community members are encouraged to participate in appropriate activities and recognition of the service and sacrifice of our police officers dated the sixth day of May 2025. All right. Thank you. And do I get special privilege with this one? Yeah. To say, and I just want to mention, again, when we read through this, you know, I would not physically be here. We're not for the police officers. And those of you who want to learn the story, you can talk to me afterwards, but they physically saved my life. And so, grateful for them. Thank you. We are too. Yeah. Thank you very much. All right. This brings us to our presentation. We appreciate Ms. Kelly, Klinghorn being here with us this evening. I'm hoping we've left you enough time to accomplish what we hope to accomplish tonight. So it just invite you with your presentation and your presence by voice at this time. Great. Well, thank you everyone for allowing me to participate virtually. I don't know if she's going to be a unit of you. Maybe if that would cut out the echo. Does that run the presentation? I will try my best. Okay, all right, yes, sorry about that. You know, my name is Kelly. And I'm the executive director of Homeward. I wanted to share just a little bit about the regional effort to address homelessness. And I'm virtual tonight because tonight is the last regular meeting of my daughter's Girl Scout troop, and she's a graduating high school senior. And so I appreciate the ability to get out in like, and I have a slides I can share that I thought I would do, is to give a little overview of how we work together this homelessness and really to refresh everyone's memory or a greater Richmond of care, which is a coalition to this homelessness. Our coalition does cover the town of Ashland and over county as well as the city of Richmond and the other counties that make up the Greater Richmond region. And I just wanted to highlight a few things. I know that the council is really looking into the issue of homelessness and considering how best to meet the needs of all residents in the town. And so I'll start by sharing just a little bit of information. I think, if you could turn on the, for me, like the multiple sharing, and I will say the last time I worked really close on partners was Lynn the good so that's my still the Apple Garden it was a great project I just just share a little bit I wanted to just briefly talk about the greater rich of care and just explain what that. And so the continued care is you know a local he says regional of services and homelessness working together to solve the crisis of homelessness and all of these resources you have or digitally, but just wanted to highlight, there are 16 contingents of care in the Commonwealth of Virginia, over 300 of the country. There's also, you'll hear a reference as a funding source, federal funding, that's the long-term source of funding to address homelessness. It's not enough, certainly to meet all the need. homelessness is not an element resource of while people may be eligible. It does not necessarily, they would get the resources that they can do in their homelessness. But we really, collaborating, use of those resources, and there's also a governance structure and this is where we have Disappation from Hanover County staff Mashlin has a different ways of Together to address homelessness and really maximizing limited resources I'll just stop sharing that I I will, because I'm virtual. I just wanted to give a little bit of background of the coalition works. How these resources are available in Ashland. The partners working through the Greater Pignum of Care conducted outreach in the town of Ashland. They would serve Ashland residents as resources are global. And so I'm happy. I just wanted to give a brief background on this coalition to either introduce this topic or refresh your memory on the connection with leadership. Because I know homelessness is a complex issue, you know, increasing and other issues that impact housing stability can be quite challenging. So really wanted to just give a little bit of information on greater treatment continuum of care. I have provided copies of our annual report from last fiscal year. So that is there should be copies for all of the council members. It's also available on our website. And maybe I can ask questions. If there are questions about the continue of care then just going through some handouts. So if that's amenable and I'm, a scout don't start, bits I will stay on as long as I can. So as you'll see, scout's running out probably. So. Congratulations to your daughter, by the way. Oh, thank you. That's exciting. And I will say I'm also happy to be a resource at any other time. I've met with the town manager, Miller, Reese, and with the Innovation Police Department are also an important partner. And all of the agencies that work, the gym will are also available to us. Again, resources are a constraint, but their expertise and willingness to partner are not in control. Ms. Kinghorn, did you want the staff presentation to commence at this point? I thought you had other slides. I have a let me just show these other slides that I have so that you are them. This next one I think will be this full. This is again, it's available on our website, but this just shows again the map of our greater return continuum of care, the website we can find a lot of information. If somebody is experiencing homelessness and they have access to a phone of calling the homeless connection line is a step to get some problem-solving assistance, find out about resources, start connecting with certainly Hanover County Department of Social Services to make sure that you know they have updated training on what happens when somebody makes that phone call in particular They're coordinated out even with a special shout out today Services has been partnering with the town to understand the needs of people being outside in the town. And then there's a list, shelter partners and other housing interventions. We serve and overcame residents. I'm not sure we would be able to different residents versus town of Ashland. We go by zip code on that, so it's possible. This is just a list of all of the agents really providing those targeted services within the framework of this regional coalition. So that is, you know, just to understand the universe of who is participating. We have more than 30 agencies. And my last handout is again, just highlighting the impact of our coalition. Let me find it. Oh, well, I won't, let's say, here we go. Showing how this collaboration has made a difference. And over the last 12 years, which is the data through the end of 2024, it's a little bit more about the bridge and continuum of care, how we work, how we collaborate, we target those who are most comfortable, because again, there's not enough resources for everyone. But really, it is this a very robust collaborative effort. And in the last 12 years, we have collectively helped more than 13,000 individuals find stable housing. So ending their homeless, fine stable housing. Mr. Manager did you want to have council asking questions and miss horn before she has to go off or jump great resource and I would take advantage of it if you have questions. Any way I have questions. Certainly we may or may not have questions tonight. We may or may not ask questions. We've all got questions. But we might seek a different venue to be able to ask those. Anyone have any at this time? No, I don't. Thank you. OK. No, we do thank you for your time. And again, we will be talking. We appreciate you doing the resource. I've shared my email in the Zoom. It's visible, and I'm happy to talk with targeted questions by email or in a meeting. Oh, yes. All right, thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you. Appreciate your time. All right, Mr. Taylor Manager. Sure. So obviously thank you to Ms. Kelly Kinghorn. That was great. She's a immense resource. She's been incredibly helpful to both Ms. Miller and I as we've tried to educate ourselves on this process as well. So I've got a presentation for you. It's relatively short. And what we hope to accomplish is give you a little bit of background on the Ashland picture. talk a little bit about the approach we've taken to try to understand the process and where it's going. Tell you a little bit of background on the Ashland picture, talk a little bit about the approach we've taken to try to understand the process and where it's going, tell you a little bit about what we've learned and talking to folks, and then also share what our draft recommendation, if it was drafted right now, would look like on May 21st. I would still, or May 20th, I would still expect that may pivot slightly based on what we learn but I want to give you a preview so that you know what might be coming down the line as well. How good it's working. All right. So. based on what we learned, but I want to give you a preview so that you know what might be coming down the line as well. Good, it's working. All right. So just as a little bit of a beginning, as we kind of looked throughout the town, we have largely found that what makes Ashland attractive to folks coming and wanting to buy or rent a home in Ashland is all the things that make it just as attractive for someone who may not have a home. It's dense, it's walkable, there's services within, easy access, and, great frankly, it's a loving, giving community that genuinely cares about people. And so, there's no surprise that we may find individuals who are homeless here. It's a place that can be oftentimes convenient for that, as opposed to, let's say, a rural county, where you may have to walk miles and miles if you wanted to even get a bite to eat. But this is a little bit of additional background. I do want to make a point for maybe some of those who aren't as familiar with government structures that the town of Asham is a town which is very different from cities and counties traditionally in Virginia cities and counties provide social services and so we partner with Handover County on those issues Right, ashen residents are handover county residents as well And so we partner with handover county social services to provide all those types of services to ashen residents as well as the county And then as Miss Kinghorn did a far better job than I would do of describing the greater Richmond continuum of care is also another Resource a group of essentially non-profits who are designated by the federal government as the service provider for homeless services in the region. And that is separate and distinct from the counties. I think oftentimes there's a thought that the counties and the city and the localities are actually funding those organizations. They may make donations or they may not, but they do receive federal funding, which oftentimes is a good thing, but also a bad thing in that it comes with strings attached and has to be used quite narrowly. But we all know, and I think this Kinghorn said it just as well, the resources that are available are insufficient, right? That's all of our case, local government, nonprofit service providers, counties as well. Last year, we have been aware for a long time that there are individuals experiencing homelessness in and Ashland largely our police department would work with Hannah were social services to try to get them the assistance they may need but this past fall it largely became a more visible issue to the community. We started as town staff receiving a number of calls from businesses and residents essentially essentially asking the question, what can you do about this? Why are there individuals out there with all their stuff on the corner? It was just a very different experience for Ashland. Started to make itself very known and present. The disappointing part was at that point was we didn't really have tools in the tool belt, right? We're going to refer you and hopefully our partners in handover in the city can get you the help you need. And so that's kind of where we were when we began all of this. But understanding that the community expected us to take action, we do largely what we always do, right? We start to figure out a way, let's do some research, let's figure out all the avenues and we're going to bring council options, right? And That's typically how we address all these issues that we don't have direct technical expertise in. The next few slides that I'm going to show you are pictures of what our police department found on a walk. I can't remember if it was the end of March or in April some time, but does give you a sense of what they're seeing out there. What I'm going to show you is not comprehensive. It is a certain area where we know there are concentrated camps, but it is certainly not the entirety of the town and we know that it exists outside the borders of what we're showing you as well. So as we show you the pictures, there's a little bit of background. I would say our highest level of concentrated, homeless individuals exist in what I would call a rectangle bounded by root 54, Hillcorder Parkway going north and south, Cott cottage green going north and south, and then junction drive, which is that other road that can get you to Walmart there. There's a lot of a number of individuals and there have been over the years. There exist in other areas close to there, but that is certainly a concentrated area. It's also important to remember that in that area, in particular, and you'll see it in some of the pictures we have here. That is a stream that the town worked and got federal grants to Revitalize probably 10 15 years ago it had a lot of environmental issues and so we did the stream restoration and when we do that we typically like to partner projects and so we built a path along it. The long-term plan there was that we would build, extend the path, bring it into town, kind of be the east-west version of our railside, an now-fall line trail, and that there might be also the ability to kind of connect all the businesses back down into the path. So, tourists and visitors could come, get a sandwich, and then take a little respite in nature for themselves. So, that's kind of what you'll see in here. There's a little bridge and just let you know that what you're looking at there's that down by the stream as well. So looking at some of these pictures that I know it's hard to see some of them but So that's kind of what you'll see in here. There's a little bridge and just let you know that what you're looking at. There's that down by the stream as well. So looking at some of these pictures, I know it's hard to see some of them, but the retention pond is at the corner of cottage green and junction drive. Can't see it well in the picture, but the entire perimeter of it is covered with litter and bottles and debris. I am not in any way going to say that is entirely due to the home-mills population in that area. There's businesses that are trashed below undoubtedly. There's the hicular passers-by, but knowing that the concentrations there, we know a portion of it is certainly attributed to that. And then you can see again, the trash accumulating along the stream, and that is one kind of item that has spurred us to action a little bit as well, is we have not necessarily got IDEQ violation, but we've been kind of put on notice by DEQ that the trash that these individuals are leaving there is rolling into the stream and they have environmental concerns as well and so we're not just looking at this through the human services perspective but this is a public and health safety issue as well. As we continue down you can see there's again that bridge it's part of the path trash left out and then we start to get to some of the campsites, generally in the area. I'm not going to dwell on those all that much. The pink things that you see on the right picture are trash bags that we're largely trying to connect together to create a screen so that folks couldn't see in from the roadway. And then you get to the kind of more typical type campsites you might see with tents and things like that where people are trying to be off into the woods behind those businesses there. So again, not a comprehensive list, just wanted to give a flavor of what we saw when on a short walk the police department did out there a while ago. As we kind of move forward, I want to talk a little bit about the approach that the town takes on these issues and what we've done thus far. So, the way we address all these kind of issues that we don't have expertise is we put a cross-functional team together. In this particular instance led by administration and the police but with supplemental help from public works, oftentimes they're the unfortunate ones who get called into cleanup after whatever issue that we're dealing with, and then parks and rec as well knowing that that future goal there is a park. And when we do that, we look at both enforcement options and other things that we might be able to do. And so on the enforcement option side, that is ultimately the ordinance that we have in front of you on May 20th. But you know, we are local government. We follow what the Supreme Court does. We knew that they were getting ready to make a decision on the grants pass case. And so we waited for that and reviewed it. And we're able to basically draft an ordinance that largely falls in line with what the Supreme Court decided. And largely the simple version is the Supreme Court did decide that local governments are unable to restrict public access and public camping on public land. So it did give us the authority to go down that route should we decide to. On the non-enforcement side, I'll say, this is a preliminary slide, we'll get to more detail later. The focus here was on things the town could do itself, without necessarily that was the first of what do we have, the ability to do is a town that doesn't provide social services. And so we were looking at a number of things. the improvements to the high impact areas we've discussed are accelerating that park, right? Could we do something there that would then make it a more attractive place to visitors, more people use it, make it a more pedestrian friendly area, and largely that might deter those individuals who don't have a place to be from being in that area because oftentimes they don't want to necessarily be in the view of the public. There is privacy that they would like to have as well. I will be honest with you and say that's still a goal. We have zero funding for that right now. It's a planning process. We don't necessarily have funds to just go do that today, but that is still something that we're going to go keep moving forward on. But we'll probably accelerate the planning for it and then we'll have to work with council on trying to find funding. We've already started to work on this next one but we could develop a public information campaign prior to meeting with stakeholders. We had a sense of this but it was really confirmed when we met with various stakeholders that while the generous giving of those who maybe give a Chick-fil-A sandwich or a five or a $10 bill is very nice of them It doesn't really solve the problem and their dollars in large part could probably be better used if they went to These service providers that we have that have the ability to actually try to get people out of the circumstance that they're in rather than just meet that very Temporary need of a meal and so we are gonna work on and I've already seen a draft of something that we might work on, put a campaign together, do it really intense for six months, build awareness, try to build those who are willing to donate there, and then we can continue it going on there after as well. And then on the last one there, again, that's where we're talking internal, we need to start talking external stakeholders. so that was the other options that we're going to do to better understand the issue. And so with that, we reached out to Hannover County. We met with their social services team in January, a few things that we learned. They do have some funding available to assist certain individuals. Largely, those were seniors or families. And so, even if it's necessarily homeless, homelessness has funding to try to assist those individuals, leaves a very obvious place that there isn't funding in a gap, and you'll see that in the gap identified part of what about that single individual? That is there funding available for them. And Hanover's perspective, they give a $5,000 grant to moments of hope with the idea that they would be able to potentially assist and try to serve in one way or another, those who don't fall into their two existing categories. On the what we learn side of things, you know, town of Ashton, we've done a lot of this. Our police department takes a lot of a lead role in it in communicating with those who are living in the woods. We don't really go down the enforcement path. We give them the resource cards that all our partners have given us in the past. And so we had an idea that we had five to seven pretty consistent individuals, and then you had the transient folks who kind of came, were on their way somewhere or another, but didn't have a place to stay. Maybe stays a week, maybe stays a month, but we also know that there's these core group people who are in action pretty consistently. The good news was that we had that assumption confirmed. Hanover was very familiar with the exact same individuals we were aware of, and they had actually tried to engage those individuals. The other good news, even though there's a flip side to the coin, is those individuals were actually eligible and fell into the two buckets that Hanover had available, and so they were potentially able to offer them some assistance. On the downside of that coin, it's kind of a thing we experience quite often is individuals not willing to take advantage of that assistance. And so with that, we kind of know that there's individuals, we know there's individuals who may be able to have access to help, but they're not willing to take advantage of it. And so again, we have this gap in funding for the other group. So one other thing that we heard at that meeting, and I thought a little bit odd was that the town may be either the first or one of the first localities to go down this path of trying to regulate camping in Virginia. I thought that a bit odd just based on 20 years of local government, often local governments have the ability to manage their public right away, manage the public property. So it just sounded a bit odd and so asked one of our staff to do some homework and a relatively quick search was able to find any number of ordinances, city and town code from other localities that do in one way or another. I'm going to make some caveats with that. Try to address this issue. Some of them purely focus on parks. Some of them purely focus on their downtown district. Some of them purely focus on, let's say, living in a car. And so they have ordinances that specifically go there. But there were others included in this list and this is in no way comprehensive that actually do have ordinances attempting to address public camping on all public grounds. A key difference there, and I want to make the note here that it's a potential positive on the town side of things is my assumption would be that most of those folks pass those ordinances and had that code before the grants pass decision. And so the town's ordinance that we've drafted in coordination with our legal counsel is actually written based on the Supreme Court decision. We looked at not only the decision, but the code from the communities that were under review and took major that we went line by line and our code met those standards that the Supreme Court set. So whether you want to go down the ordinance route or not, I think it's good to know that hours is written in such a way that it passes Supreme Court review and could potentially pass that review. The only concern I would have for those other localities, not necessarily that they're going to get constitutionally challenged on their ordinances is, there could be having been written beforehand, that they're written in such a way that elements of them could certainly be unconstitutional as well. So on the positive side, ours is based on the decision, which kind of gives us some level of guidelines on how to go ahead and write it. So in addition to meeting with Hanover, Again, we're trying to meet with stakeholders. We call the stakeholder meeting on April 21st, met with as many of the folks from the Greater Richmond Continual of Care, some of our Hanover partners, including the Hanover Church's network, and had a meeting very similar to this. We kind of addressed the issue, say where we're thinking, what we're learning, and ask their perspective to help us learn as well. The feedback we received was expressed concern over criminalizing homelessness via the ordinance, suggested a measure before finding convictions, so something like case conferencing. Also, that concerns about if the ordinance passed, suggested a grace period prior to enforcement to allow the outreach to actually do the good work that it could do. And then, again, another great learning point, identifying flexible funding and really gave us the story of how that flexible funding can be so much more useful and really kind of be creative problem solving. So just flexible funding is kind of a generic phrase, but the way I would kind of categorize it is I think a lot of the funding that the nonprofits receive and even Hannover receives coming from the federal government has some strings attached to it and you have to use it in a somewhat narrow way whereas flexible funding allows you to be a little bit more creative of it's things we've all maybe heard of before but helping with first and last month's rent those kinds of things that may not fall into a federal government bucket but are really that hurdle that that individual needs to get over and so that That was, you'll see it in what we committed to, we committed to explore options for flexible funding and report back by July. I have a little bit on that in a later slide. We'll launch a public education campaign to encourage donations to nonprofit partners that actually can help in this place. Again, we'll have a little bit more on that later. And then we committed to keep them updated, right? So you'll see a lot of attendance at this meeting. I'm sure at the May 20 meeting as well, so that we're doing this the right way and making sure everyone's coming along throughout the ride. So actions taken to date, let me make sure I'm not missing any of my notes that I wanted to get out. So my budget that I'm recommending already includes $10,000. We were based on a Hanover's model planning to give a $10,000 donation to moments of hope. I will say to council that is in my budget presentation to you for later this evening. So that is already in there. There is the option for town council should you determine based on learning more that you needed to reallocate some of that, maybe towards flexible funding instead of moments of hope. That's a conversation for us to have. The other option when it comes to funding is to add funding to the budget. I will tell you that requires a budget amendment, right? So that's probably going to be something that we would need to do an amendment for and we don't have dedicated resources to do that. So we'd have to get creative on where to find the funding. did additional stakeholder engagement. We talked about that on the 21st, but then the great part that came out of that is partners from the daily planet and it took the initiative on their own and started outreach. They went out and started looking in the areas that the town identified but also areas based on their history of work in the area that they knew individuals were or had been previously. The great thing I really liked watching is that they came out once and did it at a certain time, came back the next week, picked different times, different days, really in that coordinated way to make sure that they're trying to find people where they are and not to say, oh, we couldn't find them too bad so sad. And so that's a great starting point. And kind of what we hope to see going more into the future. Additional responses. So in response to the concern about criminalizing, as well as some kind of leniency on first offenses, our chief of police went and met with the Hanover Commonwealth Attorney and shared the ordinance with her. She was both supportive of the ordinance, thought it was something that they'd be fine taking in front of a judge, but also in coordination with the chief agreed to the fact that they could do a six month deferred punishment for first offenses. So basically, you get picked up. You're not supposed to be where you're not supposed to be. Your first opportunity, you don't get a record. You don't get a fine. You actually get told by the judge, work with the handover, outreach folks, work with the Richmond outreach folks, and don't do it again. And for six months, as long as you don't have the issue again, no harm, no foul, no record on your part, I like that because it then gives an extended window for the outreach people to actually do their work. It's not just a tomorrow you You have to go meet with them and it has to happen, but gives time for that to occur as well. We also are talking, obviously, tonight we added tonight's meeting to allow for more community input. And then a relatively newer item that's in its infancy still is considering and we're actually looking for drafts right now so that we can model a national one creating a Memorandum of understanding between the town even though it would really be the Ashen Foundation I'll get a little bit into that more with one of the nonprofit service providers and the agreement essentially being We will do our public fund fundraising campaign Quarterly what's picking iteration will cut you the check no administrative fee off top, whatever we can raise goes directly to the service provider for flexible funding, and then also if town council reallocates or allocates additional, that would go into that and we'd make a donation to the foundation that would go and be available for flexible funding. In return for that, we could schedule some iterative outreach, whether it's every three months, every four months, I'll take recommendations from the service providers at what works best, that we would then commit to based on that funding, doing that on an iterative basis and reporting back. Right now, we're working a lot with anecdotal stories. That would give us more data to better understand the issue, and if things are working or not working going forward. So, as we go to the next slide, it will contain the recommendation that we're thinking of for May 20th. I would imagine that may change a little bit. But, we want to give you the preview of it and I'm going to talk through some of the other issues that we're talking about as part of the recommendation. So we are recommending a blended approach that combines enforcement and funding and public education to kind of create accountability and compassion. And so the idea being the legal side of things, we need the backstop. Right now, the options the town has available to us are basically slim to none. If someone is on that property and may be causing a mess, whatever it may be, but is unwilling to take the services like we've heard from Hanover, the town doesn't have any recourse. We don't have the ability to say you can't be here. And so what we'd like to do is have the ordinance as kind of that backstop after the outreach after the other issues. If someone really isn't willing to engage, We have the right to be able to say you can't do that here. And so that is an important element of us. The option for delayed enforcement would be important. I'm going to probably recommend but again we'll talk about this. Pass the ordinance on May 20th with implementation effective August 1st. And the reason I kind of talk about that timing is just thinking about every four month outreach cycle that we pass it, we work with nonprofit service providers to do four months of very intense outreach, the ordinance goes into effect and just so happens about four months later is when the initial MOU agreement would come into effect for an outreach. And so we have one more pass at the outreach angle as enforcement comes into effect. And so at that point they'd be out there being able to say we really want to help you, we want to provide this level of service, but there's going to be a backstop to this. And so now you have a little bit more incentive to actually take advantage of the services that are being offered. On the financial side we've talked about that sufficiently this evening, but we $10,000 ready for in the budget and then I'm open to council once we learn a little bit more about this and what potential right amount would be that we have that conversation and either allocate additional or reallocate within our budget. And then again community engagement staff is going to launch a comprehensive public education and engagement campaign both to to raise awareness and encourage impactful giving. I've already seen a draft of what the kind of outline of that would look like, so this is something that we're ready to launch pretty soon and would not have to wait in any way whatsoever. But this is what we're trying to approach you with. Again, the blended approach, we know that we can't arrest our way out of this, but it doesn't appear as though we can outreach our way out of this, too. If folks aren't going to be willing to take advantage of the services. And so we're trying to do a blended approach. But at this point, I'll leave it to Council and open up for public comment, potentially. And I'll take any questions you may have as well. All right. for our town manager. Mr. Vice Mayor, I ask you first. Need to unmute Vice Mr. Vice Mayor. Thank you, sorry. I was impressed with the presentation and I appreciate the recommendation that's been an item of discussion. I think the approach blended, relying on resources that are local and regional is the right direction and taking time with the ordinance so that the ordinance doesn't get out ahead of the support systems that are out there. So my reaction, I'm favorably impressed with Mr. Ferra's direction at this point. All right, thank you. All right, anyone else? Let's start at this time. All right. Thank you. All right. Anyone else? Let's start this time. All right. All right. Let's see. We have this meeting tonight and we're starting something. And this is the start of something that we don't have, at least as far as I'm concerned. I don't have a predetermined end point. We don't want to just, well, let's hurry up and get an ordinance. This isn't a case of out of sight, out of mind. have responsibility as a council to serve the needs of the our fuller community and that means everyone in the community not depending on your status or state of housing and we know that this was an easy subject to cover it would have been taken care of already. But just seeing the volume of organizations that are working toward this and we see the volume of need, we know that we'll have to approach this as has been said in a collaborative effort. The town wants to move forward and honestly as I saw emails coming in and different organizations providing input, some of it I could take it as maybe critical to a certain degree but the majority of it was let's work on this together and I think that's what the town wants to do to work on this together. We can't use law enforcement. That's not respectful of taxpayer money or individual freedom to say, well, let's just lock people up to get people off the street. At the same time, I don't think it's compassionate to have people living in conditions that aren't healthy and aren't safe setting themselves up potentially be a victim of crime or a victim of some kind of accident with limited access to get emergency services provided. So we will continue to talk tonight. You'll get more opportunity. But we, as council, will continue to talk with one another and staff. I'm not in our hurry to get an ordinance on the books. I do appreciate the point that we have to have some kind of a foundation to stand on. But we aren't looking for our foundation as the way of a stick to try to use against other people. We're looking for a foundation as a way to maintain health, safety, and security, and welfare for the whole of our community. And the whole of our community, again, is everybody. Now, I can talk too much, so pardon me. But I do want to say that, you know, I spent 30 years in residential construction. I didn't do it because it would make me rich. I did it because I enjoyed it, but also the fulfillment of building a home for someone and seeing how much difference that makes in lives. From there, I want human services and work with the county CSB in residential settings for individual intellectual disabilities. So managing group homes. Again, housing for people with special needs would recognize how important housing is is. From there, I did work part time as a construction supervisor for a handover habitat. From there, I've worked a few years in Richmond of inner city youth teaching woodworking and carpentry skills, trying to help with job training, but also we rehabbed a couple of houses in the Richmond area for the idea of working with some nonprofits there. So I'm not bragging about what I have done and I'm not ashamed of what I have done. I just want to say my background is housing. And so, concerned in a little bit, maybe intimidated in taking this up, but as far as I'm concerned, what we're trying to do is to provide a lead that maybe if it hasn't been done somewhere else, so what, with all the people that have commented and given this feedback, that tells me that that's not people that are rising up to fight the town, that's people that are rising up with the town. And so we are convening a lot of organizations for the sake of let's look at this from as many angles as we can to try to find solutions. So I'm thinking I'm speaking pretty much not for, but at least in consensus with my peers on council to say that's our starting point, believe it or not. That's our starting point, so now I will be quiet and invite individuals who will move to citizen input time, but I do want to give opportunity if there's anyone who came tonight to speak to council on a different matter than the public hearings or this homelessness issue I would invite you to come up this time. All right, that's what I expect, if you want to be open to that. So at this point, I invite people that want to speak concerning this homelessness. I don't want to issue challenge, purpose, task, whatever you want to call it. I don't want to say anything that's derogatory or either misleading. But if you would, you come up, identify yourself by name and address so we have good record of who spoke. I will ask a show of hands of who wants to speak, who would like to speak. All right, looks like only eight, nine, and I know some people may hear something and think, it's been said, some people may hear something and say this was left out I still want to speak. So I think if you don't mind and this isn't the last chance or the last conversation, but I'll say come up if you would and try to stay at three minutes and we can continue that conversation face-to-face in another time by email or even subsequent meetings. All right. So I'll have to let y'all decide. Don't take too long. We'd come up in whatever order or if one person wants to come forward and we can have two people in the back of the room, sort of a baseball who's on deck, who's in the hole in such All right to move this along smoothly and respectfully for other matters that are waiting on agenda. All right. Thank you Absolutely So I'm Patricia Cook. I live at 4 or 2 Virginia Street Been in the town of Ashland for more than 25 years I in my day job and one of the executive team at Bailey Planet Health. So I'm a physician and I take care of people who are homeless. Our organization served about 6,000 people in the Greater Richmond Continuum of Care last year that met the HRSA definition of homelessness. There's some technicalities to get around in terms of HUD definitions of homeless and HRSA definitions of homeless. HRSA definition of homeless meets the McKinney-Binto definition of homeless that we use in schools, which are children at risk of homelessness, children that are doubling up with people, people living long-term in our hotels here in Ashland, people living long-terms in campgrounds, and shelters not meant to be for human habitation. So I see people every day in clinic, and I help run the clinic and plan our outreach things. So a couple of pieces, as I got called to the round table, I was like, oh, I live there, I'm going to go to that one. And I think the town management's moving in the right direction. I don't think you had the right stakeholders at your first meetings because daily plan has been around 55 years. We've been doing outreach in this town for more than 10 years. We come here more than once a month all the time. I see people from those woods. So I think you didn't know that you didn't have everybody in the room yet until April 21st. And I appreciate that you kept going and going and going and trying to get more and more input because you are part of the COC already. Hanover CSV is part of the COC. It's not just nonprofits. It's a continuum of government and nonprofit groups. So you already there, you already are a stakeholder. I think the thing over the past 20 years is we just haven't had as many patients that needed the help here, Right? We're seeing that number go up. We're seeing that number go up across the country. I'm seeing people in clinic. I'm seeing people come to our medical recovery shelter from our Ashland Woods area. Right? I'm seeing people in front of my house too. So it's obviously becoming a more public or a more pervasive issue. And one, we're going to need a big, you've mentioned a tool belt. A tool belt is a good analogy. I was thinking of that same one. We need a big toolbox, right? Because a homeless person might be a child living in a hotel. A homeless person might be a 73 year old who's rent went up and they could no longer afford their house on there that they've lived in 35 years on their fixed income. It might be somebody who's been working to hang in drywall and had to have cardiac bypass surgery and lost the ability to do their job and lost their house. It might be somebody who worked every day at the Walmart, but they got hit on going up route one on their scooter. Their scooter got hootled and they no longer had a way to get to work at the lost their house. So there are so many different situations that lead to homelessness. One solution is not going to fix all of them and we need this coordinated outreach among people like us who do medical and behavioral health and substance use disorder kinds of services as well as outreach and case management. Our shelter providers, our rapid rehousing providers, our moments of hope colleagues, all the folks who come together to try to find solutions and hold people together. Sickness can make you homeless. Homelessness will make you sick. An unhoused person's life expectancies 48 years old. 48 years if you're living outside. So this is, it's a health problem, it's a problem where the majority of women experiencing homelessness have been victims of sexual violence. Other folks have a higher rate of violence. So as far as taking care of our neighbors in this town, and we've always been that Valentine town, right? I can tell you the song. Part of our town mission, I think, is to take care of all of our people from both sides of the tracks. And I think as part of that, we have the opportunity to pass on making camping illegal, but go after the behaviors that are illegal, the littering, the drug use, the profanity, any violent acts. Those things are all illegal, right? But sleeping outside because you don't have a place to sleep shouldn't be illegal. If you're not breaking a law, and that's the difference, I feel like. And I feel like we have the opportunity to put things in place to help people not be in that position. It's a unique community. It's a small town. It's really highly resourced as far as small towns because we have a college. We have all kinds of great neighbors here. We have a foundation, we have the ability to set up something in conjunction with the already existing services that could put us in the news and make us notorious for all the right reasons, right? Make us the place that starts some new accessory dwelling unit zoning, some new tiny home villages. Instead of four or five different charities giving hotel owners two nights of hotel payment at a time, why don't we not have a block of tin rooms there that we're doing some sort of coordinated entry for? Do we have churches coming together for emergency weather shelter when it's six degrees outside, putting people on a bus to Richmond shouldn't be the answer when it's six degrees outside. And that's what happened from this county on Martin Luther King weekend. They were sending people to us. Can RICO County was sheltering their own people? Hanover County was sending people to us. So it's time for this county to step on that and acknowledge that this is part of our reality and we need to be part of the solutions. I am more than willing to volunteer on any committees that you want to talk about, that you want to talk about solutions. I think that this is an opportunity for us to flip the script and go in a very progressive positive. volunteer on any committees that you want to talk about, that you want to talk about solutions. I think that this is an opportunity for us to flip the script and go in a very progressive, positive way with this. So I appreciate you taking time to think about it. Sure, thank you very much. My name is Betty Hayes. And with moments of Outreach. I have been with Moments of Hope for almost 11 years. October will be 11 years. Would you pull the mic? I'll pass that. Thank you. There you go. That's the first time I've ever had to use a microphone. I'm trying to be really nice because I'm doing great. Have a big mouth. In an I agree with every single word she said out of her mouth. In Ashland, I live right outside the town limits. I've been a Hannah of a resident most of my life, except when I was married and lived in Texas. This town has a heart, but our homeless people are part of our heart. A lot of them grew up here, and they're not going to leave handover. They want to stay in handover. But we've got to find a way to provide more mental health. We've got to figure out a way for drug peer support. We've got to figure out, because us put them in a hotel for two nights, get you out for two nights. That is what it does. But if we can work together with all the other agencies, because I get a phone call at least twice a week, can you come? And I'm coming. There's not an agency here that's called me. That can say I do not come. I come every time. But I believe the next homeless count is July 24th. If you have never participated in a homeless count, I ask you to call around and see who you can walk with and through those woods and see the difference in what you can do and what you need to do, but I agree, sleeping in a tent shouldn't be illegal. Just because you have nowhere to stay. I served 90-year-old women that get $87 a month in Social Security. What are they supposed to do? What are they supposed to do? And I think about my mama. She's 81. What would we do? And that's what I see every week. We served about 1,200 people of Hanover residents through the food pantry last month. I just ask you to please look at the people and talk to the people. Make wise decisions, you're doing a great job. I'm not a town resident, I don't get a vote on this, but I'm just asking you. Please, please, please. Go meet the people. All right. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Nelson Parker. I'm the executive director of Moments of Hope Outreach. Thank you for allowing us this opportunity. Just to give you a little bit of background on myself, I've been involved with the unhoused for some 12 plus years. And 2015, I bought a house, I have a block from where I live and took three guys off the streets, gave me a job and doing it ever since. There's a lot of creative ways to solve this thing and I love the fact that you guys are open to it. We are part of the COC, but we don't take any federal funding, so we are very, very flexible. That's exactly what we do. One of the niches we opened up a resource center in the city of Richmond, three blocks from where I live, on Chamberlain Avenue, near Brooklyn Park in Chamberlain. And we found there was a gap, so to speak, for families with kids. There's no walk-in shelter for families with kids. So we would work with daily planet, Catholic charities, and we would house them in a motel until the bed became available in the family shelters. And so last year we spent upwards of $50,000 in motel stays for the year. This year, right now, as of today, we're probably $90,000 in motel stays, just to fill that gap. So your outreach workers here from Daily Planet would see a family that has need, they'd call us, and then we would bridge that gap until they knew that there was a bed that was available. Some of the other ideas and I'd love to meet with anybody, more than willing to, is camping in terms of if you had a designated place that was fenced in an acre plot or something like that. I looked at that in the city of Richmond. We found the perfect place, but it just didn't happen in time and some of my private ended up renting it. But a dumpster and a portage on? 500 bucks a month. That's all you spend. They can get the free camp and get gear because that's what we give out is tents and sleeping bags. Unfortunately, some of those tents were probably ours. But any event, more than willing to work with anybody to be open to anything, the one thing that we don't talk about enough is that housing isn't the only solution. It's community around the person that lives in the housing. And And that's what I've been doing for 10 years. The guys that live in my house, they now have jobs, but I've had instances where most of the people in my house were making a thousand bucks a month on disability. Okay, how much can they afford and rent? So the rent in my house is 450, all inclusive comes cable, washer, and dry the whole works. That's affordable housing for the folks that we're talking about. And you've got to create some. What I would encourage hand over to consider is the ADU ordinance that the city of Richmond passed two years ago allows you to build an ADU by right as a property owner. Now it has to be built to code but I can build one and I have plans to build one. The VCU seniors designed one now I got to get an architect, get the drawings and I've got a property that I can put one and we'll use that as a model. But there was somebody in Richmond that built one for $35,000, which is very, very cheap. But at the rents, like $500, it becomes very affordable and you can get your money back in six or seven years. So there are some creative ways to address the housing piece, but the community piece is huge. There's an in by a quote from Alan Graham who is the CEO of Community First Village in Austin, Texas. I would highly recommend that you look up on the internet. They have 600 chronically homeless living in a tiny village. And his definition of homelessness is, homelessness is the result of a profound catastrophic loss of family. Most of these people have burned their bridges with their families. What we do as non-profit is try to build relationship with them, get them in a good place, and then hopefully they can reunite with their families. But that's the game changer. Is the secret sauce, is the community. Thank you very much. Thank you. Hello, I'm Kendra Grimes. I live on John Street here in Ashland and serve as the chaplain at Randolph-Macon College. For tonight's discussion, I feel like a lot of us in the room are only picturing a handful of people who camp in the woods or ask for money on the side of the road, but I want to be sure that everybody understands that the problem of needing housing, need for services and support is not limited to Fiverton individuals. As a clergy person, I'm aware of a full-time employee of the town of Ashland who's currently unhoused. I'm aware of two full-time employees at Ramaphneckin College who are currently unhoused. So we're not talking about how do we help five people, and if we do this, we're talking about a serious problem that affects a lot of people. I worry that a resolution to find or to charge unhoused persons is not only not going to solve the problem, but going to make it even harder for those persons to take the next steps toward jobs or apartment leases or whatever they need next. I think what we need are more services, not just meals and motels, but social workers, people who can build ongoing relationships with those in need to build trust, just like daily planet has started doing, but ongoing and multiple community resources working together, helping support persons, setting goals, reaching goals. There are many creative models and partnerships, but we need time to come up with a plan. Perhaps we could apply for grants to hire someone to lead this effort. Maybe we could rally our faith communities in town for funding, for volunteers, for other resources. We could get a social work intern from VCU's Master of Social Work program. I learned today of Virginia Nursing School, his Master's program is sending students not to medical centers but communities for projects like this. Seminary interns from Union Presbyterian Seminary. They have a Master's of Public Theology that one of our clergy is a part of and who's passionate about housing. These would be resources, graduate school interns who have updated knowledge, a passion to make a difference, and typically work at no cost to the host site. Could we be more creative by using these resources? Continuing to connect with the wonderful nonprofits and organizations and Richmond who are already miles ahead of us and discovering what's working and what doesn't, how we can best assist those who are camping in our town. Again, trust me, the problem is not five or ten people who need meals and motels. Meals and motels are helpful, especially during the worst of winter or summer or during rainy periods. But the folks in our town need a long-term plan. They need health and mental health services, medications. They need help finding meaning and purpose in each day. To know that they can contribute to our community, they're not just asking for help, but they have something to give. Could we create a day shelter program that rotates among church fellowship halls with a different host each week where meals are provided activities and projects, where they do something that either brings an income or helps others in the community, transforms who these people become in our community. The environmental concerns, how many high school and college students in our area need service hours? What about a monthly cleanup? Whether the town organizes that, or we find it nonprofit, or a face- a phasing, maybe we could address that in that way. Working together to support our unhoused neighbors I think is the answer rather than making their situation even harder to escape from. We would make headlines for being an amazing community if we could enact some of these things that we're talking about tonight. Or we could make headlines as the first locality in the Metro Richmond area to pass an ordinance like this since the change in court. So is this what we want to be known for? Is this who we are? Remember, we're not talking about five or ten people. We're talking about many in our town. We can't expect or ask our police officers to be social workers. That's not fair. But we can pool our resources, share our energy, create a creative model where anyone experiencing homelessness can have more than just a list of services that they can contact. But social workers, someone to get to know them, to encourage them, to challenge them, to help them move forward, to something better for them and for our town. Ashland, Ashland Center of the Universe, Ashland Virginia, my hometown, just a whistle stop on the RFMP, but you'll never find a better place to be, where you get more for money than you pay in your tax and the best people live on both sides of the tracks. I feel like we're talking about both sides of the tracks and I hope we'll live into who we say we are. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Mayor, Council members. My name is Tom Lynch and I live in the Providence neighborhood just outside of town. Been there for almost 10 years now and I'm close to that as well as a pastor at First Baptist Church of Ashland. I'm also the co-chair of the Hanover Church's network. My other co-chair is over here, Sandra Hines, with St. Paul's out in the county. And also, first Baptist, pretty recently, has convened a Hanover housing coalition, and I'm chairing the steering committee to that. We've recently hired a contractor with help from Duncan Memorial United Methodist Church to help professionalize our work a little and to put an engine behind affordable housing in our county and in our town. I'd like to thank the town council for hosting this important discussion and giving homelessness attention in our community. So often the people experiencing homelessness are ignored. I want to commend to you the town staff, especially Martha Miller, who convened a critical group of stakeholders on April 21st. I think April 21st was actually a starting point related to this challenge in helping house our neighbors. This evening I'm asking the town council to delay or dismiss any votes on the camping ordinance. We've already had positive results in housing, some of the folks that were living in town through the daily planets work. With more time working together as town staff and council, churches, government agencies, and nonprofits, we can develop actual tools that build and mechanisms that provide our community a way to respond to difficult realities in hospitable and generous ways. If I can be a partner in helping address this community challenge, please let me know. And also please consider delaying or tabling the camping ordinance. Thank you. All right, thank you. Hi, good evening, Councilor. Good evening. My name is Charles Fitzgerald. I'm from Richmond, Virginia with Moments of Hope. I've heard so much. I really got caught up when you started talking about housing because back in 2008, I met a, I'm joined the organization that said housing must come first. And it took me a while to understand that the average homeless person, you have a lot of homeless people receiving disability at 900, 800, 900 a month. but they don't have the opportunity to get a house in them because they can't come up with a deposit. And the organization that I was working with was like, who came up with the deposit in any way? Just let them pay the rent. And I have been doing housing since 2008. And a lot of the people that we work with at moments of hope, the first thing I realize is they have income, but they can't get housing. I talked to a young lady today, three months pregnant with a two-year-old, just became evicted last month, and she applied for an apartment and they wanted three times during I mean who does that you know, so I'm looking more so at How do we work with the people that are homeless? How do we work with the people that are in the camps and the tents and looking at the income dealing with it whatever issue that made them length them To was getting homeless something happened because that happen. And then that's working with that through the Delta planning, through capital charities. And then through the housing piece, you know, on the way up here, I was saying, I'm a home owner. And I reached out to an apartment complex. I was like, if I can get two apartments in my name, rented, and rented to some people that want to fix the income, because of what we're paying for hotels, it's like crazy. I'm paying 2,000 for one person in a hotel. Why not get an apartment and pay 1,500? And I can put two people in it. I'm not a rocket scientist, but I do math pretty good. That's good math. You know, so, and that's what I'm looking at. How do we provide, get homeless people from out of the tents into a housing and get them sheltered love and put on services around, you know. That's that's, you know, my look at that. I thank you. I thank you. Thank you. Mayor, councilmembers, thank you very much for having this meeting tonight and offering the opportunity for folks in the community to speak. My name is Sandra Hines. I'm a Hanover County resident, been a resident for Hanover County for 25 years. The outreach coordinator from my church, St. Paul's Episcopal Church at Hanover Court House, also member co-chair of the Hanover Church's network. I have frequent Ashland weekly, you know, I'm in Ashland, I take advantage of your retail, of your restaurants, the events that Ashland puts on. Fully aware of the homeless situation, I think we all are, that's why we're here. Mr. Farhar, appreciate the dedication of the allocation of funding for the budget to try to address some of the things that we're doing here. The folks that you all appear to be more concerned about are the ones that are in the tents in the areas that you've already explained that area. Just like everybody else said, homelessness is not just someone who's sleeping in a tent, but it appears that the reason why you are trying to bring this ordinance together is because kind of targeted to those folks who are in public areas. And I do agree that that is a problem. We don't want to see it in our neighborhood. When we have events in the town of Ashland, we don't want to see the folks that are sleeping on the benches or tooling around looking for money. But unfortunately, in the environment of our nation, that's the way we are everywhere we go. And Ashland is a beautiful community. It is wonderful. I love it. Big part of that. And but I think that one of the solutions, maybe not the solution would be to not create an ordinance but to address these individuals directly. If that's what the proponent is here to remove those folks from the public areas, then let's go to those as Ms. Hayes said, when you do a public accounting of homeless, you could do a count today this evening at 8 o'clock, but it's going to be different tomorrow at 9 o'clock. So that number is going to be a little bit different. I would like to just make a couple of suggestions for solutions that are not going to be immediate, some of which, you know, let's determine the number of people that are in the tents. Could we possibly create a temporary shelter here in Ashland, whether or not that's something that I think that was brought up about allocating a block of rooms at a hotel. Of course, that would take coordination with that hotel manager and owner. Are there areas in Ashland where the town or the county perhaps owns a piece of property that we could present that as a temporary shelter? I'm sure that if we could pull our funds from all of the resources that are available, I'm sure that there's a lot of organizations out there that would help fund that. Your participation in Habitat Humanity, I know that you appreciate what that work does for individuals. A resource center, moments of hope has that in the city of Richmond. Wouldn't that be great for us to have a resource center here? Whether that's in the church organization, public organization, the town office, somewhere like that. But lastly, I would ask that you do delay your decision on this ordinance so that we can pull our resources a little bit stronger and advise the council more so as a cohesive group to either delay or dismiss that possible ordinance for those. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? Good evening. My name is Robert Bickford, 205 College Avenue. I wanted to thank Josh for really outlining pretty much what I wanted to talk about. I think a foundation that the town needs is an ordinance which is compassion. I'm very impressed with everyone who has spoken tonight. My notes here say I'm sure there are some organizations out there that can help us. And there are. And I encourage us to engage with them. But I would like to urge you to support this approach, give our people and our town the ability to take the next step and with a self-foundation behind them. So thank you very much for your time. Thank you, sir. Thanks. I would ask if you do want to speak, go ahead and stand at the back of the room so we can get an idea. Again, we've got people here for various reasons, all of them important. So I want to make sure we respect their bice time. Welcome. Thank you. I'll be very quick. Members of Council, it's grateful, very grateful for the opportunity to speak to you. My name is Patricia Leonard Higgins. I live in the county on Higley Oaks Lane, but I'm a proud graduate of Henry Clay Elementary School and Patrick Henry High School the year before your mayor. I am the commissioned ruling elder, which is Presbyterian language for lay pastor at Ashland Presbyterian Church. And it's in that capacity that I am here this evening. I know I came a little late because I had a seminary class, but I know you've heard many important and compelling thoughts this evening. And I had one, only one, to add. I appreciate that you took my email and your responses were appreciated as well. On the farm where I live, I have two sheep. And this morning when I was feeding those sheep in the fog, I was reminded of something, even being a Presbyterian, of something that Pope Francis said that in one of his earlier ministries, and that was the shepherd should smell like his sheep. And I certainly hope that's not literally true of me here tonight, but that's an important lesson for all of us to remember in this effort together that in this issue of homelessness, we're very, very close to each other. It doesn't take much for us to be the ones to also experience this. We're all in the same fold, and this is an opportunity for us to look after the ones others at us in our flock who are in need of help. Thank you very much. Thank you. Good evening, Mayor. My name is Sherry Hedrick. I'm the Executive Director of Hanover Safe Place, and I've been in that position for 19 years, almost 20 years, and Hanover Safe Place provides services for survivors of sexual and domestic violence, and one of the things we do is provide shelter here in Ashland. I have been doing work in the sexual and domestic violence field, housing, transitional housing, homelessness for 28 years. And I think many of us in this room, and many of us that were at Josh's meeting or the town's meeting in April are experts in this field. And some of the key points I want to address where I as well in opposition of the ordinance for a few reasons. And I wanted to say those and then I also like many others want to echo some recommendations. I think the challenge with this is it punishes poverty and not crime. That's what this ordinance does. Homelessness is a result of systemic failures, not personal ones. And it criminalizes behavior, it criminalizes behavior like sleeping in public for people who are simply trying to survive. It also makes it harder to escape homelessness. One of the things that was brought up in our meeting that we had as a collective is that the second offense would make individuals, they could not receive public housing assistance. Once they are found guilty of the second offense, they would not be eligible for resources that are actually available to them. And that is, I think fearful for me, as somebody who works at an agency where we work daily to get people into permanent housing, once they found their self homeless. I also think it misuses public resources. The cost of law enforcement, the cost of bringing it to the courts I think could be better served by using the resources we have already have in place. I love the selection, the things that people have proposed, but I would argue we have the tools to address the issues that we're facing today. We don't need new services. We might need new ways of doing them. Why might we might need to come together differently, but the continuum of care has a robust offering of services that are here to serve Ashland, and we're willing to do so, that was spoken by everybody who was at the meeting earlier at the town. Sorry, okay. And also, it doesn't, my problem with the ordinance is it doesn't address the root crime, the root causes. And people have talked about this. We've got systemic issues in our community and in our nation that lead people towards homelessness. And my fear is we're putting the burden of solving this issue on the individual who is unhoused and not the community and the COC who has resources to make a difference in our community. One of the reasons it pains me to say I do not live in the town of Ashland. We did for nine years. My husband and I both work in the town of Ashland and we chose Ashland as a community. We just found a great house right out off of Chapman. And we chose Ashland because it is a community. My, both my work and my husband's work are about helping people thrive, helping people grow, helping people be the person they want to become. And we chose Ashland. Sorry. Sorry. Because that's, I think, what is in Ashland's heart. And like many have said, my kids went to the elementary school here. We loved that it was a diverse school that addressed many of the issues that kids face. I served on the PTA for years. We have a lot of issues that individuals take care of. I can share with you the principal would take kids to get immunizations with the parent in hand because Transportation was an issue. We have a backpack program in the schools our high schools High school has a food pantry and a clothing closet because we have families in need I think we are a community that comes together and surrounds supports. And I feel like this ordinance puts the cart ahead of the horse. The older I get, I say those things and I'm, but I think we all know what we're saying in that, I'm not saying a legal response, shouldn't be a tool, but maybe we don't use that tool yet. Maybe we put forth the efforts that already are in place. And I don't think we've acknowledged the work that the police department has done, but I think the challenge is, I don't think it should ever have been a pulling issue to begin with. People aren't committing crimes. They're trying to survive. And I think the resources we have in place, many of which have been shared today, and honestly we haven't even scratched the surface of resources, can make a difference in our community. And I love Kendra's talk about how we can be, really a model of what we want to do. I think we've been a model in a lot of other ways, and that's what attracts a lot of people to Ashland, and I think we can provide model services around this issue as well. Thank you all for your time, I appreciate you. Thank you. All right, at this point, I would like to say, we appreciate all the input. There are other ways, like I say, emails, individual conversations, what have you? Mr. Mayor. Yes sir. Before you move on we did receive several public comments before 3pm today. Some of those speakers who didn't think that were going to be here actually spoke tonight. So I'm worried that letter but there was one speaker that wished to have their words heard and if I could read that letter. Yes sir. To the record. That's a great example of other ways to write in. But this letter is from Mr. Rob Vaughn of 13887 Stanley Park Drive. Dear Ashland Town Council, the public policy towards unhoused persons may appear simple but is exceedingly complex. Thank you for receiving my comments as I'm married into the Ashland community 48 years ago And after four years at RMC And now was not only feet from the town limits on Stanley Park Drive as a retired United Methodist clergy person My last 25 years of ministry was as a lead pastor at the community of faith United Methodist church in Herndon where we provided groceries to over 300 families per week Many of our families were only a paycheck away from becoming unhoused. Our client friends were folks who fell between the cracks, earning too much from their multiple jobs to qualify for assistance, and too little to maintain their household. Due to the high cost of housing, over 75,000 in annual income was required to live with that need of assistance for a family of four. As a small local congregation, we found it was not uncommon for persons to sleep in their cars, termed camping, which we would allow in our parking lot, and we were blessed to have shower facilities to make available as they sought to maintain employment. And our community Fairfax County Parks offered the same shower opportunities for a dollar. We would also have a social worker to service our food clients. For several years we combined resources from area churches and businesses enabling the hiring of a social worker to work individually with our common client load to help family stability. These were just a few of the actions our local church did. We learned in Fairfax that a multidisciplinary approach is the only way to help individuals move from being unhoused or to becoming unhoused. Like other large jurisdictions providing a permanent safe and secure place to live is the foundation to stability. In the last few years, the county took the lead in establishing a regional task force to better seek solutions. Each unhoused individual has their own unique set of circumstances that have led to the present situation. Although a common threat among the most chronic is some level of mental illness. Confronting individuals and families is both complex and frustrating. However, criminalizing their life situation and poverty is simply immoral. I hope and pray the conversation about the proposal ordinance might offer an opportunity to the town of Ashland to be the leaven in the bread of a regional approach to working with persons who are unhoused. Recognizing that political boundaries have no bearing on this complex concern working together in the greater Richmond area might be successful more successful and humane that a fracture the response from the local jurisdictions. Ashland could be the initiator in the beginning of such cooperation. Thank you, Reverend Rob Vaughan, 13887 Stanley Park Drive, Ashland Virginia. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Clerk. All right. We'll bring it back to Council just for comments or thoughts about this evening or what you see is a path forward. And Mr. Vice Mayor, because you're out of sight, I want to go to you first to make sure I don't leave you out. Well, I thank you, Mr. Mayor, for that special privilege of going first. Yeah, whether that's a privilege or not, we'll talk about later. No, but I still appreciate very much the comments. I think they put what the town manager presented in a better context based on experience. And I'm sure that we not rush rush into this, that we be careful that if we do adopt the ordinance that we're not having the impact of primarily criminalizing the homeless, and I don't think that's the intent. Clearly it's not based on the staff's presentation, but I think the respect, all the comments that have been heard and they will help. I think this is an issue. As I understand it, we don't need to make a decision tonight. The ordinance is on May 20th agenda. We do have to make a decision then. But tonight, I think the direction I'm hearing is let's take our time and do what's necessary to make a decision then, but tonight, I think the direction I'm hearing is, let's take our time and do what's necessary to make this a comprehensive approach rather and appearing to be oriented to the ordinance. I hope that's helpful. Yes sir. It is. We have to go ahead. Okay. I appreciate all of the comments that I heard tonight as well. And I agreed we don't need to rush this. So even if it does come before us, we could vote to defer. So that doesn't, so don't feel like if it does come before us, that it has to be that night and it's a big deal. Like it's done it one and done. I mean, but what I was, what I did find curious when I was listening, I don't know if the town has the stomach for it, but I am interested to entertain the idea of those who need to live in a tent. If that's the case, regardless of what we've tried, if they just have to live in a tent, I'm curious to see if we could go with a permitting situation where they have to follow rules and the place has to be clean and the stream has to be taken care of. And I'm not saying that the town's going this direction, please don't misinterpret that at all. I'm just saying I would like to entertain the idea of seeing what that might look like. Honestly, I'm not sure why I never really thought about the town buying a small house and making it so that people who work for the town can live in a house and not be unhoused, but that was the first knowledge to me. I mean, I don't know. I have been in a homeless situation before. Did I understand that it's not easy? And sometimes it's embarrassing. It's just one of those things. I do have others, but I just kind of want to probably do that offline with you, Josh, because I don't want to stumble through my words and say it all wrong and then it come out and they're like, what was he talking about? But I just want the people to know who spoke and who have written to us. I know, Ms. Cook gave us a very lengthy document. It opened my eyes to a lot of things that wasn't ready to respond. So that's, I kind of felt bad and I given you an early response, but I was like, I don't know, you know more than me and I'm learning. So I do appreciate what everyone has said and there are things to consider. But I'm still, I still understand why the town manager is asking for there to be a mixed approach, not to criminalize homelessness, but there has to be an incentive for somebody to take resources and accept it and follow rules, there has to be some type of incentive. And so I think we can come to a good solution. I just doubt it's going to be done by May 20th. Just say it. All right. I'm done. That's good. All right. Well, I wrote this earlier today. I've been scratching out of all evening long. But the first thing I want to say is, excuse me, how incredibly encouraged I am with all the talent that's sitting in this room because this is the Ashlyn away. This is, you're here tonight, you're sharing all this valuable information with us. Quite frankly, I didn't know half of these things existed in our town. And I'm just so excited that we're here having a conversation because we care about what is going to happen in our town and the people that are in our town. So I'm just so encouraged and thankful that you all have taken the time to come here this evening. I'm also in in my mind and you guys have also identified this that there seems to be three specific areas for us at least. One is our residents, the five to seven folks that seem to be living in our wooded area near Walmart. Other ones is the transient group that's coming up and down 95 that sometimes, and I have found them to be quite aggressive, even to me, sometimes in the shopping centers that make me a little nervous. But also, I think the group that I'm really most concerned with is the one that often falls to the cracks because I tried to help some folks, and that is the single mom and the little family. The folks that just simply sometimes need a helping hand and we, I don't, I thought I could help them and I couldn't even help this young man and his girlfriend. I just didn't know where to go. So again, I'm extremely encouraged to know that these things are here for us and we can possibly take advantage of. And tonight, you know, our main focus does seem to be what we can do with that five to seven residents that seem to be living in our wooded areas and how that camping in And ordinance is going to affect them. I know that that residential area that group out there in camping has been there for a very, very long time. You know, 1980s when I first started teaching here, I knew of the folks that lived in that area. And so I know it's been in our community for who are looking for the right to be able to see the people who are looking for the right to be able to see the people who are looking for the right to be able to see the people who are looking for the right to be able to see the people who are looking for the right to be able to see the people who are looking for the right to be able to see the people who are looking for the right to be able to see the people So we are a town that's tried to be very respectful of those individuals. I think that we've tried to be very respectful of their living conditions and the decisions that they have made to live there. We all agree that the conditions there are not stable, they're not healthy, and the area has been left unsightly. When we know that there has been a private property owner that's shared with us $33,000 to clean up an area with all the trash and things that was left behind and that's not fair to that individual either. So I have been doing a lot of research as to what we can possibly do partially because I just again did not know some of the things that were available to us here in Ashland. I've looked at Oregon, I've looked at California, I've looked at the city of Richmond, I know that they, you know, in their budget had 400, pardon me, $4.3 billion, million, million dollars, I wish they had a billion, million dollars in their 2024 budget to address this issue, and some of that of course has gone outreach around the Richmond area. But for us to put together a state of the art homeless program, top notch here in Ashland with the medical facilities and with social workers, the electricity, the water, the food, etc. It would take us hundreds of thousands of dollars to do that. And we just simply at this point in time don't have the resources to do that. If we go down the road of passing this ordinance, which has been put in place by our Virginia assembly, it would allow us to, you know, legally address an issue that we see as a problem. But we are not trying to criminalize these people. That is, again, not the Ashland way. So if we choose that we are a decide or need to go down that road, it simply is not because we don't care, it's because perhaps we have run out of other sources. And I think, you know, I'm cross this line out, I feel like we do have the resources now from listening to all of you to at least try and address that issue before we go down the road of passing that ordinance. I think that we, you know, you have a piece of the puzzle. You have a piece of the puzzle. You have a piece of the puzzle. And we do too. So I'm so encouraged that we could possibly put all that together and do something incredibly special in this town. town. And you know our town council is very happy to take the time and make every effort to explore all the available opportunities. I know I speak for all of us when I say that before we have to take the time and make every effort to explore all the available opportunities. I know I speak for all of us when I say that. Before we have to take any legal action, I know that we'd like to go down that road and see what we can possibly do to make it better for us. And I do want people to understand, though, should we decide that we have to go down that avenue? It's only going to be because we have seriously worked to look for other solutions. It's not going to be on a whim that we're going to make that decision. So I really encourage that we have seriously worked to look for other solutions. It's not going to be on a whim that we're going to make that decision. So I really encourage that we have made the $10,000 donation that we're talking about the workshop that Martha Miller might be hopefully running in the next few months and weeks. I'm so excited about the meetings that we've already had with the key community members. So excited about the what the churches might be able to do for us and so on and so forth. So I just want to say that I'm so, again, incredibly grateful that everyone in encouraged came out tonight to talk to us about this because we don't just have to turn a blind eye to this issue. We can actually tackle it and do something really great here in Ashland. All right. Thank you. Miss Opal? I don't have any comments. Okay. Thank you. Okay. I want to say that we are trying to take this one step at a time. All right. So I know someone has said that it like we're concentrating on the individual's camping. Well, that's not all we want to see accomplished, but we have to start somewhere. And I'm going to say this to make you mad, OK? And I even take more time and say, the coach of the US hockey team that beat the Russians and then won the gold medal at Lake Placet. He used the strategy because he brought together hockey players from different colleges all around, different personalities, and he said what he did, he made them mad at him. He made himself the center focus so that they would unite and I'm not looking at you to be mad at me that way. But what I'm saying is this may make you mad and that the majority of what I heard tonight for solutions, there was nothing in it that the town has stopped or thwarted. So evidently, why some of these things haven't happened is because we haven't had the cooperation, we haven't had a record on the table, but hey, I'm fool enough to think, let's do it all, but let's do it all one step at a time. So that means we all have to be patient and we all have to work together. So, all right, I'm making, man, I'm calling your bluff. All right, I don't believe it was a bluff. But let's have meetings. Let's talk and see what we can accomplish. All right, the key thing to me in all of this is relationship. I heard that said more than once. Government is not good at relationship, as far as I'm concerned, and we don't necessarily need to be. We need community, and we need individuals that will spend time with people, because that's what it's to take to make a difference in someone's life, someone who will sacrifice time and effort. So it's going to take more than the town, but we've got the resources. So I want to read a response to an email I got earlier from someone on this topic and And then I'll be quiet, more than likely. All right, there we go. And I'm not gonna read the name, but anyway, hey, I think they're in the room. What they said was at the end of this, or as part of this, how wonderful it would be for Ashland for this to become a collaborative, replicable model for other localities in this regard. This is the type of example we seek to become. And honestly, that's where council is as far as I'm concerned and staff. So we're beginning a process tonight, this is me, sorry. And we hope, my hope is that together we do the absolute best we can to find solutions. If we do the best we can to find solutions, we will surely exceed the results of doing nothing, but let's do more than nothing. All right. I look forward to all of us working together to accomplish that. Now, for the sake of those on the agenda further down the line, if you're here on this other issue, just like people come for other things, if you were like to exit the room, it won't hurt our feelings. We'll just take, let's say, a five-minute break to let people, if you're going to discuss this, the meetings after the meeting, we would ask that we can shut that door or you can speak to one another outside So that we can get commenced again in five minutes and get back to our agenda. Thank you to the patients go to the next meeting. I'm going to have to go to the next meeting. I'm going to have to go to the next meeting. I'm going to have to go to the next meeting. I'm going to have to go to the next meeting. I'm going to have to go to the next meeting. I'm going to have to go to the next meeting. I'm going to have to go to the next meeting. I'm going to have to go to the next meeting. I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to go back to the front. I'm going to have to go back to the front. I'm going to have to go back to the front. I'm going to have to go back to the front. I'm going to have to go back to the front. I'm going to have to go back to the front. I'm going to have to go back to the front. I'm going to have to go back to the front. I'm going to go ahead and get the staff. I'll see you in a little later. I'll see you in a little later. Thank you. I'm just trusting everybody. Yeah, we just want to fight for the whole New York City. We're going to see what we can do. Bye, bye. you you you you you you you you you you you opening and after. Thank you. He's a teammate. I'm just waiting go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. Yeah. Yeah. So, you want the head? Yeah. Oh, yeah. I don't know. Yeah. Don't just say, I'm here to say, I can't know. I'm going to say I have to use this to make sure that I can take it in place. Right, here's the check. It's exactly right. It's a good line up. First, this. I'm going to do the same. It's a good line up. First, this. It's a good line up. First, this. It's a good line up. First, this. That's a good line up. Second, BOR. All right. Well, get ourselves back in order and get started again on the agenda. Again, thank you to those who've waited to express your comments on things as well. And I'll just turn it over to our town manager here with these two public hearing items. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. We just give it to a lady. Ah, yes, yes, yes. Yeah, I'm sorry. And I'm looking right at coach there and should know. So yes, let's go ahead and we will take Miss Frankie first. No, no, downtown Ashley's ahead of that. Boy, my paper's really marked up. Downtown Ashley Association Corley Report. I'm trying to pull it up on the screen as well. There we go. Can we, and I'm going to make a presentation. Can we, can we, can we, and see? Oh, they have to wait.'ll talk time. Should be number one on the left side. We made it so far without the Grimling showing up. They're right. There we go. Oh, that's it. I can see it. All right, thank you. All right, I'm going to take 60 seconds. First, I would like to say it was really, really cool to hear the care and compassion that you guys talked about the issue with. I was just telling the gentleman here that I dug out my QMHB board certification that aspires in 2026. So listen to this, take me back to some of the community work that I was doing a few years back. So to hear you guys talk about it with care and compassion was really refreshing. So it was always something new about Ashland that I fallen in love with or like. So I'll get through this really quick. Marketing continues to stay on par. Our sponsorship number grew from the last time I was here. We're, we're, think we're at 13 the last time we're at 15 now. We've switched over to make sure we've digitized what it sponsorships or event revenue to our platform. So as you can see there, across our digital platform there's's a large increase because we make sure everything goes through our line. The Virginia Main Street Directives retreat happened it feels like half a year ago, but that was actually in February, where we hosted all of the Main Street directors from around the state and our very own Nora spoke spoke as well as Lou and Miss Soapall showed up to support and show off our town, which we greatly appreciated. That was hosted locally at Ashenallas, which was able to benefit from that. And that was the third day of the annual directors retreat with the first two days leading us to the state capital to advocate, which I got first-hand experience to work with our state delegates and say, hey, man, this is what we do and while we do it. So that was first for me and really, really fun. We also did the women building bridges to business event at the end of March, which was hosted by our very own Lewin at Action Olive again and and of course Pam who I think she has a double because she's everywhere that I see in Asselin which I totally respect and appreciate we registered about 25 participants in the panel included local businesses and influences here in Asselin and also community finance, I'll say codes, but also a regional manager, Linda, with 30 years of experience to speak to how you position your business to take on capital and it event that your scale and on growing your business. So as we start to pick at what we do as far as entrepreneurship education and business support and figure out how we position ourselves and do that going forward. I feel like that was a good start. And timely for women's history month. Entrepreneurship and innovation to a one presentation. I got a chance to do that in the first quarter and I'll be back this month to see the pitches. of a group of professional entrepreneurs that has been picking of picking up that relationship with Randolph-Macon and trying to engage. Friends over at DIC and some of our business members like your path coaching, Dory and Kool-Ain, I know has went over there since then. And so the students get a chance to speak with Ashland specific professionals and learn more about innovation and entrepreneurship I think Dr. Marina who was at our pitch competition and judged and will be working with extensively going forward really appreciated that So this helps us continue building that relationship with Randolph-Macon And as we keep going we're in off-Macon. And as we keep going, we're in North-Macon. So we partnered with Randolph-Macon's Black Cultural Society for the history and fashion showcase. I was interested in a group of their students put on that showcase. And it was very innovative. And I got a chance to see, you know, the creativity that they would have come up with. And I've actually started to build relationships with some of those students, RJ, who is one of our students that will be joining our junior board, which we form had an application submitted to Randolph-Macon and now have our first pay junior board member Alex Heinz, of course, Miss O'Paul is met and he'll be at the Kauhanis Car Show, but just a future PA and just all around Pride student and a car enthusiast. So we're starting to really nail down those relationships with friend off making and the students and start to integrate them into what we're doing, which, you know, works a little bit towards that part and show that we have the town all the great work that Kelly does with her boots on the ground with her and off-makin and the things we're trying to accomplish there. And then lastly, Train Day was on her rise and had I presented when I was supposed to. My bad. We were planning for Train Day. Or I was to say Lou was leading the exceptional charge planning for Train Day and I always got a shot around because I mean she's just simply incredible. That has since passed I would say that first train day is in the books and we I sent out the survey to businesses I think you'd be happy to hear that today so we'll get that feedback before I call it a successful failure just to see, just, hey, you know, one down, how does everybody feel about it? Internally, it was really, really good for us, just it didn't stress our organization too much, and that was the earlier start to planning, lose meticulousness and just diligence with working with vendors and community partners and marketing it. So that's greatly appreciated. I'm looking forward to presenting the total picture of Train Day, my next meeting which I can't recall a date at this moment. And then actually on the horizon, the mystifying AI, lecture and demo, that's going to be in partnership with VCU's data analytics program and the version in AI program or data analytics program over at Randolph-Macon. VC would be present but we'll have Randolph-Macon's data analytics teams on hand and we've already We got introductions to start working with them to come up with projects with them to work on. And again, just steady working towards that partnership with brand-of-making. That's May 20th at 6 p.m. Come on out if you guys want to insider knowledge of AI. I was reading up on your day and I'm actually scared but hopefully that I get to be mystified. Again thank you guys for your support as always I greatly appreciated and just hearing all the community support here makes me understand a little bit more wide-suprivalage to work in action and on behalf of action. So any questions or anything that I can answer for you guys? Yes, sir? I'm just curious because we hear about the events a lot. And I just, what percentage of your time do you use planning events? If I had to guess, me personally. So Lou does a lot with marketing and events and I did administrative with this grant reporting, grant writing, stakeholder management, meetings, engaging, grant off-making. There's a gazillion lists. And I actually thought about your question last time. What does downtown Ashland actually do? And I had, and I thought on that, I mean, we'd do a little bit of project management or not a little bit But now we're starting to get our projects moving and Well for a real park we have our contractors in place and hopefully we get a resolution in that We just closed out the entrepreneurship current that we had which is a lot of paid for a lot of these events here I would say maybe in planning it 25% if I had to estimate I would literally have to go back and mark two hours. Well I asked this I didn't expect it like a direct answer. I'm just I'm just curious like is the organization overstressed on event planning because there's other pillars of downtown Ashland right there yeah so there's things that to be focused in time and I I just want to, I'll just be curious to know whether events are taken away too much. Is it the right amount? Is it, if I could be completely candid with you. Events help us satisfy the agreement that we have with the town you guys invest in us. You need it, our own and your investment. And we need to fundraise 150% of that. So events are a part of that, it's a part of our community engagement. Over the first 10 months in my learning curve, it's been picking up those other pillars. So, deserve it, rightfully, so the reservation is probably lagging on the most as we've worked on getting grants out the door and just learning the community Entrepreneurship economic vitality so we hope to even that up but events Look like the one thing when I stepped in fresh to it that I could latch on to and ground us in and make sure that Organizational and internally we're on the right track you you explained it the way I could not ask when I was talking to Josh on Monday. And now I think I have what I need to see in the future because I love the way you present. I love the brevity of it. I love that it's, I got facts, I got numbers. I love that, but I felt like I was missing something and I feel like when our planning director gives us her presentation, there's like certain sections where this is what's happening in that section, this is what's happening in that section. And I think if in the quarterly reports, it would help me to know if you had like each section like what's going on, what will go on, what maybe we need some more support for, or something, it would just clarify it for me, so that when I am on the street and someone says, hey, what's the downtown action thing to do again? And like, well, I don't do that every day. You know, I listen to you from time to time, I come to events, but I don't know your ins and outs. And it would help me explain that to people. Like this is what downtown, this pillar, this pillar, this pillar, and this is what they're working on. This is what they're working on. Oh, you think they should be working on that? Well, you're going to be a person. Get out of any report this year. But, and just can't, and the organization falls off the rail. And that'd be the first thing I accomplished, just failing. And so, events probably in the beginning this for a while, and I've been doing this for a while, and I've been doing this for a while, and I've been doing this for a while, and I've been doing this for a while, and I've been doing this for a while, and I've been doing this for a while, and I've been doing this for a while, and I've been doing this for a while, off making so I spent a great deal of time there. Going through just meeting with businesses, getting the note of community, things that had nature. That's a part deal of time there. Going through just meeting with businesses, getting the note of community, things that had nature. That's a part of that MOU and the four pillars that we're responsible for. But I will tell you right now, we didn't solve all of this stuff in the first 10 months. But we have a clear vision of where we're going to next 10 to 15 months. And I think we'll start to see the seeds that we planted so far grow and sprout and I think you also see uh... evil 15 to 15 months and I think we'll start to see the seeds that we planted so far grow and sprout and I think you also see If they'll continue to have us the relationship with the town continue to grow or blossom as well You answered that perfectly. I appreciate it Question yes, sir Thank you mr. Miller and congratulations on a successful train day event at least a pair of successful to the observer. I would like to echo Dr. McGraw's comments I think I appreciate the highlights that you provide but it is helpful I think to have comments on the ongoing full pillars that are part of our MOU, and appreciate you commenting on the Mid-Atlantic Brain Project, which we're looking for successful conclusion after initiating a believer 2020. So just to comment to hopefully help be helpful in the annual report of the Columbia Park that will speak to the full pillars of the well-as-for lights. Thank you. Yes, sir. Anyone else? No? All right, thank you very much. All right. And that brings up the Market Ashland Partnership introduction of officers. Ms. Kelly Frankie. Again, thank you all for your patience this evening. Speaking of thanking you for your patience, I'll interrupt the whole thing just to say, thank you former Councilmember, Ms. Terrier, for being here this evening. I'm sorry I didn't point you out further. So thank you for being here and your contributions to this tale. Good evening council members. We are excited to be here. So as a partner with the town of Ashland and downtown Ashland Association, I'm here on behalf of Market Ashland Partnership to share with you a little bit about our organization and our incredible board members. I, for the past 18 months or so, have had the pleasure and opportunity to serve as president for Market Ashland Partnership. And we have our board members here. They're gonna share a little bit more about what we do. Before we get started, Vice President is Amy Garellac, who is founder and CEO of Power Up Productions. Our secretary is Matthew J. Enderley, who is the owner and head of operations of Synergy Home Care of Central Virginia, and then our very own treasure also. Marnie Triscari is a business banking with Atlantic Union, and also a treasure of our economic development authority. All right. My goal here is to tell a little bit of background. And I happen to have a 2004 newsletter that we used to do a newsletter like every, I don't know, six months or something. So, and if anyone wants to keep this look at it, I do want it back. But I'll be glad. Because it's fun to look at. Like that in 2004, we, the town council, we helped town council lower the B poll tax. We spent $50,000 in promoting the organization and our shop, Ashland first, you know. Now it's shop local first. But, and it's just, it's just a fun look at. We had our first Ashland Street party, which it wasn't called that yet. It was, you know, and we raised $5,000 for the plaza. So just fun facts. I'm going to hand this to you, but again, I do want this one. Just give it to Kel. You can be trusted. Yes, you can be trusted. I'm going we can be trusted And she wants a back guys Just kid so to give you an idea of what we're doing right now as we continued fourth and how we positioned ourselves as an entity We focus more now on our strategic networking our co-op advertising and the resources So have our monthly breakfast meetings, latte lowdowns, which are conversational opportunities where we get together and talk about specific topics, mapy hours, which are the socials, and then valuable networking opportunities where the members get together. The co-op opportunities are really the sort of gym and the crown or where our feather in the cap for map. It is the pooled resource opportunities that small business owners may not seek out themselves. So we've gone into the media that is available and forged those types of opportunities on their behalf and brought it back to the members so whether it is a reduced cost or just something that they may not have understood and or been able to accomplish on their own so they can acquire the increased brand awareness and access to that marketing opportunity. Again, giving the opportunities to small businesses that they would not acquire on their own and then resources access to industry experts resource within effective business management all to grow and empower small business here in the Ashland and surrounding areas. Thank you. My name is Matt Enderley and I'm the Secretary of Map and I would like to thank the town of Ashland, town council for letting us speak here today. You have Lentus Kelly and she has re-energized our group and is tremendous to watch how this group has grown. And Pamela so far she's been with us since I've been here and she's been a great asset to our community. But thank you for this opportunity and the proclamation for the business of all. All right, thank you, sir. I have a comment. Yes. I've been a little under the weather this week. Probably if I had not been, I would have been just begging. Could they be B and not D? Because I wanted everyone in the room to hear about map. My association with map has been absolutely wonderful but I definitely would have asked that you have been B and not D. Thank you. Mr. Mayor. Yes sir. I't want to let the opportunity pass for congratulating Ms. Frankie for being selected for the spirit of one at the Hanover County spirit of volunteer celebration. That's quite an accomplishment not only for her personally, but for the organization, speaks well. Thanks for bringing that up. Thank you. Oh, thank you. Thanks for bringing that up. Yeah, B, D, or whatever, you all are A in our book. OK? You get A. All right. Thank you all for being here. For what's happening, and what's going to happen yet. All right, now we'll get back to where I tried to jump to gun. Public hearings. Thank you. I'm sorry about that, Mr. Goodman. So first public hearing we have this evening is required by Virginia code. We call it real estate tax rate due to increased assessments and we'll explain that a little bit further. So Virginia code requires localities to advertise a tax increase anytime real estate assessments increase over 1%. Even if the locality is not proposed proposing a rate range. Assessments in the town have increased 2.69%. In here, in turn, we have to have a public hearing. If we did what the state allows and we equalize the tax rate, it would decrease from 10 cents for hundred of a assessed per hundred dollars of assessed value to 0.097 cents per hundred of assessed value. The town is advertising a real estate tax rate of 10 cents per assessed value so the tax rate increase would technically be 0.003 per 100 less than a penny of assessed value. This is called the effective tax rate increase. Although it's not necessary at this time, but we must hold a public hearing. I'll take any questions you may have. Any questions, anyone? It's very well explained. We've got a lot of practice. We've got a lot of practice. We've got a lot of practice. We've got a lot of practice. We've got a lot of practice. We've got a lot of practice. Well, as required by law, we will open the public hearing and invite anybody who'd like to speak to this matter come up with this time This is good for the minutes because we have opened the public hearing. I see no one and we will close this public hearing and I did want to say that the town does not assess properties. That is correct. We get all that from the county. That is 100% correct. That's right. All right, Mr. Fair. All right, continuing on to the second public hearing. This is actually the budget public hearing that we are, again, by state code need to hold at least one of these. We'll talk a little bit about background. This is a much shorter presentation than we had in April. So we're really only hitting the highlights if you do have specific questions or if citizens have specific questions, happy to dive into the detail. But because we went in detail in April, this is going to be a very high level presentation. So again, the history, we've had a lot of opportunity for public input. I won't say we've necessarily received a lot of public input, but we have certainly made the opportunity that is available with unofficial budget earrings, budget work sessions, my presentation in April, and now the public hearing as well. So some of the goals that we set for ourselves as part of the budget, we wanted to, of course, have a balanced budget based on goals council has adopted or or that we've heard from the community. We certainly wanted to continue investment and connectivity. That word keeps coming up and we keep hearing more about more about our citizens wanting to get connected with one another as well as investments in additional infrastructure. I'll touch on a few of the highlights of that in the next slide. But using again, and this we'd went into detail on this in April, surplus funds from fiscal year 2024. One time revenue, we're gonna use for one time expenditures and make sure that we don't use them for operating expenses. We wanna continue to invest responsibly in our employees, even though we may be heading into economic uncertain times, competition in the region is not uncertain. It is continuing to grow. Our partners in the region are continuing to invest in their employees as well and that's going to make it tougher and tougher for us to hold on to our own. We did a lot of talking so I won't go into a great detail but we're very, I'm very proud of the budget presented in our efforts to conservatively transition off about three years of pretty heavy ARPA expenses to solely general fund funded budget. And so that, that, I'm very proud of the way that we've done that so that it doesn't have a great impact on tax rates, anything like that. And we're able to continue to offer the great services that we've been offering over the past few years. And then again, kind of with all that in mind, this coming year, the FY26 budget, we've built as what we call kind of a new baseline budget. So it's inherently gonna be conservative. Again, coming off the federal funding with a lot of economic uncertainty about what the future holds. We're gonna invest in infrastructure, but we're not gonna start a lot of new programs. We're just gonna focus on doing what we already do really well for the next year. So the proposed budget in numbers, about a 16 million general fund budget, that is up about 4.6%. Largely, that increase is due, again, to rolling those ongoing ARPA costs into the general fund, not necessarily a huge growth in what we're actually doing. The capital budget of about $6 million is down 8.35%. That's larger because, again, we've been investing heavily in infrastructure, so we've spent down some of our capital projects fund. We have about $180,000. We expect we'll roll over into fiscal year 26 from our American Rescue Plan Act Fund. Again, that was originally $8.2 million back in 2021, and we have worked with Council in the community to come up with a plan, execute the plan and implement the plan and now we are at the very tail end of making those final expenditures for that plan. That but that is a budget that in FY27 you will not see we will not have that fund because all the funds will be spent. And then we have our final special revenue front, the Central Virginia Transportation Authority fund. Again, this one is down slightly due to expected expenditures in this fiscal year that we're previously budgeted. So the Mount We're Plan to spend this year is less than the new revenue we expect next year, and so it leads to a budget decrease. I would expect that in out years to go back up in a year where we're not really planning a lot of expenditures. And all that leads us to about a $24 million or all funds budget. Overall, the budget is down 6.04% from fiscal year 2025. And so some of the highlights included in there. Again, I've already touched on the ARPA funding into operating. We're gonna have a lot of investment into core infrastructure like sidewalk, stormwater, quality of life, and asset maintenance, sidewalks and trails, 275,000 in new funding. All these numbers I'm going to share with you are new funding added to the existing funding that we have in the Capital Projects Fund. So, stormwater, another 350,000 fleet management, 400,000 parks and recreation, not including trails, 355,000, do another almost $100,000 commercial corridor improvement, and then continuing our investment in public art. Again, mention that we have limited new program offerings in light of the economic uncertainty, but we have made efforts to continue to expand upon our community engagement and tourism marketing efforts. Again, trying to grow those out to a good base level so that we can keep Dany to move forward. So, next steps. After the public hearing this evening, you have one step left, unless you ask me to change something, that's always your prerogative as well, but we would expect a budget vote on June 4th. That will take any questions you may have. Any questions at this time? Mr. Farr Mr. Vice-Mayer? No questions. Okay. All right. Thank you. We'll open the public hearing and invite anyone who would like to come forward to speak about our 2526 budget, town budget. Seeing no one, we will close that and and bring it back and say all right that's on the agenda coming up in June and we'll take care of it at that point. Very good. Thank you. Thank you very much. That brings us to our reports and we'll go ahead and start with our vice mayor if that's okay. We'll change the order. Yes. All right. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I don't have a lot to report. I would like to thank Dr. McGrath for pending on my behalf at the Central Virginia Transportation Authority meeting on April 25th. I did attend a meeting with the mayor of the Ashland County, Ashland Hanover Liaison Committee meeting. I think that I will defer to the mayor as to what to report on, but we did cover significant topics with our peers at the county. And I think we had a good conversation. And things are progressing, at least from my perspective, way they should. And again, I defer to the mayor should he make any further comment. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. All right, thank you. Ms. Soapall, thank you. Okay, yes. In the month of April, Market Ashland Partnership Met and I am the liaison and of course there was continuous business networking. On the 10th, the Board of Zoning Appeals met to hear a variance request from Sonoco and I'm also the liaison to that. Next on the 16th being liaison to downtown Ashlyn Association, there was a meeting of that group. On the 19th, I attended the Berkeley Town Heritage Park opening on the 22nd. I attended a historical presentation at Town Hall. On the 24th, I attended the Sanoco ribbon cutting. The evening of the 24th I attended a really wonderful ceremony at Randolph Macon toast to the Lengrens. On the 25th I attended the Ashland Police awards. On the 26th I volunteered at Train Day as the DAA Shuttle Bus Contact. And when the bus arrived, I was expecting a little Shuttle bus. And it was a big charter bus. And I'm thinking with all these people and all these cars, how are we going to turn around? I was supposed to ride the bus once and leave them on his own. He's like, no, you're not leaving me. I stayed on the bus for hours. But we have fun. On the second of May, I participated just by listening in on the VMI virtual town meeting and in that there were various general assembly updates. Last thing I have been enjoying great conversations with town council candidates and still conversation with one person who is still trying to decide. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. I got to say, Sinku Demaya was really cool in town, just seeing all the different businesses doing things, bringing business while having fun. So it was great. I attended the EDA. The EDA economic development authority is finishing up drafting their economic strategic plan. And so I got to witness their, I got to witness what it's like for people who watch us as we go through our strategic plan. So it was neat. That was the only thing really that was on the discussion. I enjoyed the APD's recognition. It was a nice, elegant way of handling it, and it was very family-friendly, and night. I just enjoyed it. I got to MC on the Hanover's Got Talent, the Ashland Dance Academy wanting to do more activity, which they're always doing new activities every year, there's something new they've come up with. But they actually auditioned well over 30 or 40 people. It was over 30. And they put on the stage 17 people for competition. And they actually had first place and second place and third place. And it was neat and they gave them, I think it was gift certificates to be spent in town. I think that's kind of what it kind of worked out. That was a neat event and they shared that money with the theater and with the Hanover Arts and Activity Center. The theater board met, got it, they've hired a new person to work on fundraising, so we might see some changes coming in this year that would be exciting to this. There's a person who actually was hired just for that. Like that's what she wants to do. And it's exciting to see that because all organizations struggle with a fundraising director and that really completes it. Plain RVGade meets this month but it's only to discuss compensation for our director. So it's not a boring meeting but it's not one they're like, oh you know. And so that's it. That concludes my report. Thank you. Yes, well the Arts Council and Planning have not had any means, so there was nothing to report there. Just hats off to our Emmy, the Parks and Recreation Department, you know, cut the ribbon for the Burlington County Heritage Park. And it's a beautiful, beautiful spot, and everybody was very excited. That was fun to attend. Also, we had Arbor Day, which is a lovely collaboration with Randolph-Macon and we planted a maple tree at Carter Park. Thank you to everyone that came out to support and be involved with Train Day. I know I had a great hot dog in lemonade, so I know everybody else had a good time too. had a wonderful experience attending an event at Shiloh Baptist Church, Virginia from a Clelland spoke and it was really great hearing her. And I just have to give a little secretariat update. All of the horses, all of them were related to secretariat that were in the Derby on Saturday. And I know our own group, secretariat Secretary for Virginia was really happy to take part in that event. And so all of them, all of them, all 20 of them. So very exciting. All right, all right, thank you. I don't have these in particular order and I'll just repeat some that have already been said. I know our vice mayor had mentioned our town county liaison meeting and so we had the chair of the board of supervisors, our representative for the Aspen district. They pictured the county administrator, a deputy administrator in the the planning director, Joanne Hunter. And so that was the vice mayor myself and our planning director and our town manager. And we talked about a number of things, but I'll just say that we spoke about Patriot Glenn in some discussion that we had had about accessories to that development, whether some of that could move to the county not, we discussed iron horse and the status of that as far as from Ashland's point of view in the counties, what was happening there. We talked about traffic and working with the county and trying to get a good vision of how to improve traffic flow in and around the town, especially in days ahead. And we talked about homelessness with the county to make sure that, again, they're a big partner in this. And we want to make sure that we keep that partnership with them on that issue. As already mentioned, we had the Sonoco ribbon cutting, Sonoco across 95, enjoy that. That same day, I think we had the Arbor Day celebration in the park, and then later on, the toast to the Lingerons. So that was a busy day, but a great day. A lot of things going on. Had an Ashland Foundation meeting this afternoon, yesterday afternoon, all runs together. And I'll just say the process has begun, you know, as far as what we voted on and what we expected. And so we're reviewing applications and working on selections. So more to come on that. Today, I attended a AARP, Hanover Chapter 535. They did a veteran celebration at Hanover Arts and Activity Center. And so that was very enjoyable. The manager and myself, we attended the six-year improvement plan, V.A.T. and a V.A.T. location in Colonial Heights and we spoke before the Secretary of Transportation, Shep Miller and others of the Commonwealth Transportation Board to advocate for dollars for Ashland concerning the diverging diamond and other things. Other projects are the county board supervisor. Remember, he was there as well and spoke up. And so we were there in conjunction, which is good for getting attention. I attended a verse of Virginia Risshaire and Association slash Virginia Municipal League, meeting in South Boston, Friday, last Friday, and talked about General Assembly updates. Marijuana in the workplace questions that are still ongoing. So that was a productive time. I did attend Train Day. Had a very good time. That morning I was at the dog park in the county and met a couple with two school-aged children. And they had driven down from New Hampshire to go to train day. Their first time ever attending train day, but her husband watches Aslan through virtual rail fan. So those people are out there and had another person say, it just seems so much more organized this year. And I think that might have been because of the weather kept the crowd down as well. But if the crowd was down and only made it that much more enjoyable for the ones that did attend because we weren't pushing elbows against elbows. And you always want to shout out cert, the cert team. That's community emergency response team, I believe with Hanover County, helping to keep people safe along the tracks. I attended the shallow attendance there of Congresswoman McLellan, had good conversation with her. Glad she was there. Likewise, last week, I attended a roundtable with Congressman Whitman, and that was on Social Security and Medicare and other participants. AARP was there, and maybe half a dozen that seemed like associations of area agencies on aging, the span center which used to be senior connections, and just some constituents. I can say there's a lot of attention there and I don't really care about red or blue. I think we want to talk to anybody and everybody that can help this town of Ashland get the things we need and who will be willing to listen to our voices. Attended a community foundation luncheon, they're the ones partnering with the Ashton Foundation. That was very enjoyable, learned a lot, met some more people. I attended the Ashton Police Department Awards ceremony. Again, I repeat, it was very well done. And I'll have to say that there's one officer who probably saying the best version of the Star Spangled Banner I've ever heard. So, man, what a voice. And tended to Berkleytown Heritage Park. I don't think that was since the last council meeting. That took part, took place. Met a lot of people there and one individual from Philadelphia who came down because his family was in this area and he wanted to come back and just use some reminiscent. That's enough for now. So we're all staying busy because we want to hear from the people of Ashland as we make decisions on behalf of the town. So I'll turn it over here to Mr. Jennings in the Public Works report. All right, thank you, Mr. Mayor. Good evening, members of Town Council. You have the April Public Works report as part of your packet, not like just to highlight a few things. It's that time of year again, and in April, Public Works started mowing our right-aways and in our parks. They also put down some new mulch in our parks and on our playgrounds. They also did a lot of weed spraying in downtown, especially getting ready for train day to make it look good. So that was really helpful. Work continued on two of our stormwater management projects that are partially arpefunded. First one was the Stoney Run Stream Restoration Project. That's that section of stream along Leavino between Hanover Avenue and Dejarnett Park. And the others are Maple Street Swale Project. That's that swale along the east side of Maple Street between sunny drive down to Ashcake and then around the corner over to slash drive. So that those two were currently being worked on. The PIDs are the passenger information display system that's still considered in the live testing phase. They're still assessing how they're working gathering concerns and trying to fix issues like the fine tuning of the messages or the volume of the system. Then we're still getting a few complaints here and there. And obviously one of the big disruptions in town is our England Street State Project, that waterline project, which is part one of that project is wrapping up and should be complete by the middle of this month, which is good. Access to all the businesses has been maintained, and staff has done a great job of keeping the residents and the traveling public informed and the businesses of what's going on. So another thing I'd like to do as part of my month report is kind of given some visuals of something that was on the consent agenda. The fall line trail, wayfinding signage agreement that was on the consent agenda. Hopefully this all connect. Okay, good. Actually plugged the right one in. All right, so just kind of the big picture. So this is the section of the trail Let's see. I got a good. I have a cursor up here is Ashcake Road and Then the town limits would be down here at this creek right here So this is part of their whole sign packet that they put together all 43 miles of the trail They put a huge sign packet together. So of course, I just slipped out the Ashland piece. So the types of signs you're going to see, there's a key down here, there's some landmark signs, there's mile markers, there's pedestrian directional signs, there's trail head signs, which you'll see here in a minute. And then there's just some other vehicle directional signs and other directions, are kind of neat and informative which I'll show you. So here's kind of the look of the Ashland sign. So the blue part portion of the sign is standard throughout the darker blue, is standard throughout the section. And then of course we have our Ashland blue that's these banners along the side. So as you see, this is example of a trailhead sign and the chop's a whoops, well you're going to see it again in a minute. So and then we've got the mile marker signs. Of course we're starting at the beginning so we're a mile marker zero and then there's just some other signage along the trail like you know which direction south and which parts the Ashland trolley line trail. So this kind of the, so this shows where at the corner of Carter Park, which is one of the trailhead, it's just one of those neat trailhead signs shown in the significance of the beginning of the line. And on the bottom, it's hard to read at this scale, but there's some rules about no motorized vehicles. If you stay to your right, if you're passing, go to the left. Keep your pets leached. And if there's an incident, please pick up after your pets. That kind of thing. So there's some rules that are along those signs. Another interesting sign I thought was really cool. I wanted to show you was more of a directional sign. And the interesting thing about this sign is you'll see here, this is at the very beginning, right there at Ashcake and Maple. You'll see right here that Gualtony Church Road is 1.2 miles. It's five minutes by, oh, you've got to be kidding. Sorry. Five minutes by bike and 15 minutes if you walk. So it's some highlights some distances. And right now with the first phase, we'll go all the way down the Glover Park, which is seven miles total, take you 21 minutes to bike, or an hour and 15 minutes to walk it. So it's kind of some interesting signs along the way. So there's a mile post, there's some informational signs. So just kind of wanted to share this with you also what the signs are going to look like. I appreciate it. And I think some of them might have been installed now. We're not sure yet, but that'll be part of the part of the trail, which is kind of neat. So with that, I'll be happy to answer any questions. You know my reporter, any questions? I had a comment. Yes sir. A great presentation on the fall line project. I appreciate very much the visuals. There are two stormwater projects I'm having issues with understanding visuals of what the Stoney Run and Maple Street projects will look like when they're done. I don't think that's a Topic the night, but maybe in a month, maybe you can, because they're telling their folks a last, Tony Rod, what are they doing? And I'm saying, well, they're making improvements, they're making it wider, they're gonna do something with the vegetation in it. I don't know. It's a little hard to describe their big projects and just like the presentation we made tonight, it might be helpful to share some visuals on what are. People's Street, you've got that kind of funky sidewalk right next to ashcake road is with a whale next to it. Well that'd be filled in just basic questions we might get. That's all great presentation. Thank you vice mayor Hodges. Yes it's been quite a while since I've shown any visuals to those projects so it would be a good time to show those again. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Jennings. And that brings us to the town manager's report. Yes. And I will be relatively quick this evening. You have my report in front of you. I'm happy to touch on any item there. Did want to provide a few updates that have come out since putting this together. Very importantly, the planning commission meeting for this month is canceled. So you can take that off the list. The EDA meeting, the date has changed. That was in my report, but just trying to highlight it for folks moving from whatever a week before the 22nd is to the 22nd. I guess that would probably be the 15th. And then one of the big ones that we probably should have just jumped in when Mike was saying, do you want to let you all know? And it is now official. We've got started to get emails. I guess that would probably be the 15. And then one of the big ones that we probably should have just jumped in when Mike was saying, do you want to let you all know? And it is now official. We've got started to give emails. The ribbon cutting for the fall line trail that was made 22nd is going to be postponed. Don't have a date for you quite yet, but you can take that off your calendar for the time being and we will reach out as soon as we have new information. But like I said, you have my report in front of you, as you might imagine, working on the homelessness topic has consumed most of my time. And with that, I'll take any questions you may have. One question. On the 14th, this canceled, right? Yes. And on the 22nd. That is the correct date in the report. For others who may have had the old date still in their calendar, the 22nd is the correct date for the economic development authority. That's it. Anything else for the manager? Anything else for the evening? All right. We're adjourned. Thank you all.