Wednesday’s meeting was a bit of a marathon, ending just before 11 PM. Budget, Taxes, Rescue Squad, Parking Study, Dodson conditional use permit CUP for Boardwalk Property and Police equipment were all discussed.
Councilmember updates -
Public Safety - Tom Moncure announced that Westmoreland County was trying to dissolve CB rescue squad and he gave a passionate speech opposing this move and other council members also expressed their serious concern.
Public works - I announced Castlewood Park fencing and crosswalks are to start next month and that Beach maintenance has begun and will continue weekly through the summer.
Approval of Consent Agenda - This is where we approved several standard business items at the same time including:
December 16, 2021 minutes, Appropriated FY21-22 Budget to pay contractor for completion of the water tower, and Refuse/Litter Grant acceptance. All voted Aye except, Allison abstained on minutes because he had not been appointed to council by that point.
Resolution #18-22, Authorized Creation of A Debt Service Reserve Fund- Requires a certain amount be put aside for jet truck as part of grant, passed 7-0
Town Manager Update - Towns work on the budget, Grant announcements including signage, The Town is hiring, new website launch, infrastructure- smoke testing and utility rate study coming soon.
Presentations
County Board of Supervisors, Mr. Trivett - Gave a heartfelt speech regarding the potential dissolving of the rescue squad.
School Superintendent - Offered the use of buses to help bring people to Friday’s meeting regarding the rescue squad.
Parking Study Report, Mead & Hunt -
Presentation was done based off a parking study that was done during the middle of winter. The main takeaways were: people are concerned over the Wilder lot being sold, we should have 2 parking zones versus 7, we currently have enough parking but that could change in the future, most lots are near capacity during major holidays, people are confused by 5 colors painted on the curbs and the suggestion was to reduce to 3 colors, suggested maybe we have remote lots where people could be shuttled and finally we need to do more studying during actual beach season which I suggested from the very beginning. The study is a large number of pages so it will require staff to comb through to actually find items to implement.
PUBLIC HEARING Zoning Administrator Regarding Boardwalk Property Phase 3
CUP 02-2022, Dodson Development Group applied for a conditional use permit (CUP) for a Mixed Residential/Commercial Use building located at 102 Beach Terrace The property is zoned Resort Commercial (RC). I was the only councilmember opposed and I stated my reasons as follows: The project has shrunk by nearly half its original size, including going from 32+ condos down to 9 with one being on the ground floor, the finished indoor square footage has gone down to less than 5,000 sqft and I believe the contract should be renegotiated in public considering the 40% discount of the property and the significant changes in the agreed development.
Fiscal Year 2022- 23 Budget Presentation Town Manager and Chief Financial Officer- It appears things continue to get worse regarding the budget. The town will have to make many cuts and Council is being asked to raise taxes because of all the spending since 2021. Per my previous blog the current rate is at $.80 per $100 and will need to be brought down to $.71 to equalize the property value increase. A Public hearing is set for May 18th to discuss and vote on the actual rate.
Concerns I raised are: 2019–2020 budget was a little over $7M and this year’s current budget is set for $8.8M, Schools budgets previously have been $2.3M to $2.5M so why is $2.6M considered enough to dramatically raise taxes and finally I said we need new sources of revenue.
Capital Improvement Program, Town Manager - The final draft of the capital improvement plan was presented to Council. Even though the town attorney said we do not need a public hearing for the CIP the mayor suggested that it would be appropriate to have one so that will be scheduled for May as well.
3rd Quarter Financial Report, Chief Financial Officer – We were presented with current financial status.
Public Safety Quarterly Report, Police Chief- Gave a brief overview of crime stats and current plans with the police department. I asked if we would be getting regular reports with numbers and statistics and the chief said yes (this will be posted for the public to see).
Police Equipment Needs, Chief -
The police chief has been in office for just a couple months and part of his plan was to do an assessment of the overall needs of the police department. It was determined that some of our equipment was outdated and or lacking so he made several proposals. As follows: appropriate safety vest for the officers because most no longer meet standards, new uniforms since most were purchased by the officers and there was no real consistency, AEDs (life saving devices, I asked if Officers were trained to use the AED and was told yes), A side-by-side UTV so the officers could appropriately patrol the golf cart, path beaches etc., water rescue equipment, Live Scan for fingerprints, radar speed trailer to assist with speeding and traffic studies. Total cost was $116,750. I asked for clarification on where these funds were coming from and I was told the reserve fund which is the yacht club money. I voted yes because Public Safety was one of the top two concerns that the public had when I was campaigning so I felt this was a critical need for the Safety of the citizens of CB and it passed 7–0
Food Truck Court Update, Director of Parks and Rec & Director of Public Works - It appears this season’s program is in a bit of a pickle. The Town has booked 10 food trucks based on recommendations to start a food truck court in town. Once the Dodson sale closes in June the food trucks will not have a place to be relocated. Despite my concerns the rest of council had previously chosen to put a number of trucks at the bottom of town Hill and now the budget is triple the original $15k estimate. Staff proposed a new plan where they would temporarily be located at the top of town Hill for a cost of additional electric utility of $15K. After much discussion and many concerns raised there was a vote to put the trucks at the top of town hill. The vote failed 3-3 so we currently have no place for the trucks to move. The Mayor, Kenny and I voted no and Caryn, Vickie and Andrea voted yes. Tom had to leave early so he didn’t vote. Robin and Kenny seemed most concerned with location being at the top of town hill.
I have many other concerns such as why are we providing utilities and if the food vendors are going to pay for those utilities. Town Hill location is problematic for several reasons including special events, costs, no way to drive to the Food truck locations and a large investment for something that may change next year.
No closed session this meeting
Rescue Squad updates
I attended the public meeting in Montross on Friday and was very impressed with all the people that attended from the town of CB. Thanks to everyone that showed up in support and a special thanks to the Mayor, Tim Trivit and Nicholas Szobota for speaking on behalf of CB residents. The vote to keep CBVRS was 3-2 but we will need to find a way for the squad to survive going forward.
Please email or call with questions or comments:
dwilliams@colonialbeachva.net
540-604-4335
Comments