Surplus funds, Sale of town owned property, Legal fees from Westmoreland settlement, New Town Attorney hired and council accepted new offer for town dump were all part of Wednesdays meeting. I have added other updates at the bottom.
Minutes approved for November 16, 2022 and December 21, 2022. Vote 7-0
Budget Amendments
Resolution #23-23 (Surplus Funds) Apparently, we have $116k in found money that we voted to add back to the budget. I personally think instead of continually finding money and then spending it we need to start setting some aside so we don’t have to raise taxes next year. Vote 7-0
Resolution #24-23 (Asset Forfeiture) $684 moved to general fund Vote 7-0
Resolution #25-23 (DCJS LOLE Grant) $3,912 Vote 7-0
Resolution #26-23 (GOV deals proceeds) $4,438 Vote 7-0
Council Member Announcements
Planning Commission – Short Term rentals continue to be discussed. Next committee meeting will be Thursday June 15th 4:30p at 100 Hawthorn St.
Parks and Rec – Meeting canceled.
NGO’s – Sip and Stroll, Father’s Day Car show and mention of other events.
Economic Development – Next EDC meeting June 13th and several business openings.
Schools – Graduations, and mention of School starting back up August 14th.
Admin/ Mayor – Town Hall department temporary relocations due to AC install (Set to return Monday), Dahlgren change of the guard, Save the Bay Day (500 lbs. trash collected), American Legion fundraiser, Fire parade, Boat House Marina 10th anniversary.
Town Manager Update
Property taxes were due June 5th, hiring police, Waste Water Treatment Plant and planning office, 2 New officers and New Assistant Town Manager introduced, residents can sign up for central drainage update alerts, Project manager for central drainage project, Trash Toter FAQ on website, Parks master plan in progress, Police received $214K law enforcement grant, Storm water public event June 13 at 7:30pm.
Public Comment
Citizen – Concerns over lack of response from Zoning office regarding derelict property on Lincoln, Construction noise and North Beach erosion.
Citizen – Neighbor to Neighbor is growing and they are looking for storage area for medical equipment.
Citizen – Passing of community members including 2 people in a plane crash.
Resolution #27-23, General Fund Reimbursement- Legal Fees, Town Manager; Director of Finance/CFO
This was to move $119k from Water and Sewer fund to reimburse for legal fees from Westmoreland suit back to general fund (yes legal fees are extremely high and cost CB a lot of money) Vote 7-0
Town of Colonial Beach Succeeding Leases (Range Stations 11/13); Town Manager – Vote 7-0
Town Owned Property Sale Process, Town Manager; Grant Writer/Manager
Discussion was to set standard policy for sale of small parcels for town owned property. Primarily impacts small easements between properties and I agreed cutting red tape makes sense. It doesn’t appear there will be a flood of sales resulting from this but time will tell. Vote was 7-0
Resolution #28-23, Appointment of Town Attorney, Town Council – Attorney fees were out of control ($172k budgeted for 2024) so council asked for cost saving measures which I agreed with. Council was presented with one option to employ as town attorney (happens to be the same guy that was picked to fill a vacant council seat in 2021). I really don’t know Mr. Duggan but I hear he is a fine attorney, the reason I gave for voting no is I believe any town job should be advertised even if there is not a legal requirement to do so. I’m not sure if everyone understands the role of town attorney but it’s to represent the town government and not the people. I personally wish we had an attorney to represent the people but that would probably just result in an agreement between the 2 to milk the taxpayers 😊
Vote was 6-1 with me being the only no vote.
Closed Meeting
Consultation with legal counsel employed or retained by a public body regarding specific legal matters, including the investigation of individual zoning enforcement complaints and enforcement of the zoning ordinance, requiring the provision of legal advice by such counsel. The discussion and consideration of the acquisition of real property for a public purpose, and disposition of publicly-held real properties
(Including former town dump, and Madison Street right-of-way), where discussion in an open
meeting would adversely affect the bargaining position or negotiating strategy of the town
council, and consultation with legal counsel regarding the specific legal matters related thereto,
respectively. For the protection of the privacy of individuals in personal matters not related to public business.
After the closed meeting council voted to accept a new offer to purchase the town dump Vote 7-0
Additional Councilman Updates
Central Drainage project is now underway (as of Friday) starting on Beach Terrace by the cannon.
Short Term Rental committee meeting at the end of May included some good discussion. I turned over the public comments I received to the committee and they did acknowledge citizen concerns.
Zoning issues - The zoning office is looking into citizen concerns over construction violations and will be providing updates to the public in the future.
Food Trucks As you may remember, last year council chose to scrap the ordinance regulating food vendors and handed over total control to the town manager. I have had citizens ask why council continues to give up more and more if it’s authority to the town manager. It would appear the $20k we spent in electoral hook ups at the top of town hill was a waste as I predicted. I was told only 4 permanent spaces with utilities available on town hill but one has recently been added to Castlewood. Perhaps other parks will have food trucks soon. The company that wanted to create a food truck court by Orchid Thai may be moving forward with their request so that may change things.
Please email or call with questions or comments:
540-604-4335
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