Regular Meeting – January 23, 2013

Regular Meeting, Wednesday, January 23, 2013, at 7:00 p.m. Government Center, Verona, VA.

PRESENT: Jeffrey A. Moore, Chairman
Larry J. Wills, Vice-Chairman
David R. Beyeler
David A. Karaffa
Marshall W. Pattie
Tracy C. Pyles, Jr.
Michael L. Shull
Timmy Fitzgerald, Director of Community Development
Jennifer M. Whetzel, Director of Finance
Patrick J. Morgan, County Attorney
Patrick J. Coffield, County Administrator
Rita R. Austin, CMC, Executive Secretary

VIRGINIA: At a regular meeting of the Augusta County Board of Supervisors held on Wednesday, January 23, 2013, at 7:00 p.m., at the Government Center, Verona, Virginia, and in the 237th year of the Commonwealth….

Chairman Moore welcomed the citizens present.

The following students at Wilson Middle School, led the Pledge of Allegiance:

Maddy Lavender, a sixth grader; Madison Fitzgerald, a seventh grader; Kennedy Eakin, an 8th grader; and Emily Aleshevich, an 8th grader. Maddy would like to be a Veterinarian. Kennedy wants to be an Anesthesiologist. Emily enjoys scrap booking, baking and photography. Madison enjoys playing softball and hopes to be a Physical Therapist.

Larry J. Wills, Middle River District, delivered invocation.

MATTERS TO BE PRESENTED BY THE PUBLIC

Steve Morris presented a petition of 400 signatures to the Board “requesting that the Board of Supervisors place around-the-clock career EMS/Fire personnel at the Churchville Fire Station due to slow responses to emergencies”. Mr. Morris had suggested that we have only five districts (versus seven). He spoke of how efficient things were done years ago. Mr. Morris expressed concern that he had sent many letters to the Board unanswered.

Mr. Karaffa commented that he has read Mr. Morris’ letters and have not responded because it is not in his district. He disagreed with changing to five magisterial districts because the districts are based on population. If it were to be decreased to five supervisors, the rural areas would be harmed because, currently, we have three representatives for the rural areas on the western side of the County. If you go to five you would lose representation. Mr. Karaffa added, “If you look across the State of Virginia, you will see that we have one of the most efficient governments in the Commonwealth.” He referred to the comment of “how great things used to be” and noted that his Great-Grandfather started a Fire Department and a Rescue Squad in New Jersey. He said that the type of training needed in 1959 would be “nowhere near the type of training that must go on now in order to have firefighters. The regulations, the state laws, the safety responsibilities that have to be maintained make it so much more expensive and so much more difficult to run a department even more so when they are volunteers.” He understood Mr. Morris asking for more paid staff but explained that “the price tag that comes with that drives tax rates”. “That is part of the responsibility that the seven of us have is looking at tax rates, our responsibility to the citizens, and then, also, how we treat Volunteer Fire Departments. A lot of these departments, we have relationships with; we have partnerships with; but to a certain extent, we can’t tell them what to do. I think your heart is in the right place and I appreciate your comments.” Mr. Beyeler noted that the Board has received a petition tonight with 400 names and suggested that Fire Chief Holloway and the Fire Committee look at what is happening in Churchville in the next 30 days and come back to the Board with a recommendation.

“We need to address it one way or another.” Mr. Pyles made the following comment:

I feel I have to speak now. It is unfortunate that Mr. Beyeler is all in favor of this now. He had the opportunity to vote for three people at Mount Solon at our budget and he refused to vote for them. We only got those three people on a 4-3 vote. Mr. Pattie and I have sought to have that support for Mount Solon. Mr. Howdyshell never supported it. His first year on the Board, Dr. Pattie was able to get the vote, but it was close – 4-3. When Mr. Beyeler says, ‘Just tell us what you need.’ Then he comes back and says, ‘How much, we would have tried to do more.” The Chief looked at everything. I was Chairman last year. I was head of the Emergency Committee. One thing I didn’t try to do is say, use my position to influence a professional decision-making. We had twenty-one new positions. It is the largest increase in the history of Augusta County in a single year. We have gone, from the time I have been on this Board, from 14 to 82 paid people. It is spread out. We have 15 people in the western part of the County. That is proportionate in terms of career people for the calls that we have with all the rest. We’ve done that. Of the 21 new positions, we received 6 of them. We received 30% of the new people. That is more than appropriate. We benefit from having 7 different companies out there. We have Swoope; we have two in Churchville; two in Craigsville; two in Deerfield and then we have two in Mount Solon. We have an inter-related, inter-dependent system here.

We do it because if we concentrated our people, it cost $1 million to fully staff one station. We have 22 basic fire companies. That would be $22 million to have everybody fully staffed. Most of our agencies get less than two calls a day; many of them one call a day. If we had 15 people sitting in a station, four at a time, all day long, and they hardly got out, people saying, “What are you doing with our money?” We have been in an ongoing process to try and improve our services and getting them better. Churchville is better than average on its response time, on location time. Mr. Morris is shaking his head. I’ve got the numbers I’m looking at right now. The rules are there. The numbers are there. We are better than average on those calls. I will meet with any of you to bring you those numbers. We do a good job out there. The Churchville group runs 1,407 calls a year. You can talk about what we missed, but let us talk about what we do. Now, what I was getting at . . . the inter-dependency or relationships. Mr. Morris spent some time talking about Staunton 2 coming out. We pay for that. We run 418 calls a year from the Company 10 into Staunton. We get less than 200 calls back from Staunton into our area, so it’s not that is for free; it’s part of the value that we get from the Company 10 and that value is extended to Churchville. They are there. We have so many calls, now; some of non-responses are because we’re on another call. Some of the non-responses are one of our agencies got there and one of them didn’t. You know they only had so many people so they needed a dual tone. We have over 198 different responses that come to 911 and all kinds of different relationships of who shows up. On a good number of them, they call for both. They call for Fire; they call for Rescue. You’re talking about 4 or 6 people that need to go out on each of the calls. We’re doing that. I don’t know what the perfect thing is, but I know we are trying very hard. For Deerfield, a couple of years ago, to get staffing out there. You can find that I have put out over $100,000 in infrastructure money to start that. We have continued to try and fund to get people. We put them out there. This year, to try and help volunteers, we put up $232,000 as extra for them to reimburse them for expenses. We have a young crowd out there, but we are taxed out on how many people we can train at a time. The system is working pretty good. Is it perfect? No, it is never done. If you look on the back of a dollar bill, they got a pyramid with an eye. The pyramid represents United States. We’re not done yet. We’re not done, but we have gone from 14 to 82 career people. We got career people in Craigsville and Churchville and Mount Solon. We’re trying to do better. We don’t intercede with the Departments. Whoever they elect is who we’re going to work with.

You need to get in there and change it if you can, or not, but that what we’re supposed to do. One of the things that we hope to see by putting people in Mount Solon and putting more people in Craigsville and the way we changed things out in Deerfield is to reduce the calls that Churchville has to back up on. There’s a lot of that. If we can reduce the number of calls that they have to go; when you go to Craigsville, you’re going a long distance; when you go to Deerfield, you are going a long distance; when you go to Mount Solon, you are going a long distance and you’re out for hours. Each of you know that. If you pick up somebody in Churchville, and you’re just going to the Hospital, it takes a long time. I’m proud of what those people do. I always want people to do better. We try to support them with what they ask. We try to support that and we will continue to do it. I’m fine. If they want to come back and say we need to put three more people out there, I hope Mr. Beyeler will vote for it this time. We’re trying and we will continue to try. As far as support from the community, I ask you to look at the election for Mr. Morris and look at it for myself. I’ll take what the people are telling me.

Chairman Moore told Mr. Morris that he had received his letter and hoped that he received his response. “My response was that we are constantly looking at all of the agencies in Augusta County and it is almost 1,000 square miles and there is a considerable amount that needs to be covered and it is a large task. Chief is given that responsibility. He looks at all of the agencies. Churchville is one of them. We also have an Emergency Services Committee that he works with that represents our Board.” Mr. Morris stated that “average” times for career people versus volunteers – the average times is not correct.

Mr. Pyles asked that the “newspapers ask to see Mr. Morris’ file to determine how many letters he sent and how many times we responded. We’ve done that multiple times.

But there is a point at which you say thank you very much instead of trying to respond verbatim to everything.” Mr. Beyeler reaffirmed his suggestion to determine what is happening and to come back with a recommendation. He noted that there is one person out in Deerfield. “Maybe we need to reduce the number we put out there at any one time and make it 24/7. We need to look at all options to see if it can be improved.” Mr. Wills said that the Committee looked at some numbers this afternoon. Of the number of individuals who received mileage reimbursement last month, there are some questions. The Committee and Fire Chief are looking at the reports. The Fire Chief has asked Churchville’s President for clarification as to whether they are requesting help. It has been suggested that the membership get together to determine if they want full- time. He noted that there response rate is under the 3% turned over to 2nd due. “I will say the same thing for Churchville Rescue and Fire that I say for New Hope. Some of those, when you look at the no-response, you get no-response for the Rescue, no- response for the Fire, and they are the same incident. When you really look at the number of events that they fail to come to, I think it may be down even less than 2%.” Mr. Shull said that he has received a call from Mr. Morris and agreed to meet. He noted that there are new regulations that the Health Department has put in place on EMS and it is going to be a process to work through the County and with each agency. “It’s going to take a consorted effort from the Volunteers and Career Staff to try to work together.

If they don’t work together, then we are going to have chaos. The last thing we want to do is put Career Staff in all of these companies. It’s going to take a lot of tax dollars to do that. That’s the last thing we want to do. We’re working on some plans to try to get Career Staff to do the duty roster and the duty blocks to help out Career Staff.

Hopefully, it will work and the Volunteers will step up. The Volunteers are falling off, but it is up to the citizens of this County. Do they want to continue with the Volunteer system or do they want a paid system? I don’t think the Volunteer system is dead, yet, but it is going to take an effort from everybody in this County whether you’re able to answer calls or come to the Departments and help for fundraisers. It takes an effort from everybody in this County to make it work. I hope everybody will step up in this County and do their part.“

4-H PRESENTATION

Faye Giles, 4-H Technician with Augusta County, thanked the Board for its support.

She noted that 4-H is a community of young people, ages 5 to 19, who are learning leadership, citizenship and life skills. The following speakers told the Board what 4-H meant to them:

Bailey Hadacek, an 8th Grader at Beverley Manor Middle School, said that he is a member of the 4-H Shooting Education Club and the Augusta County 4-H Livestock Judging Club where he participates in Meats and Livestock judging as well as Stockman's competition. He added that 4-H has given him opportunities to increase his knowledge, make new friends, and have a great time doing both. He thanked the Board for its continued support of the 4-H County programs.

Kerri Houser, a recent graduate of Fort Defiance High School, thanked the Board for its continued support and noted that she has been in 4-H since she was 9 years old. She said they started their own 4-H Club – 4 the Love of Horses 4-H Club. She was Historian and moved up through all the offices to be the 4-H President for two years.

During that time, they hosted many horse shows which got her into judging horses.

That also allowed her public speaking time. She also thanked the Board for its support for the Market Animal Show. That is a way that a lot of 4-Hers and FFA members have the opportunity to learn responsibility of taking care of their animals. During all of the events, she has made friends and many memories. She noted that with her being 19, this was her last year of being in 4-H, but she planned to stay with 4-H and with FFA throughout her adult years to support them.

Mr. Beyeler added that he had been a 4-H member and stated, “If you’ve ever been a 4- H member, you’re a 4-H member for life.” A PowerPoint presentation of what has been happening through the year was given to the Board.

FIRE AND RESCUE GRANTS

The Board considered authorization for Fire Administration to submit grants without prior Board of Supervisors approval when grant awards would not create a reoccurring expense. Emergency Services Committee sign-off will still be necessary.

Fire Chief Carson Holloway advised that this had been discussed at Tuesday’s Staff Briefing. He noted that what was proposed was some of the smaller 100% grants that are available for certain items such as safety equipment. Because of the time frame with certain grants, he asked that they be allowed to approach the Emergency Services Committee with these requests and not have to go before the Board for approval. He added that these grant awards would not create a reoccurring expense.

Mr. Wills moved, seconded by Mr. Shull, that the Board approve Chief Holloway’s recommendations.

Vote was as follows: Yeas: Pattie, Karaffa, Shull, Wills, Moore, Beyeler and Pyles Nays: None Motion carried.

RIVERHEADS VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENT BUILDING IMPROVEMENTS

The Board considered funding for proposed improvements as outlined in Staff’s January 16th proposal.

Funding Sources: Riverheads Infrastructure Account #80000-8015-73 $2,500 Fire-Rescue Budget Account #32010-6007 $1,000.

$3,500

RIVERHEADS VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENT BUILDING IMPROVEMENTS

Chief Holloway advised that this item had been discussed at the Staff Briefing on Tuesday. A walk-through had occurred and it was determined that the total costs of repairs was estimated $3,500.

Mr. Shull said he had a walk-through with Chief Holloway and looked at pictures indicating a safety hazard. He noted that it was a County-owned building and needed to be taken care of.

Mr. Karaffa offered to provide $1,000 out of the Beverley Manor Infrastructure Account.

Mr. Shull said that the remainder would be taken out of the Riverheads Infrastructure Account. Mr. Beyeler offered to provide $1,000 out of the South River Infrastructure Account.

Mr. Shull moved, seconded by Mr. Beyeler, that the Board approve the request with the following Funding Sources:

Beverley Manor Infrastructure Account #80000-8011-63 $1,000 South River Infrastructure Account #80000-8016-70 1,000 Riverheads Infrastructure Account #80000-8015-73 1,500 $3,500 Vote was as follows: Yeas: Pattie, Karaffa, Shull, Wills, Moore, Beyeler and Pyles Nays: None Motion carried.

BUDGET SURVEY

The Board considered including on February 13, 2013 Board Agenda a “special” session to solicit public input on the upcoming FY2013-2014 Budget.

Jennifer M. Whetzel, Director of Finance, advised that at Tuesday’s Staff Briefing, the Board reviewed questions related to the Budget Survey for the FY2014 Budget. There was considerable discussion on how to inform the public of the survey. On February 13, 2013, which is the next regularly scheduled Board meeting, there will be a special presentation on the Budget Survey to solicit public input. She noted that the Survey will be on the website by the end of this week and that a Press Release will be given to the newspapers so that the public will be informed.

Mr. Karaffa moved, seconded by Mr. Wills, that the Board approve a “special” session on the February 13, 2013, Agenda to solicit public input on the upcoming FY2013-2014 Budget. Mr. Wills added that the motion should include changing the dates on the Budget Worksession to Wednesday, March 27, 2013 instead of Tuesday, March 26th; therefore, the worksession will be Monday, March 25th and Wednesday, March 27th.

Mr. Karaffa mentioned to the media to note the change on the website of the budget being more accessible to the public.

Vote was as follows: Yeas: Pattie, Karaffa, Shull, Wills, Moore, Beyeler and Pyles Nays: None Motion carried.

ROUTE 636

The Board considered Loan Agreement between the County, Economic Development Authority and Crescent Development to secure surety release for right-of-way.

Dennis Burnett, Economic Development Director, advised that this item had been discussed at Tuesday’s Staff Briefing. The high-lights are as follows:

• Established Terms • 10 year • Annual Payments of principal and interest • Market Rate Interest (current 4.75%) with 1% return to EDA for processing • Adjustable Rate based on 5-year US Treasury Bill plus 4% (currently zero) • Interest calculated on outstanding principal only • Loan is non-assignable • Includes personal guarantee from Crescent principals Mr. Burnett added that Crescent representatives are available to answer questions.

Mr. Pyles moved, seconded by Mr. Karaffa, that the Board approve the Loan Agreement.

Vote was as follows: Yeas: Pattie, Karaffa, Shull, Wills, Moore, Beyeler and Pyles Nays: None Motion carried.

ROUTE 636

The Board considered construction of turnaround required as part of VDOT closure.

Funding Source: Wayne Infrastructure Account #80000-8017-80 $5,000 Timmy Fitzgerald, Director of Community Development, advised that to accommodate the new Route 636 relocation, a turnaround needs to be constructed where Route 636 is to be closed so that school buses and snow plows, etc., can turn around. An estimate of $5,000 has been provided to construct the turnaround, put the gates in and close the road.

Chairman Moore supports the funding source.

Mr. Karaffa moved, seconded by Mr. Beyeler, that the Board approve the construction of turnaround required as part of VDOT closure in an amount not to exceed $5,000 to be split 50/50 between Beverley Manor and Wayne Infrastructure Accounts. Funding Sources: Wayne Infrastructure Account #80000-8017-80 and Beverley Manor Infrastructure Account #80000-8011-64 ($2,500 each).

Vote was as follows: Yeas: Pattie, Karaffa, Shull, Wills, Moore, Beyeler and Pyles Nays: None Motion carried.

LANDFILL WAIVER

The Board considered waiver of Landfill tipping fees associated with recent fire.

Funding Source: Pastures Infrastructure Account #80000-8014-85 $800 Patrick J. Coffield, County Administrator, advised that this item was discussed at Tuesday’s Staff Briefing regarding the recent fire and tragedy and disposal of the debris.

Mr. Pyles noted that there was a large fire at a poultry house last year with tipping fees over $10,000 that was not covered by insurance. He felt that this was a worse tragedy with the loss of the lives of four people. He offered Pastures Infrastructure Account not to exceed $800 to cover the tipping fees.

Mr. Pyles moved, seconded by Mr. Beyeler, that the Board approve the request.

Mr. Wills offered to pay the amount over $800 out of his Middle River Infrastructure Account if needed.

Vote was as follows: Yeas: Pattie, Karaffa, Shull, Wills, Moore, Beyeler and Pyles Nays: None Motion carried.

MILL PLACE COMMERCE PARK

The Board considered contract for design services related to creating a “pad-ready site”.

Funding Source: Beverley Manor Infrastructure Account #80000-8011-62 $88,220 Mr. Karaffa moved, seconded by Mr. Wills, that the Board approve the appropriation of $88,220 out of the Beverley Manor Infrastructure Account for civil engineering costs associated with prepping a pad-ready site in the Mill Place Commerce Park.

Furthermore, upon future development of a site, those funds will be refunded back to the Beverley Manor Infrastructure Account from proceeds allocated to the site development. The Board adopted the following resolution:

RESOLUTION OF THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS

OF AUGUSTA COUNTY, VIRGINIA

WHEREAS, the County of Augusta is the owner of certain property known as Mill Place Commerce Park (the “Commerce Park”).

WHEREAS, in order to be competitive in attracting and recruiting desirable business and industry to the Park, the Board of Supervisors has determined it would be in the best interest of the County to consider preparing a pad ready site on 35± acres within the park..

WHEREAS, the initial phase of preparing a pad ready site would be contracting for engineering services to include an extension of Mill Place Drive and a bulk grading plan.

WHEREAS, the Board of Supervisors now desires to enter into a contract for such engineering services with Balzer and Associates.

BE IT RESOLVED BY THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS OF AUGUSTA COUNTY, VIRGINIA:

1. The Contract dated January 23, 2013, between Balzer and Associates and the County is hereby approved and the Chairman of the Board is authorized to sign such contract on behalf of the County. The $80,200 fee for such engineering services shall initially be paid from the Beverley Manor Infrastructure Account No. 8000-8011.

2. At such time as the aforementioned site is developed, funds shall be reimbursed to the Beverley Manor Infrastructure Account from proceeds allocated to site development.

3. The Board further authorizes a 10% contingency to the above fee schedule ($8020.00) for unforeseen expenditures.

4. This Resolution shall take effect immediately upon its adoption.

Vote was as follows: Yeas: Pattie, Karaffa, Shull, Wills, Moore, Beyeler and Pyles Nays: None Motion carried.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT/TOURISM COORDINATOR

The Board considered creation of new position to assist Economic Development Director.

Transfer From: Parks & Recreation Account #71010-1100 $34,967.67* To: Economic Development Account #81050-1100 $34,967.67* *To include fringe benefits Chairman Moore made the following comment:

Last September, we went to a site selection symposium at Blue Ridge Community College. It was sponsored by the Shenandoah Valley Partnership and the two speakers were Frank Spano, from Austin Consulting, and Audrey Chabin, from Chabin Concepts.

They are site selectors on the national scene. The conference was on how we best prepare municipalities. Not only the County, there were Harrisonburg, Rockingham, Waynesboro and Staunton – everyone was there. How do you best prepare your jurisdiction for a potential site visit and actually landing the potential manufacturer, customer, whatever, however you want to call it? The one thing I took away from that was that we really need to position ourselves the best as possible for the initial first impression, whether it’s having the sites pad-ready as much as possible, but, also, that you never really know when a national site selector is going to come into our facility here to begin dialogue about a potential re-location here. As part of that, I sort of looked at what we had here and what sort of drove it home for me was when the Small Business Development Center, which is currently part of Blue Ridge Community College down at the Hospital needed some space here in this facility. They focus primarily on economic development and small businesses start-up companies. I got to looking at that and I looked at what I thought how we position our Economic Development Department here in our facility. I would like to make a proposal that we move our Economic Development Department upstairs into our front office where when anyone who comes into the building, they’re right there front and center to give a good first impression. Tourism, I think, should be part of Economic Development. We sort of moved it around the building, but I think it should be a part of Economic Development. As part of that, we have one person who has primarily been doing our Tourism for the last six months. I would like to move that person over as an Assistant to Economic Development in the front office. With the current space, the Small Business Development Center would go into the current space downstairs where Economic Development is now. As part of this, certainly, money is an option. I asked Ms. Whetzel to display a report. There are two things: 1) Where is the money coming from for Economic Development Department Tourism. That’s part of our actual budget, on page 19. By State Code, we are required to spend 50% of our Lodging Tax and 10% of our Meals Tax on Tourism and Economic Development, which is $445,000 a year in revenue. (The current budget for the two departments was reflected on the report.) If you look at those- The revenues at the top and how we currently spend our Tourism dollars, Economic Development dollars, if you notice we are actually a little over. The $445,000 is obligated to spend; we are currently spending $474,674. If you make a note there is $68,000 that we’re actually using for Fire and Rescue on the Interstates to help offset that. That’s where the money comes from in terms of Economic Development Tourism. This is sort of mine, but I can’t make a motion.

Mr. Karaffa moved, seconded by Mr. Beyeler, that the Board approve: 1) moving the office of Economic Development into the Administrator’s office in order for it to be more visible and accessible in the building and to the public; 2) to immediately move Tourism and its associated position from Parks and Recreation to the Department of Economic Development to take on the main responsibility of assisting the office of Economic Development; and 3) to have the Directors of Parks and Recreation and Economic Development to coordinate time and resources for projects and events that are already in the works, to accommodate a smooth transition. This motion will not authorize the creation of another position in the Parks and Recreation Department and should be a topic of discussion during Budget worksession.

Mr. Pyles made the following comment:

My concern about this is that we have a budget once a year. We try to set our budget at what we need and then we’re going to start the budget process in just a couple of months. We’re doing a couple of things here that are, I think, out of order in how to proceed. This position was created in 2009. I may be too passionate and opposition to it. I have heard from Board members saying, ‘You know, it’s not that big a deal.’ I think the Bible tells us how we handle little things and how we handle big things. I look at Congress and they are all the time slipping something in. But we have a budget to do.

When we first had this budget and the news articles were out, they were talking about the position being $69,000. That is what was said. The first year, was $93,435 and that was for 10 months. For this one person, it was $121,660 for a full year. We stayed about that way in 2011 and 2012. This Board came on and we raised the cost of that position from $129,000 to $157,000. If we add this position for these five months, we’re adding another $20,000 there, which will lead us next year with no other increases that we’re going up to $204,000 for this position. A couple of things on it. One is we haven’t taken a look at Parks & Rec. I sent some things out that Mr. Wells had put together and the person is leaving may be a person who is generating money so that we’re going to have less income coming in even though we have a different amount of costs because we won’t be getting rid of the things that don’t bring revenue that people that are out there are cutting–maintenance on our parks and on this facility. The largest single thing that we lose money on from Parks & Rec is Sweet Dreams. I don’t know that anybody on this Board would ask to kill that. It doesn’t bring us any revenue, but it’s not a bad thing. The Stuarts Draft swimming pool cost us $10,000 in general funds. I don’t know if anybody wants to kill that. We’re going to take a job out that creates more revenue than it costs. That’s going to be an impact.

I was proud with this Board last year. We said, ‘Let’s take a look at how we can do things smarter and better. Can we combine some things together?’ We did that and said, ‘Oh, that sounds good.’ But, now, we want to do the opposite when we had it combined, opportunity that we were using with the Legal Secretary; now, we’re making that stand alone and we’re going to have this position. We know the Legal Secretary is going to leave. What I wish the Board would do is let’s first hire that position and find out what it is going to cost. What has been put into consideration is that job will not pay as much for the next person as this person. Having a good legal secretary is important and a seasoned good person will cost more than what you think, but let’s see about that.

Let’s wait until the budget and say, ‘Go through the Parks & Rec’. Mr. Karaffa always wants to look at things from the bottom up. Let’s see if this job is earning more money than it is losing. Let’s take a look when we have that budget meeting that we’re asking people to come and play if they’re glad to have the programs that we have out in the County; that they like the trips; they like the volleyball; they like the soccer; they like the after-school programs; they like all the things that they’re getting that really don’t cost a lot of money. In fact, they’re revenue-generating. We’re summarily reducing one department the second headcount in a year. It’s been, you know, I’ve never heard them complain about Parks & Rec. They like what they do. It’s good for our community. It bonds; it brings us together. It helps everybody from the smallest toddler child in school programs, after-school programs, library programs, up to the seniors. A lot of people get benefit from it. It’s a benefit throughout the summer. We’re just say, ‘Well, let’s take one off. We already took one off.’ The people that work at Parks & Rec have done a good job for us. They’ve good the jobs that we’ve asked them to do and they’ve done them well and they’ve done it with less each time. But, now, we’re saying, ‘Well, you don’t need as much help.’ Let’s look at that. When I look at job description, many of those things don’t require a big title, a lot of salary. They’re not creating information. They’re receiving information. They may represent it, but the things that come from Ms. Shrewsbury, from our Community Development and from other places, it’s all being sent to them. They may want to present it in a different, nicer format, but that is the way we can do it. As far as we being in contact with them, if a doctor is gone, you have a pager system that you can get in touch with him. In private business, I was the only purchasing guy for steel and plastic. Two-thirds of the spending of the County for all our plants from Israel to the Chech Republic, to Mexico, plus sub-contractors. My business day was 24 hours a day. I did business from China to Israel. I took my computer home every night and sat it up and if somebody needed me, they sent something and we would answer them. We would take care of business. The world has changed where everybody doesn’t need an assistant sitting at a desk waiting for a call. As Mr. Burnett mentioned the other day, it takes months on some of these things.

We have to recognize that for the first two years of this position we didn’t get anything from him. The man worked hard, made good presentations, but the activity wasn’t there. Now, we should take credit for some good things we did this past year. We had addition by subtraction. We had some people on the Board before who want pro- growth, who want pro-jobs. They left. They allowed us that to re-establish a relationship with Richmond, that had been severed and hurt by Mr. Limkuller coming to our meetings and being embarrassed, being put through a ringer, and I would say, ‘That’s not the person you want to upset.’ So we bring him here the first month. This Board is more active and pro-active in incentives. We did a thing here tonight where we are going to borrow money to get something through. We never did that before. We are putting aggressively for these other folks. The note you sent us last night about one of our prospects, he gave Mr. Burnett great kudos for what he does, but he also said, ‘You have the goods’. That’s what matters. We have the goods. We have the goods by a low tax rate. We have the goods by what we have invested in this Industrial Park behind us. We have the goods that we have money in reserve that we can offer to people. Now, things are turning around. We haven’t gotten anything much from this development office, yet, but our unemployment is down to 4.2. I think, in time, we’re going to start saying and people are going to say, ‘Wait a minute; enough with the incentives, enough with the giveaways’. Then we’re going to have a problem, as well, in that our unemployment rate is too low. The last prospect, Dennis said, had a question mark. It’s getting down there.

When we start getting under 4%, folks say, ‘I don’t want to be in competition with that.’ But we get people down because the economy is changing, because we have the goods.

We have a very good man. I think he overworks. I think you can take on so much stuff that you can be overwhelmed by it. If you look back to see what this job was supposed to be . . .

Chairman Moore asked that Mr. Pyles not critique the position.

I don’t know how to do it any other way, but to say we have a very good man. I don’t know if that is a bad critique or not. We have people working in this building all the time.

They haven’t had pay raises in years. They had things slashed and they see us doing something far different. For the group that we have taken under wing, we’re going to give them special consideration. When we show that we have gone from $121,000 to $204,000, at this time, when we’ve also done a tax increase, I have a problem with it.

Mr. Wills made the following comments:

I understand where Mr. Pyles is coming from. Changing in the middle of the year is not always desirable, and probably should not be a normal activity. However, the fact that with an individual leaving, and we know they’re leaving our service because of retirement, has a lot of background that we need time to train the individual replacing that one. As you look at the projects this past year that we were successful on, Murphy Deming, Route 636, McKee – all of those projects, if you look at the paperwork that this Board had to approve, it had to go though both the Attorney and it had to go through our Economic Development Department, and there is a demand, I think, on the office staff there for one individual to try to handle all of that. I am very pleased that we have been able to find a way that this thing is revenue-neutral for this year. I am concerned about the loss of a position in the Rec Department and have expressed that at other times with individual Board members. But, from the standpoint of the need to move forward, I think we need to keep Economic Development on the forefront. Yes, it sometimes seems like we chasing our tail when we look at 14 or 15 projects and we may get 3 or 4 out of it, but that is just the life of Economic Development. Comparing it to sports metaphor, I would rather be on the field playing and put my best foot forward and lose, than to forfeit because we weren’t there. I think we need to be there when we have anyone who expressed an interest in putting a business in this County. Therefore, I will support the motion.

Mr. Karaffa made the following comments:

We talked about revenue generation in Parks and Rec and I think it is important to point out that we, as a Parks and Rec Department, have whale-watching trips, NASCAR trips, Los Vegas trips, Nashville trips, New Orleans trips, Niagara Falls trips. We are competing with tourism businesses. This is not a function of government. The argument will be that folks who are paying for these trips are covering the expenses and it isn’t costing the County any money; however, we are using County staff to organize these trips. My point is simply there are businesses out there competing for those who are willing to pay to do things like that, and that is not our role. Another couple of things is if we look at this chart here, we are neglecting to look at part of the funding for the current position down there is paid for out of that. I agree that the transition time necessary for our good employee who has been here for many, many, many years who is retiring will need adequate time to train both positions. It is important to go ahead and make this move from Parks and Rec to Economic Development because we actually don’t have to go hire somebody. This person can be brought over. This person can be trained. And this person can be providing valuable services that I think is needed and still have that person that is going to retire available as a resource while she is training her replacement in the County Attorney’s office. I will support this motion. I take pride in the fact that it is not going to actually cost us another dime and the fact that we are not hiring another position. I would go further to say that, by Parks and Rec needs to trim some weight that may be, coming off from providing these trips at which were in competition with the private sector on, we probably see some money coming in from the private sector in addition.

Mr. Beyeler made the following comments:

I was here when we created this, along with Mr. Pyles. I’m pleased with the progress we’ve made. We knew we had a lot of work ahead of us. As Mr. Pyles said, Richmond had almost said Augusta County is not interested. Augusta County is not open for business. We’ve changed that. Now, having said that, I want some outside people coming in, too. But McKee was inside. This job also works with the employers we have now to expand within which we need to do, too. If you don’t take care of what you have, you don’t deserve anything else. We’re doing both. I just wanted to point out that we’re also working with what we have to improve.

Mr. Shull made the following comments:

I would like to thank Dennis for the work and stuff that he has done. One of the things, when we ran, and we’ve been in economic hard times for the last few years. Most everybody out here said jobs. Well, you don’t get jobs without bringing business in. As it was mentioned about Little Debbie, here, they were there for about a year where most of their employees worked 32 hours a week in order to save their jobs. So with Twinkie going out of business and the market getting better, they were able to do this line and they will be hiring people. I think the figures on unemployment is skewed like it is throughout the nation. There are a lot of people that do not draw benefits anymore that is not even counted. The figures there is not exactly right. People have had to take jobs, maybe not the job they would like to have, and if they had an opportunity to better themselves, I think they would take that chance to try to get another job. The only way that you better yourselves is bring businesses in that pays more money. We have to keep looking for that. We have to put the Economic at the forefront here and try to do our part to help the citizens in this County.

Mr. Pattie made the following comments:

I think this is an issue of timing. I certainly understand the need of the transition, but we have a very difficult budget coming up. Mr. Moore talking about an Administration building for schools; Mr. Beyeler talking about courthouse renovations, or a new courthouse. We have a lot of moving parts here and I think that we should push this back to budget time and try to figure out of the whole the budget what is the best use of County money on all the different issues. Certainly, we have seen an influx in Economic Development and, certainly, I think that, at this moment, we could probably use someone helping with the documentation, helping with the phone calls, and I kind of wonder if the person we’re transitioning over to that position is probably over-qualified for that position.

We know the votes. We know what is going to happen. I would like to propose something that, at least, I would like you to consider. We do have that Tourism money there for Tourism, if we could hire a temp for that position until we get to budget so that, when we look at the budget, we know exactly what we’re doing and we’re not adding a person, but we’re adding help in a very busy time. We get to budget and then, as a bigger part of the budget picture, with all these moving parts, we talk about where does this fit in.

Last year, we had the Sheriff asking for two more deputies. We had five people here, tonight, asking for more firefighters. We have teachers asking for more instructional aides. We have a lot of things going on in this County. We can give them the help, now, without changing the budget, but, in the long run, I think we need to consider it all at once.

Mr. Karaffa made the following comments:

I respect where Mr. Pattie is coming from, from a financial standpoint. I do. He brings a good point; however, hiring somebody temporarily on a part-time basis presents issues as it does with confidentiality. The person that we’re talking about bringing over is one of our own, one that we trust. We know the quality of this person’s work and we know, and that person knows, that they will not be temporary. My worry is that this person will be privy to extremely sensitive information that has what I would say is the biggest revenue generator in this County. Let’s face it, Parks and Rec might make a little bit of money for us, but revenue generation in this County is driven by one or two ways cheaply – Economic Development for Businesses, Jobs, Machinery & Tools Taxes or by raising Personal Property Taxes and Real Estate Taxes. I would rather have more business here than raise taxes on our citizens. This position needs to be one that we know, that we can trust that person in, and that person is not going to be a temporary person.

Vote was as follows: Yeas: Karaffa, Shull, Wills, Moore and Beyeler Nays: Pattie and Pyles Motion carried.

WAIVERS/VARIANCES

Mr. Fitzgerald advised that this had been discussed at Tuesday’s Staff Briefing.

Representatives for St. Mary and St. John the Baptist Church were available tonight to address the Board in regards to Erosion and Sediment Control penalties in the amount of $5,250 that has been assessed on a site that they originally planned to construct a new church and have since had some changes in those plans that did not allow for that to happen.

Peter Boutros, on behalf of the congregation of St. Mary and St. John the Baptist Coptic Orthodox Church, said that they are located at Barrenridge Road and are a very small congregation consisting of approximately 10 families. He noted that St. Mary and St. John the Baptist is a non-profit project. Everything that has been done has been donated by the members of the church. The $5,250 fine will become another obstacle for the congregation. He apologized for the “gross neglect the Church showed toward the E&S warnings”. He said that the Church consisted of professions from all sectors:

Teachers, Doctors, Businessmen and Entrepreneurs. He said there were several challenges in explaining the E&S warnings to the Church and why money should be allocated towards those charges immediately. He noted that Staff of Augusta County has acknowledged that no actual sediment had left the sediment basin and, therefore, the Church congregation did not understand the severity of the warnings. While the site laid dormant, the Church was in the midst of finalizing the architectural and engineering planning and focusing their money in being able to obtain a building permit.

The costs were far higher than the Church had anticipated. The site was dormant due to the fact that the Church was planning on building in early Spring 2012, but due to delays and the planning and the unforeseen issues, the plans were not submitted until mid-summer 2012. Because they were hoping to break ground as soon as the permits were released, the congregation was unable to spend the money needed to purchase topsoil, seed, straw and the additional work that was needed to be in compliance. In the meantime, unexpectedly, with the day’s economy, some of the Church’s main contributors had other financial responsibilities and other members had to move out of the area in search for better incomes for their families. “Regardless of the struggles that these members have faced, it has only made their faith stronger. These people have the will and a dream to build this church. Too much time, money and work have been put into this project just to give up.” He, again, asked the Board, “What the better Christian decision is – Justice versus Mercy? Punish us for our mistake or forgive the congregation and give us another chance that will encourage us to finally build a church that we all deserve?” Mr. Wills said that he understood the problems the congregation is going through and had sympathy for anyone trying to work through any project with a committee. He understood the difficulty of explaining a way certain responsibilities and regulations have to be incurred; however, by State law, the County is required to collect these fines. He felt that it would place staff, the Board of Supervisors, and the County Attorney in an awkward position in the future should a private developer request the same thing. He did not feel it was appropriate for the Board to waive these fees. “We have to treat all citizens of Augusta County in the same manner when it comes to our rules and regulations.” He would like to make an exception for something like a church, but he felt, as a government, he could not make an exception.

Mr. Wills moved, seconded by Mr. Karaffa, that the Board not approve the waiver of the Erosion and Sediment Control penalties.

Mr. Karaffa felt that with notification beginning in June 2011, there had been plenty of time to address this issue. “Not only had the organization decided no to pay the due, they didn’t fix the problem. A full year later, some of the same problems were still in existence.” He understood that things are up to date now. Mr. Boutros confirmed that they were in full compliance. He felt that the County has been merciful to the Church congregation, noting that Staff has done everything possible to help them.

Mr. Wills added, in terms of mercy, “I think our Staff has been merciful because, in realty if we were following the Code to a t, those fines are specified as daily fines. This could have gone to $10,000.” Mr. Shull asked what Mr. Boutros’ occupation was. Mr. Boutros said that he is a developer as well as a builder. Mr. Shull asked if he held the Responsible Land Disturber Permit. Mr. Boutros said he did. Mr. Shull said that he had one, too, and that he had to take a test to obtain that permit. All contractors who have this permit has to be responsible for what they do. “If we set precedence here of alleviating this money, than we will have others that come in. I think that word ‘responsible’ once the Church was notified, they should have notified you; and being a responsible Land Disturber, you should have taken care of that at that time.” He pointed out that violations can renege his license. He added that inspections were done on a monthly basis and that any violations should have been taken care of at that time.

Mr. Boutros reiterated that everything was done via donation. There was no superintendent for this job. There was no money signed. There was no money given.

The Church did not pay for any funds received; it was when equipment was available, equipment was working. He agreed that notifications had been submitted, but, at the same time, there were several meetings held between the Church as well as some of the Staff of Augusta County to try working things out. “I just want it to be known that it was not an abandoned site throughout.” He said that the reports do not actually state what was done and redone. He noted that they came and blew straw and seed to maintain it in the winter.

Mr. Beyeler did not understand why it took two years to get to this point. Mr. Boutros said that the Church has gone through several design phases. They were planning on proceeding as soon as the permits were released. Once they realized that they were not going to have funding, the realized they were in an upheaval. From Spring to Summer of this year, they were planning on building.

Vote was as follows: Yeas: Pattie, Karaffa, Shull, Wills, Beyeler and Pyles Nays: Moore Motion carried.

CONSENT AGENDA

Mr. Wills moved, seconded by Mr. Karaffa, that the Board approve the consent agenda as follows:

MINUTES

Considered minutes of the following meetings:

• Organizational Meeting, Wednesday, January 2, 2013 • Regular Meeting, Wednesday, January 9, 2013

NET ASSETS POLICY

Considered Add/Deletes in authorized Infrastructure, Parks and Recreation Matching Grants and Capital Improvement Fund projects.

Vote was as follows: Yeas: Pattie, Karaffa, Shull, Moore, Beyeler, Wills and Pyles Nays: None Motion carried.

(END OF CONSENT AGENDA)

MATTERS TO BE PRESENTED BY THE BOARD

The Board discussed the following issues:

Mr. Shull: Attended Middlebrook Ruritan Club meeting to give a “State of the County” report. One of the main concerns mentioned were tax assessments. A community meeting will be held at Riverheads High School on Monday, January 28th at 6:30 p.m.

Mr. Karaffa: CAP-SAW – Fee tax service for citizens earning less than $51,000 a year at the Stuarts Draft High School and Booker T. Washington Center in Staunton.

Mr. Pyles: Churchville Fire and Rescue – A community meeting will be held Saturday, February 2nd, at 10:00 a.m. He asked that Mr. Coffield make arrangements at the school cafeteria.

Mr. Wills:

1. AIB – received confirmation that Matthew Sponagle has accepted the position for Livestock Animal Science.

2. Legislative – Continuing to stay in contact with Ms. Woods on a lot of different Bills. Mentioned that Pete Giesen has a site listing every Bill that has been put into the General Assembly. There are several Bills in there that could impact local Government.

3. Parks and Recreation Commission Review Mr. Wills moved, seconded by Mr. Karaffa, that the Board ask Parks and Recreation Commission review the policy concerning trips and competition with private industry and provide a recommendation to Parks and Recreation staff and the Board of Supervisors.

Chairman Moore asked for clarification. Mr. Wills suggested that the trips should be determined if appropriate or not. “If we’re providing them at a cost higher than private business, and people still take them, I don’t have any trouble with it. We’re providing with them at a discount, I agree with Mr. Karaffa, I think it is not Government business to be in competition with local business.” Vote was as follows: Yeas: Karaffa, Shull, Wills, Moore, Beyeler and Pyles Nays: None Abstain: Pattie Motion carried.

* * * Mr. Beyeler: Greenways/Green Space flyer – Suggested that someone from the County needed to attend on January 29th. Chairman Moore and Mr. Fitzgerald will be attending as spokesman for the County and note that there is no support from the Board for the Blue Ridge Tunnel project.

Mr. Pyles: Legislative Activities – Capital Connections article regarding Towns not enforcing its codes, does the County supposed to. He asked if Craigsville does their own enforcement and suggested that Jane Woods look into it.

Mr. Shull: Emergency Services Committee Meeting – It was mentioned that the County had specifically, by ordinance, given Craigsville the authority to oversee their Fire and Rescue. He asked if this was correct. Mr. Wills suggested that the County Attorney research this to determine what was done.

MATTERS TO BE PRESENTED BY STAFF

Staff discussed the following issues:

1. Resolutions: Blue Ridge Tunnel and Lewis & Clark – At the Staff Briefing on Tuesday, Board had asked to remove these items from agenda because of lack of support. They felt that a negative vote would hurt the changes of moving forward.

CLOSED SESSION

On motion of Mr. Wills, seconded by Mr. Karaffa, the Board went into closed session pursuant to:

(1) the economic development exemption under Virginia Code § 2.2-3711(A)(5) [discussion concerning a prospective business or industry or the expansion of an existing business or industry where no previous announcement has been made of its interest in locating or expanding its facilities in the county]:

A) Industrial Prospect (2) the real property exemption under Virginia Code § 2.2-3711(A)(3) [discussion of the acquisition for a public purpose, or disposition, of real property]:

A) Augusta Springs On motion of Mr. Wills, seconded by Mr. Pattie, the Board came out of closed Session.

Vote was as follows: Yeas: Pattie, Karaffa, Shull, Moore, Beyeler, Wills and Pyles Nays: None Motion carried.

The Chairman advised that each member is required to certify that to the best of their knowledge during the closed session only the following was discussed:

1. Public business matters lawfully exempted from statutory open meeting requirements, and 2. Only such public business matters identified in the motion to convene the executive session.

The Chairman asked if there is any Board member who cannot so certify.

Hearing none, the Chairman called upon the County Administrator/ Clerk of the Board to call the roll noting members of the Board who approve the certification shall answer AYE and those who cannot shall answer NAY.

Roll Call Vote was as follows:

AYE: Pattie, Karaffa, Shull, Moore, Beyeler, Wills and Pyles NAY: None The Chairman authorized the County Administrator/Clerk of the Board to record this certification in the minutes.

AUGUSTA SPRINGS

Mr. Pyles moved, seconded by Mr. Karaffa, that the Board approve the conveyance of surplus property to Rick Fridley in the amount of $2,000 an acre (4.248 acres) for a total of $8,496. Funds to be credited to Pastures Infrastructure Account.

Vote was as follows: Yeas: Pattie, Karaffa, Shull, Wills, Moore, Beyeler and Pyles Nays: None Motion carried.

ADJOURNMENT

There being no other business to come before the Board, Mr. Wills moved, seconded by Mr. Karaffa, the Board adjourned subject to call of the Chairman.

Vote was as follows: Yeas: Pattie, Karaffa, Shull, Moore, Beyeler, Wills and Pyles Nays: None Motion carried.

Chairman County Administrator H1-23min.13