Blacksburg Town Council Regular Meeting – April 12, 2022
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Blacksburg Town Council Regular Meeting – April 12, 2022
The Blacksburg Town Council held its regular meeting on Tuesday, April 12, 2022, at 6:30 p.m. in the Roger E. Hedgepeth Chambers of the Blacksburg Municipal Building. The meeting included a proclamation, moments of silence, approval of the consent agenda, four public hearings, budget disclosures, and a closed session. All votes were unanimous.
Proclamations & Remembrance
- Mayor Leslie Hager-Smith read a proclamation designating April 23, 2022, as Arbor Day in Blacksburg, encouraging residents to celebrate and plant trees.
- Council and staff observed a moment of silence in memory of Town employees Gary Dowdy (Public Works, passed March 31, 2022, age 55) and Wayne Garst (retired Blacksburg Fire Department fire code official, passed recently, age 63).
Consent Calendar
- Approved Town Council Minutes from March 22, 2022, and the Work Session Minutes from April 5, 2022.
- Adopted Resolution 4-B-22 supporting the Virginia Community Flood Preparedness Grant application for 2022.
- Adopted Resolution 4-C-22 acknowledging National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week, April 10-16, 2022.
- Motion by Vice Mayor Susan Anderson, seconded by Councilmember Michael Sutphin; passed unanimously on a roll call vote (7-0).
Public Hearings
Ordinance #1982 – Open-Space Easement on Brush Mountain
- Town Manager Marc Verniel reported that the ordinance grants an open-space easement to the Virginia Outdoors Foundation over approximately 205 acres of Town property on Brush Mountain (Brush Mountain Property 3).
- The property was acquired with a $210,000 grant from the Virginia Land Conservation Foundation; the easement preserves the land while permitting recreational use and trail construction.
- Verniel noted six miles of trail exist, six more are under construction, and this property will support another six miles, for a total of 18 miles.
- No public comment. Motion by Vice Mayor Anderson, seconded by Councilmember Sutphin; passed unanimously (7-0).
Ordinance #1983 – Utility Easement to Shentel at 2700 Prosperity Road
- Town Manager Verniel stated the ordinance grants a small utility easement (about 320 square feet) to Shentel for fiber optic cable installation on Town property at the Public Works site.
- No public comment. Motion by Vice Mayor Anderson, seconded by Councilmember Sutphin; passed unanimously (7-0).
Ordinance #1986 – Encroachment in Town Right-of-Way at 411 Draper Road
- Assistant Planning Director Kali Casper presented the request for an encroachment in the town alley right-of-way behind 411 Draper Road.
- The proposal is for a concrete pad (approximately 4 feet 11 inches into the right-of-way, up to 14 feet in length) to accommodate two 4-yard rolling dumpsters (one trash, one recycling) for a new by-right neighborhood convenience store.
- The plan also includes replacing approximately 12 feet 11 inches by 26 feet of alley asphalt with concrete to handle dumpster servicing wear.
- The applicant revised the request to use two dumpsters (trash and recycling).
- Casper initially stated the Planning Commission recommended approval, but later corrected herself: the Planning Commission does not review encroachments and did not vote on this matter.
- Applicant offered to answer questions; none were asked. No public comment.
- Motion by Vice Mayor Anderson, seconded by Councilmember Sutphin; passed unanimously (7-0).
FY22/23 Recommended Budget Package (Ordinances #1984 and #1985)
- Councilmember Michael Sutphin disclosed a complete disqualification regarding Ordinance #1984 due to his employment with Community Housing Partners (CHP), which receives HUD funding. He stated he would abstain from voting on Paragraph 4 subsection (ii) (a $52,000 appropriation to CHP Consulting) and Paragraphs 6 and 7, which would be voted on separately on April 26, 2022.
- Councilmember Susan Mattingly disclosed a complete disqualification regarding Ordinance #1984 due to her employment with The Lyric Council, which receives Town funding. She stated she would abstain from voting on Paragraph 4, subsection a (v), which would be voted on separately on April 26, 2022.
- Town Manager Marc Verniel gave the combined staff report, highlighting: economic recovery from the pandemic with revenues projected to return to pre-pandemic levels this fiscal year; the budget includes a compensation study to address employee pay amid 40-year high inflation; total budget is $91 million; comparing budget-to-budget shows a 20% decrease due to prior large transit capital projects, but the true total budget increase is about 8.2% (general fund up about 8%).
- Property tax rate remains at 26 cents per $100 of assessed value. A county reassessment will occur mid-year (every four years).
- Proposed rate increases for water, sewer, and solid waste/recycling due to inflationary costs and capital projects; stormwater fee unchanged. Average utility bill increase would be about $5.50 per month.
- New positions proposed: deputy police chief, IT database administrator, skilled maintainer, and assistant operations manager at Blacksburg Transit.
- Public comment: none.
- No action taken; the public hearing was held and actions on Ordinance #1984 and #1985 are scheduled for April 26, 2022. Additional work session scheduled for April 19, 2022.
Citizen Comments
- None.
Council Announcements
- Councilmember Lauren Colliver announced upcoming community activities: Easter egg hunt on Saturday at Municipal Park (Parks and Rec), start of Passover on Friday (noting the Mayor made a matzah cover), and Fork & Cork at Smithfield Plantation on April 23.
Adjournment & Closed Meeting
- The regular meeting adjourned at 6:53 p.m.
- Council moved to a Closed Meeting pursuant to Virginia Code § 2.2-3711(A)(1) for annual discussion and evaluation of the Town Clerk's performance and salary. Motion by Vice Mayor Anderson, seconded by Councilmember Ford; passed unanimously (7-0). Closed meeting began at 6:54 p.m.
- Council reconvened in open session at 7:09 p.m. and adopted Resolution 4-D-22 certifying the propriety of the closed meeting. Motion by Vice Mayor Anderson, seconded by Councilmember Sutphin; passed unanimously (7-0).
Key Outcomes
- All consent agenda items and ordinances (#1982, #1983, #1986) approved unanimously (7-0 each).
- Budget public hearing held; no action taken. Final votes on Ordinance #1984 and #1985 scheduled for April 26, 2022.
- Councilmembers Sutphin and Mattingly formally disqualified from portions of Ordinance #1984 and will abstain from those votes.
- Closed meeting held and certification resolution adopted unanimously.
Meeting Transcript
Oh. Will the uh council please come to order? Um will the clerk please call the role? Anderson present Bush. Here Oliver Ward. Eggers Smith here. Here. Will the Vice Mayor lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands. One nation under God. Indivisible with liberty and justice for all. I'm going to begin this evening with a proclamation, and that is to do with Arbor Day. And this is a brief proclamation that I will read out. Whereas in 1872, a special day called Arbor Day was set aside for the planting of trees, whereas Arbor Day is now observed throughout the nation and the world. Whereas trees provide a pleasing environment for the benefit of our residents and visitors, increase property values, enhance the economic vitality of our business areas, and contribute greatly to Blacksburg's positive image. Whereas trees can reduce the erosion of our precious topsoil, cut heating and cooling costs, moderate the temperature, clean the air, produce life-giving oxygen, and provide habitat for wildlife. And whereas trees, wherever they are planted, are a source of joy and spiritual renewal. Now, therefore, I, Leslie Hager Smith, mayor of the town of Blacksburg, Virginia, do hereby proclaim April 23 as Arbor Day in the town of Blacksburg. And I urge all citizens to celebrate Arbor Day and to support efforts to protect our trees and woodlands. And further, I urge I urge all citizens to plant trees to gladden the heart and promote the well-being of this and future generations. And that is dated this day of April. And there will be an opportunity to volunteer time to help plant trees on that last Saturday in April as well. So I encourage you to go to our website and look for that opportunity. Next, I would like to hand things over to our town manager Mark Furnial who has some remarks to make this today. Yeah, I'd like to mention a couple of town employees who we um lost too soon. Um one um Gary Dowdy, he was a uh employee at the public works department. He uh worked in our foreman in our parks division, so he was a he worked in maintaining our parks, and he um was a friendly face that a lot of people saw if they used our park system, and he was also you know a really good friend to his co-workers at public works, and he um battled cancer from for a while and then um passed away on March 31st. Um, and he was only 55 years old, so we'll we'll miss Gary. Um also a lot of folks have heard of the news about Wayne Garst, um, longtime member of the Blacksburg Fire Department. Um he suffered a tragic accident this past week. Um he was very well known, very well loved by the community, loved the fire department. Um he really was was kind of the face of the fire department. You know, he he ran a lot of our fire prevention programs, spent times with spent time with school children teaching them about fire safety, was uh also a fire inspector, um interacted with our businesses regularly, and just was you know a person in the community that people knew really well. He actually became began as a volunteer firefighter in 1984. Um in 1995, we hired him as our fire prevention coordinator, and then he held other titles. He was a firefighter, but also our our fire code official. Um, and then he retired from the town in October of 2020. Um but he continued to volunteer for the fire department after that point, so he and Wayne was 63 years old. Um so we'll we'll we will miss certainly miss both of them. Um Gary services were held last week, services for Wayne are being planned currently, so as soon as I know the details there, I'll share those with council, but just ask that the community and everyone just please keep the Dowdy and the Garst family and their thoughts and prayers over the next days and weeks. Um and I just want to say that they'll both be missed um dearly by their their co-workers here at the town. Um they were both well known and very well liked, so we'll we'll we'll miss them. Thank you. I wonder if you would all join me in a moment of silence for Gary Dowdy and Wayne Garst. Thank you. We will continue our meeting this evening with uh resumption of our consent agenda, and that uh begins with the approval of town council minutes for March 22nd and April 5. We have also a resolution 4B 22, a resolution supporting the Virginia Community Flood Preparedness grant application for 2022, and then resolution 4C22 acknowledging National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week, uh April 10th to 16th. What is council's pleasure on the consent agenda? I move approval of the consent agenda. Second.
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