Welcome.

And uh will council please come to order.

You rowdy bunch.

Will the clerk please call a roll?

Anderson present.

Bush.

Here.

Oliver.

Here.

Board?

Here.

Addingly?

Here.

Here.

We begin this evening with our consent agenda, and that is approval of town council minutes for January 3, 10, and 17.

We have a change order approval for Adams construction contract.

We're going to authorize the town manager to approve that change order.

And Blacksburg Fire Officers and Blacksburg Rescue Squad Officers for 2023.

And we'll confirm them.

What is council's pleasure on the consent agenda?

I move approval of the consent agenda.

Second.

We have a motion and a second.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Aye.

Oliver.

Aye.

Aye.

Agor Smith.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

We have no public hearings this evening.

But we do have a citizen comment period.

And if anybody here would like to get up and speak, you are welcome to do so.

If you want to come to the microphone, we ask that you share your name and address, and then there's a little stoplight timer here that will help you keep track of the three minutes that you have.

Speak right up, even if your voice shakes.

My voice is gravelly.

I'm Hillary Bryan.

I'm at 501 Kohi Road.

Um January 11th, just before 11 p.m., I was awakened by gunfire at my home on Cohee Road.

I got out of bed and watched as two men in an unmarked SUV without headlights drove on the bike path across from my house.

Parking their car, they entered the wooded area of the golf course and used normal flashlights to look for the deer they had just shot.

Soon after they dragged the bodies across the ground and loaded them into their vehicle.

To recap, two men were shooting guns in a recreational area in front of my house without displaying any identification on their clothing or car.

As any normal person would do, I called the police.

Not only was there no prior notification for that event on January 11, but there is zero information on the town's website that any calling operations take place in town limits.

Tonight I'm here to debate, not debate the presence of deer or the need to control their population, but to shine a light on the total lack of transparency regarding Blacksburg's calling operations.

When it comes to gunfire, the residents of Blacksburg deserve to know why, what, who, where, and when so, in the name of public safety, I call upon town council and their manager to conduct an up-to-date study, including gathering citizen feedback to ascertain the best practices for Blacksburg's deer population control measures.

Some residents mentioned that birth control and archery harvests were discussed in the past.

Regardless, the decision to call deer with firearms in residential neighborhoods in the dark of night should be decided decided on accurate, non-biased information.

Should the study indicate that shooting within residential neighborhoods is a reasonable solution, that the town should adopt formal written policies, procedures, and or ordinances for explicit governance and oversight of this dangerous activity.

I suggest that the town should require verification and public notice that all shooters have fulfilled required specialized training for conducting dark of night urban shooting.

Um currently we have no idea who's doing it and whether they're qualified.

The town should also require that shooters in their vehicles sport clear identification of their affiliation.

As well, the town should require explicit limits for minimum shooting distance in proximity to occupied residences.

The distance from Cohee to Country Club is 500 feet.

If one looks to Syracuse New York's culling regulations, they forbid shooting within 500 feet of any home or occupied dwelling and within 300 feet of a public road.

The shooting practices taking place in front of my house, but not allowed.