Will the uh council come to order and we're will the recorder um what I forget the rest of that sentence oh yeah call the roll anderson present Bush here Oliver here Ford here Haker Smith here Mattingley Susman here we'll begin this evening with the consent agenda and that includes approval of the town council minutes for February 14 and 21st uh we also have a resolution 2A22 a resolution approving the town's participation in the proposed settlement of an opioid uh agreement and uh what we'll do is direct the town attorney to execute the documents necessary to effectuate the town's participation in those settlements.

What is council's um uh pleasure getting mixed up tonight?

What is council's pleasure uh on our consent agenda?

I move approval of the consent agenda.

Second.

We have a motion and a second.

Will the recorder call the roll?

Sutton.

Uh aye.

Igor Smith.

I Bush.

Aye.

Oliver.

Inderson.

I we have no public hearings this evening, but uh we are always uh welcoming of citizen comments.

So if a member of the public would like to get up and speak, this is the right time.

And as you come forward, please give your name and address, and you probably know the drill to do with the stoplight.

Yep.

So I'm Thrall Scott.

I'm at six oh one Rose Avenue in the Airport Acres.

Um couple weeks ago.

I I was biking on the bike path, and I noticed there was a water leak um up on the hill off of Southgate.

I knew where to call, called the town.

Someone was out there within an hour.

Fix the situation, they brought a digger, dug up this person's yard, and I was really impressed.

Um fast forward the beginning of last week.

Um, I bring my kid to school, and we walk or bike every day, and there's no crossing guard there that day.

And I thought to myself, that's strange, right?

We didn't get a notice from the school, we didn't we didn't know exactly what was going on.

Same thing happened the next day.

And that to me, the safety thing with respect to kids getting to school, I find it really triggering for me because I did have personally have a person in my family get killed by an automobile.

And seeing like the attention to this one issue of terms of a water leak versus our kids' safety was something that I was hopeful that we could get some resolution on.

Um what I would what I'm wondering is like, and I've heard all these different things that and and I talked with Chief Brewster when we walked in, um, whether or not there's funding available, um, who's responsible, who's responsible for communicating when something happens, like as to uh is is the the person retired.

I've heard that they've been hit by a car, the current the old crossing guard.

It's the rumors are it's incredible, it's kind of crazy, right?

And so just having like that form of communication with people that are involved would be really helpful, and then I would really ask our town and town council to think about how can we interact with the school board or the schools, whether it's who's been paying for the school guards.

We don't I don't I don't really have an understanding.

Um it just it's something I'm asking for some help with as as a person who's obviously really concerned by my own kid, but then kids all across town that are choosing to get to school on on feed.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Um we don't usually with larger agendas flip right to an explanation, but I think that some of staff has been following this up.

Chief Brewster, probably the best one to answer on crossing guards.

I know they they work for the police department, and I also know that have not been successful hiring them, right?

No, we have not.

Um years ago, we were running several processes to hire crossing guards, and we were not getting one applicant.

And so um when after several two, three, four times, the decision was made to work with Montgomery County Schools and not replace the crossing guards through the police department.

And we've been working with the schools, and this subject actually came up a couple weeks ago uh when Lieutenant Hayes spoke with Jason Garrison, who's the safety coordinator for the Montgomery County Public Schools, and letting them know that the decision had been made several years ago that as people retire that we cannot replace those positions.

We we the schools are we the okay, police department right now.

We have four crossing guards.

One hurt his back, um, he fell and was in out, and another one was having to have surgery from what I'm told.

So right now we're down to two, and we've been trying to supplement with our parking attendant.

And if we have enough officers, if we can send one out to to take care of that, but we just don't have enough crossing guards and and personnel at this point.

Is that typical for the police departments to do that as opposed to the Montgomery County schools and their forces?

So I to be honest, I I don't know how the Christiansburg's been working it.

Um I don't know if they supply or the county schools supply it.

Um it was my understanding that other strands the county's been providing them, but I don't know straight up on on that aspect.

We've always supplied it since I've been here, but we've also been able to get people to come to work.

Um across the country, we're having shortage of people wanting to even to work in any type of job, much less come in for an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon and try to try to get them to do that.

So if people have as the situation evolves, who's the contact for Jason Garretton right now.

Um with the county schools, yes, ma'am.