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Record of Proceedings

Blacksburg Town Council Meeting – June 9, 2026: Grants, Lease, and Pride Month Proclamation

Town Council — Tuesday, June 9, 2026
BodyBlacksburg, Virginia
SessionTown Council
DateTuesday, June 9, 2026
StatusFILED
Video Record
0:00 / 13:32

Transcript — Verbatim
0:28

The council come to order and will the clerk please call the roll.

0:31

Anderson, present.

0:33

Campbell.

0:34

Present.

0:34

Oliver?

0:35

Here.

0:35

Board?

0:36

Here.

0:37

Goodhart?

0:37

Here.

0:38

Castle.

0:38

Present.

0:39

Set Finn.

0:40

Here.

0:41

We'll begin this evening with the Pledge of Allegiance.

0:43

We'll be vice mayor, please lead us in the pledge.

0:52

And to the Republic for which it stands.

0:55

One nation under God.

0:57

Indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

1:03

Thank you.

1:03

We will begin tonight with the consent agenda.

1:06

We have three items on the consent agenda.

1:08

Item A is the town council minutes from May 19th and May 26th, which will be approving tonight.

1:14

Item B is the 2026 Independence Day Fireworks Permit, which will also be approving tonight.

1:20

And item C is ordinance 2115, an ordinance authorizing the town manager to execute a master lease agreement between the town of Blacksburg and 414 LLC for the property located at 414 North Main Street.

1:32

That's our retail incubator space.

1:34

We'll be introducing the ordinance and scheduling the public hearing for July 14th.

1:39

What is council's pleasure on the consent agenda?

1:42

I move approval of the consent agenda.

1:44

Second.

1:45

We have a motion and a second.

1:46

Any discussion?

1:48

Will the clerk please call the roll?

1:50

Campbell?

1:51

Aye.

1:52

Oliver?

1:52

Aye.

1:53

Ford?

1:53

Aye.

1:54

Goodhart?

1:55

Aye.

1:55

Cassell.

1:57

Set Finn?

1:58

Aye.

1:58

Anderson.

1:59

Aye.

2:00

The consent agenda passes.

2:02

We'll now move on to public hearings, and we have two public hearings tonight.

2:06

The first one is ordinance 2111, an ordinance amending the fiscal year 2526 operating budget by accepting and appropriating 451,012 of Department of Conservation and Recreation Community Preparedness Grant Funds to the Stormwater Fund and transferring $50,112 to the Stormwater Capital Funds.

2:29

We'll begin tonight with the staff presentation.

2:31

And Coffee Howard has the staff report.

2:44

All right.

2:45

So the engineering department was awarded a grant for a total of uh a total of $501,000.

2:54

Um it's to prepare a flood preparedness and watershed study.

3:01

And so I'll briefly talk to you about what the grant um entails and allows us to do.

3:07

The flood resilience plan basically helps provide us a fame a framework, excuse me, to address and alleviate recurrent flooding problems around town.

3:18

Um it allows us a format to engage with the public to discuss these issues and take their feedback of flooding issues they're experiencing, and it helps it will help incorporate all the recommendations into the watershed study for future grant opportunities.

3:36

So the goals of the watershed study, um, which is the second phase is to identify additional areas of concern and recommend specific improvements to the drainage system for sewer, uh, the channels and the streams to alleviate recurring flooding and improve water quality across town.

3:53

Um the major focus are gonna be the areas of the downtown and Webb Street and Tom's Creek Road, but we'll also look at other smaller areas and not identified by the public engagement portion.

4:07

So this is a little snippet of the areas, the major areas that we know that we're gonna be looking at because they're areas that we know we have recurrent flooding.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting
Procedural████████████████████████24%
Water And Wastewater Management█████████████████████21%
Public Safety█████████████████████21%
Arts And Culture██████████████████18%
Public Engagement████████8%
Community Engagement████████8%
Summary of Proceedings

Blacksburg Town Council Meeting – June 9, 2026

The Blacksburg Town Council met on June 9, 2026, at 6:30 p.m. in the Roger E. Hedgepeth Chambers. The meeting included approval of the consent agenda, two public hearings on budget amendments for grant funds, and council announcements. No public comments were made. The meeting adjourned at 6:43 p.m.

Consent Calendar

  • Approved the Town Council minutes from May 19, 2026, and May 26, 2026.
  • Approved the 2026 Independence Day Fireworks Permit.
  • Introduced Ordinance 2115 (authorizing a master lease agreement with 414, LLC for 414 North Main Street) and scheduled a public hearing for July 14, 2026.

Public Hearings

  • Ordinance 2111: Accepted and appropriated $451,012 from the Department of Conservation and Recreation Community Preparedness Grant to the Stormwater Fund, and transferred $50,112 in Stormwater Capital Funds. The grant will fund a Flood Resilience Plan and a Town-wide Watershed Study, focusing on downtown, Webb Street, and Tom's Creek Road, with public input opportunities. The final report is expected in spring 2027. Approved unanimously.
  • Ordinance 2116: Accepted and appropriated $284,476 in police grant funding from the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services for a three-year implementation of a Stratified Policing model (a data-driven, continuous improvement framework). Approved unanimously.

Council Announcements

  • Mayor Sutphin proclaimed June 2026 as Pride Month in Blacksburg, highlighting a week of community events organized by Community Pride.
  • Vice Mayor Anderson announced the Summer Solstice festival (June 20) and the ongoing Summer Arts Festival, including the Old Prose Big Band Orchestra on June 12.
  • Councilmember Colliver read a statement thanking first responders, neighbors, and friends for their support after a house fire on May 21 that destroyed most of her possessions; she expressed gratitude for the community's response.
  • Councilmember Ford reminded residents of the ribbon cutting for the new bouldering exhibit at the Municipal Park on June 10.

Key Outcomes

  • All consent agenda items and both ordinances were passed unanimously (7‑0).
  • Next work session: June 16, 2026, at 11:00 a.m.
  • Next regular meeting: June 23, 2026, at 6:30 p.m.

Meeting Transcript

The council come to order and will the clerk please call the roll. Anderson, present. Campbell. Present. Oliver? Here. Board? Here. Goodhart? Here. Castle. Present. Set Finn. Here. We'll begin this evening with the Pledge of Allegiance. We'll be vice mayor, please lead us in the pledge. And to the Republic for which it stands. One nation under God. Indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. We will begin tonight with the consent agenda. We have three items on the consent agenda. Item A is the town council minutes from May 19th and May 26th, which will be approving tonight. Item B is the 2026 Independence Day Fireworks Permit, which will also be approving tonight. And item C is ordinance 2115, an ordinance authorizing the town manager to execute a master lease agreement between the town of Blacksburg and 414 LLC for the property located at 414 North Main Street. That's our retail incubator space. We'll be introducing the ordinance and scheduling the public hearing for July 14th. What is council's pleasure on the consent agenda? I move approval of the consent agenda. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Will the clerk please call the roll? Campbell? Aye. Oliver? Aye. Ford? Aye. Goodhart? Aye. Cassell. Set Finn? Aye. Anderson. Aye. The consent agenda passes. We'll now move on to public hearings, and we have two public hearings tonight. The first one is ordinance 2111, an ordinance amending the fiscal year 2526 operating budget by accepting and appropriating 451,012 of Department of Conservation and Recreation Community Preparedness Grant Funds to the Stormwater Fund and transferring $50,112 to the Stormwater Capital Funds. We'll begin tonight with the staff presentation.

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