OPENPUBLICA · PUBLIC MEETING RECORD
Record of Proceedings

Blacksburg Town Council Meeting – June 23, 2026

Town Council — Tuesday, June 23, 2026
BodyBlacksburg, Virginia
SessionTown Council
DateTuesday, June 23, 2026
StatusFILED
Video Record
0:00 / 9:33

Transcript — Verbatim
0:36

Will the council come to order and we'll go ahead and get started for the council meeting tonight on June 23rd.

0:41

Will the clerk please call the roll?

0:44

Anderson, present.

0:45

Campbell?

0:46

Present.

0:46

Oliver's absent.

0:47

Ford.

0:48

Here.

0:49

Good hard.

0:50

Present.

0:50

Cassol.

0:51

Present.

0:52

Set Finn.

0:52

Here.

0:54

We will begin tonight.

0:55

We have a fairly short agenda tonight, but we will begin with the consent agenda.

0:58

We have two items on the consent agenda.

1:00

The first is the approval of the town council minutes for June 2nd and June 9th.

1:05

And the second item is resolution 6A26.

1:08

The resolution writing off the town's uncollectible water, sewer, refuse service, and stormwater receivables, real estate taxes, and accounts receivable, and we'll be approving that resolution tonight.

1:18

What is council's pleasure on the consent agenda?

1:21

I move approval of the consent agenda.

1:24

Second.

1:24

We have a motion and a second.

1:26

Is there any discussion on tonight's consent agenda?

1:30

Seeing none, will the clerk please call the roll?

1:32

Campbell.

1:33

Aye.

1:34

Ford.

1:35

Aye.

1:35

Goodhart.

1:36

Aye.

1:37

Pass off.

1:37

Aye.

1:38

Set Finn?

1:39

Aye.

1:39

Anderson.

1:40

Aye.

1:41

The motion passes.

1:43

We have no public hearings tonight.

1:45

Uh, so we'll go ahead and close our uh yeah, we'll not have any public hearings tonight, so we'll go ahead and move on to citizen comments.

1:53

I'll go ahead and open up citizen comments.

1:55

If you'd like to speak tonight on any topic of your choosing, um please come forward, state your name and address, and limit your speaking time to three minutes.

2:04

Anyone here for citizen comments?

2:07

We will go ahead and close citizen comments.

2:09

Um next up we have appointments.

2:12

Um we do have a round of appointments tonight.

2:14

Um before I'd like to share, we did um accept a number of uh statements of interest that we received.

2:21

We've been working on kind of expanding the net of um who we get uh statements of interest from.

2:26

I know I worked with um our community relations office on doing a couple videos, one talking about what the committees are, another talking about how you can uh join the committee and get involved, and I know I spoke to several different groups like the Blacksburg Newcomers Group, we have a representative from that group today.

2:42

Um about serving on committees.

2:45

So I would just wanted to say thank you to everyone who did submit a statement of interest.

2:49

We do have a round of appointments we'll be making tonight.

2:52

Um, but there may be other openings that come up or other committees that aren't appointed by the town council, like um town manager appointed committees or other like nonprofit boards that we can refer people to.

3:02

So this isn't the end of the action tonight, but thank you all who submitted statements of interest.

3:07

So I'll go ahead and read our list of appointments for tonight.

3:11

Um this is this is the 2026 board and committee appointments.

3:15

Um Latania Walker, who will be reappointing to the Blacksburg Planning Commission.

3:20

Um Kim Kipling, who will be reappointing to the Board of Zoning Appeals, Jen Million, who did previously serve on the Quarter Committee, but will be appointing to the Corridor Advisory Committee.

3:30

Um Kay Moody, who is a member emeritus of the historical design review board will be reappointing.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting
Procedural█████████████████████████████████████████████46%
Community Engagement██████████████████████████████████████████43%
Arts And Culture███████████11%
Summary of Proceedings

Blacksburg Town Council Meeting – June 23, 2026

The Blacksburg Town Council held a regular meeting on Tuesday, June 23, 2026, at 6:30 p.m. in the Roger E. Hedgepeth Chambers. The meeting covered a consent agenda, board and committee appointments, and council announcements. Councilmember Lauren Colliver was absent.

Consent Calendar

  • Town Council Minutes: Approved unanimously for the meetings of June 2 and June 9, 2026.
  • Resolution 6-A-26: Approved unanimously to write off uncollectible water, sewer, refuse, stormwater receivables, real estate taxes, and accounts receivable.
  • Vote: Vice Mayor Susan Anderson moved approval, Councilmember Jerry Ford seconded; all six voting members (Anderson, Campbell, Ford, Goodhart, Kassoff, Sutphin) voted yes.

Appointments

Mayor Michael Sutphin presented a slate of reappointments and new appointments to various town boards and committees:

  • Blacksburg Planning Commission: Latanya Walker (reappointed, term ending 6/30/2030)
  • Board of Zoning Appeals: Kim Kipling (reappointed, term ending 6/31/2031)
  • Corridor Advisory Committee: Jenn Million (appointed, term ending 6/30/2030)
  • Historic or Design Review Board: Kay Moody (Member Emerita, reappointed) and Kris Toufectis (reappointed), terms ending 6/30/2030
  • NRV Regional Water Authority: William Knocke (reappointed, term ending 6/30/2030)
  • NRV Alcohol Safety Awareness Program: Capt. J. Tuebert (reappointed, term ending 6/30/2028)
  • Public Arts Committee: Linda Correll, Tiffany Pruden, Ruth Waalkes (all reappointed for second terms) and Susan Mattingly (new appointment as citizen representative, all terms ending 6/30/2030)

Discussion on Process: Councilmember Jerry Ford expressed concerns about transparency and outreach, stating that some constituents were unaware of the opportunity or felt they would not be chosen if they lacked personal connections to council. Mayor Sutphin responded, noting that statements of interest are accepted on a rolling basis and kept on file for two years, videos and community group outreach had been made, and improvements to the process are ongoing. He encouraged specific recommendations for future work sessions.

Vote: Vice Mayor Anderson moved approval, Councilmember Ford seconded. The motion passed 5-0-1 with Councilmember Darryl Campbell abstaining. (Ford, Goodhart, Kassoff, Sutphin, and Anderson voted yes; Campbell abstained; none opposed.)

Council Announcements

  • Councilmember Ford reminded residents of the 2026 Summer Arts Festival, including Henderson Lawn concerts (Fridays, 6–7:30 p.m.), the Blacksburg Community Band on June 26, Music Road Company on July 10, and a free movie (An American in Paris) at the Lyric on July 11.
  • Mayor Sutphin highlighted the July 4th celebration: a 2 p.m. parade on Main Street followed by live music (6–9:30 p.m.) and fireworks at 9:30 p.m. at Municipal Park, celebrating the nation's 250th birthday.
  • Next meetings: Work session on Tuesday, July 7, 2026, at 11:00 a.m. in the Blacksburg Motor Company Conference Room; Regular meeting on Tuesday, July 14, 2026, at 6:30 p.m. in Council Chambers.

Key Outcomes

  • Consent agenda approved unanimously.
  • Board and committee appointments approved 5-0-1 (Campbell abstained). Concerns about process transparency were noted and will be discussed further.
  • Meeting adjourned at 6:39 p.m.

Meeting Transcript

Will the council come to order and we'll go ahead and get started for the council meeting tonight on June 23rd. Will the clerk please call the roll? Anderson, present. Campbell? Present. Oliver's absent. Ford. Here. Good hard. Present. Cassol. Present. Set Finn. Here. We will begin tonight. We have a fairly short agenda tonight, but we will begin with the consent agenda. We have two items on the consent agenda. The first is the approval of the town council minutes for June 2nd and June 9th. And the second item is resolution 6A26. The resolution writing off the town's uncollectible water, sewer, refuse service, and stormwater receivables, real estate taxes, and accounts receivable, and we'll be approving that resolution tonight. What is council's pleasure on the consent agenda? I move approval of the consent agenda. Second. We have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion on tonight's consent agenda? Seeing none, will the clerk please call the roll? Campbell. Aye. Ford. Aye. Goodhart. Aye. Pass off. Aye. Set Finn? Aye. Anderson. Aye. The motion passes. We have no public hearings tonight. Uh, so we'll go ahead and close our uh yeah, we'll not have any public hearings tonight, so we'll go ahead and move on to citizen comments. I'll go ahead and open up citizen comments. If you'd like to speak tonight on any topic of your choosing, um please come forward, state your name and address, and limit your speaking time to three minutes. Anyone here for citizen comments? We will go ahead and close citizen comments. Um next up we have appointments. Um we do have a round of appointments tonight. Um before I'd like to share, we did um accept a number of uh statements of interest that we received. We've been working on kind of expanding the net of um who we get uh statements of interest from. I know I worked with um our community relations office on doing a couple videos, one talking about what the committees are, another talking about how you can uh join the committee and get involved, and I know I spoke to several different groups like the Blacksburg Newcomers Group, we have a representative from that group today.

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