Well, welcome everyone to our City Council work session, September 23rd, 2025.

Mr.

Manager.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

So today we're going to give you an update on the comprehensive plan.

This is sort of preview of coming attractions.

We'll be spending some time at your retreat in October diving into specific topics related to the comprehensive plan, but we wanted to use this opportunity to give you and the community an update on where things stand today.

So turn it over to planning director Jimmy McDamare.

Good evening, everyone.

So this has been a quite a journey.

Two and a half years later, we are here before you tonight to talk about the plan that has been specifically built on the foundation of public engagement and good information that we received along the way.

So we've been uh uh engaging with all these groups along the way.

So my goal this evening is to actually walk you through some of the engagement to date to give you an understanding of our approach and making sure that we thoroughly vetted uh the recommendations of the plan.

We also talk about some of the features of the plan, and then we'll briefly touch on the topics in each of the chapters and some of the big takeaways.

Uh so please feel free to engage with me along the way.

It's gonna be a lot of information, and we do seek your guidance uh uh as we prepare for uh planning commission in October.

So our existing comp plan was adopted in 2014, it has been updated several times since that original adoption.

Things have changed quite drastically uh since 2014, and it was time for a full update.

Our goal for this update from the start was to make the plan a plan that was easy to read.

It had to have graphics, images, and uh and streamlined text that gave clear guidance.

We wanted policy statements that were easy to find and easy to reference.

We also wanted to make clear how our other planning documents fit into the larger comprehensive plan that we've done over the past couple years.

We also knew that technological advancements and improvements in just about every field need to be incorporated.

So now I'll walk you through the public engagement and how we got to where we are today.

Oh yeah, we knew from the beginning that our methods to had to account for broad responses on specific topics and more detailed information on uh from a conversational standpoint.

We broke things down into several categories.

Community meetings where we go out into the community and interact with citizens in an open house format, surveys where we asked specific questions about topics that came up throughout the community meetings, focus groups where we met with a variety of stakeholders regarding specific topical subjects and specifically the seven focus areas, geographic focus groups where we went to different areas throughout the city and we sought uh information on how the different policies that were being proposed would affect those areas of the sit of the city differently.

And then pop-up events across the city to meet people where they were at and to spread awareness and engagement with people who might not historically have been engaged.

And then, of course, our city boards, commissioned and committees to keep them apprised of topics uh that specifically affect their groups.

So engagement came in ways, and we wanted to make sure from the start that we were always top of mind and not going away.

We wanted to make sure that this was something that was continually heard throughout our process.

So in fall of 2023, we took our we began our community kickoff meetings with a simple premise.

What were citizens looking for when they were looking to create an exceptional future?

We had a series of five geographically dispersed open houses and had a great response.

We filed that winter with a survey regarding green space, uh, which was a topic that we heard a lot about during our open houses.

A survey had over 500 responses and gave us great information.

During the winter, we began putting together a diverse pool of stakeholders that would provide us input in each of the seven focus areas.

These seven uh stakeholder groups would meet at least five times a group for a total of close to about 40 meetings.

In spring 2024, the stakeholder groups, the stakeholder groups got to work working through policies for each of the focus areas.

We sent out two surveys to the public that focused on the appropriateness of density, and another that focused on citizens' desires for third places, which are places besides worker home where citizens go to engage, relax, or recreate.

Again, we had an outstanding response to both surveys with nearly 1,500 and nearly 800 responses respectively.

It was also during this time that we took the work that we had completed on the focus area stakeholder groups out to the geographic stakeholder groups.

This allowed us to weigh how the different policies would impact the different areas of the city.

With all this input, we went back to the city at large for the next round of community meetings to share policies and share perspectives on each of those policies.

Later that summer, we were back out with a survey into people's perspectives on housing, collecting over a thousand responses on this topic.

That fall, we turned our attention to character districts across the city and how this very important policy would impact the impact the city.

We again hosted five community meetings across the city.

Going into the winter, we had one final community survey where we asked people's thoughts on what gave a place character, and again, over 600 responses for that survey.

So as the calendar changed into 2025, we put our heads down and began to work with the document development.

We brought stakeholder committees one more final time to present our final draft set of policies that would go into the document.

This summer we posted the document online for a 60-day comment period, which will end on Thursday the 25th.

We had a work session with Planning Commission last month, uh, where we got generally uh very positive feedback during our last session.

Uh City Council adopted an initiating resolution to officially begin the public hearing process.

And then we had one final round of community meetings this past August where we presented the draft document and key takeaways to the public.

And that brings us to a tentative public planning commission public hearing date in October and our work session with you today.

We do plan on having a follow-up work session with you in December following Plan Commission action before presenting the document for adoption in January 2026.

So all in all, we've had close to 4,400 responses to our surveys, 20 uh total open houses, 45 events with about 1,100 interactions so far.

We've met with focus groups over 40 times.

Uh we've involved community-specific leaders from all geographic areas of the city, and we set forth a goal uh to be present throughout this process, and based on our work and input uh from the community at every juncture, I believe that we've accomplished that.

I believe if you look at our engagement efforts, you'll see how geographically diverse dispersed they are.

Uh that we made a conscious decision effort to go out to people and meet them in their communities.

Although there is not unanimous agreement on all topics, I think what you'll see in this plan is the best effort to come to a general consensus on some very important topics.

I think that when citizens read this plan, they will be able to see their voices throughout the document itself, whether it be in the policies, the quotes or the supporting texts, citizens' voices make up the foundation of this document.

So on behalf of all the planning staff that's worked on this document, we'd like to say thank you to the citizens who took their time to come out of their schedules to lend their perspectives to help make this document the best that it can be.

Now, moving on to the document itself, we wanted to be clear from the beginning that there are many different audiences that will use this document and wanted to develop it in a way that would be useful to all those audiences.

So in the introduction chapter, we state, and I this is a quote from the document itself.

And though some would like to freeze Chesapeake in its current state or even its past, we cannot stop the continued maturation of the city.

What we can do is guide it so that Chesapeake continues to be a place where many thr lifestyles thrive.

Schools help our children to excel, green space is protected and accessible, and residents are housed and supported and through all stages of life.

If change is inevitable, then our response is two.

The question is, what does this change look like?

And that's where the comprehensive plan comes in.

A couple of the key features that characterize this update are on the screen.

For the past couple of comp plans, one of the most recognizable features has been the land use plan.

This gave general guidance towards what type of land uses would be expected in the future.

And while this use while use is very important, there are many other factors of placemaking that are not addressed by a traditional land use plan.

Things like what type of open spaces in an area, when do you traditionally see a lot of activity in an area, how do you expect to move throughout the district?

Is it by car?

Is it by foot?

Is transit available?

How do you plan for stormwater in these different areas?

So while we have these conversations with developers when rezonings come through, we thought it would be best to take these conversation points and to explain them out as part of the plan.

As a result, we have character districts.

These character districts help lay out where how development should occur with more detail.

However, it also accounts for our goal of creating complete communities by listing out additional uses that you may occasionally find in the district.

Think the neighborhood store in a single family neighborhood.

We also bring forward our policy of smart growth, which serves as a guiding principle throughout the document.

We want to make sure to explicitly call out some of the many quotes that we heard as part of our engagement as well, and you'll find those highlighted throughout the document.

And finally, we know that plans are only as good as the implementation behind them.

So we set out to provide implementation guidance and explaining the process to the public.

The Chesapeake Today chapter looks at demographic and content and gives the demographic and contextual foundation of the plan.

It also looks at some of the misconceptions that we hear.

In reading this chapter, you should have a high level understanding of the current demographics of the city, as well as some of those as well as the changes that we anticipate, which influence the policies found throughout the rest of the plan.

Some of these in particular are deal with aging population, which leads to specific policies on things like senior housing.

Chesapeake is a community of communities, and we know that each has its own character.

This plan pays homage to that and speaks about what makes each community unique and special.

This part of the plan is also an opportunity for residents to go and say, hey, that's my area and feel seen in the plan.

Now, one of the most important but understated policies that we have in the existing comp plan are the three overlay districts.

We have heard loud and clear that people love the different lifestyles that Chesapeake offers, and we want to protect those living choices, whether it's the rural character, the beautiful suburban neighborhoods, or the vibrant walkability of urban areas.

There was a call to protect these areas.

Because of that, additional context was given to what complete communities look like in each of these overlay districts.

It's important to note that terms like green line have come up many times in our conversation with citizens.

And we have our own version of the green line that's known as the rural overlay district, and unlike many green lines and other jurisdictions that are just policy statements, our rural overlay district is actually codified in the zoning ordinance itself, and it's such that its regulations concerning density are requirements and not suggestions.

This helps ensure that any development in this area will be compatible with the goals of this district.

As we discussed earlier, smart growth is something that the City Council has given us guidance on over the past couple of years, and this now incorporates that guidance into the comprehensive plan itself as an overall guiding principle.

We've heard many times over from citizens about the desire to be able to easily get from places of business and the availability of different forms of housing and open space in areas in which they live.

This concept of complete communities can be described as communities that provide employment, housing, recreation, and businesses for residents with a mix of land uses to accommodate a variety of housing types.

Many policies throughout the document will help support this overall goal.

And we know that complete communities look very different across the city.

When you're looking at a complete community within Greenbrier, it's going to look very different from one that's off of Ballahack Road or in Deep Creek or in Greybridge, and this plan really speaks to that.

Character districts are one of the many ways that we support complete communities.

And as we've spoken about before, this provides more flexibility and use while also layering out, laying out clearly for developers what we expect to see for them in terms of open space, street network, and more.

These expectations have always been presented, but this allows them to see it written in the comprehensive plan itself.

In this chapter, we introduced the environmentally sensitive overlay district, and this was developed based off of layers including floodplains, anticipated impacts from sea level rise, known habitat corridors, and wetlands.

The purpose of this scientifically based overlay is not necessarily to stop all development, but to highlight areas where additional mitigation may be necessary to ensure the protection of the development and the environment.

Things like building to a higher height or working around known wetlands.

These factors will be assessed with the development proposals to ensure the best outcomes possible.

Now the next portion of the plan focuses on the seven focus areas, and we'll dive into each of those.

First up is connectivity infrastructure, and we find here a greater push for alternative transportation options while also recognizing that cars will continue to be the primary transportation method for most people in our city.

A huge call from citizens for more sidewalks and trails, connecting people safely to schools, parks, and other public services.

The public utilities franchise area is no longer a comprehensive plan policy.

While public utilities still play a role in the decision making, that policy lies squarely with the Department of Public Utilities.

They will provide feedback on each of the applications as part of their analysis against their water and sewer policies.

Next is economic prosperity.

Economic growth is expected over the in the next 20 years, and Chesapeake is no longer a bedroom community.

Economic development sites must be protected and vacant or abandoned sites must be revitalized to ensure economic development occurs in the appropriate parts of town.

There is a large emphasis on talent attraction, retention, and training.

And perhaps the loudest point that we've heard in our engagement is the emphasis on supporting small businesses.

Strategies like setting up business incubators, help with city procurement process and others will help these small businesses flourish.

We also discuss our military partners and our continued support of them in this chapter.

The next is environment and resilience.

If you haven't heard yet, our residents love trees, natural areas, and open space.

This chapter takes a look at the many threats that are on the minds of citizens like sea level rise, recurrent flooding, and natural disasters.

Residents care and want to protect trees and open space.

They value natural areas.

We look at sensitive areas like wetlands, the Northwest River watershed, and the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Area.

We discuss the importance of protecting our water supply.

Stormwater continues to also be an important topic.

Strategies like reducing impervious surface, promoting green infrastructure, and developing regional stormwater systems as opposed to site-by-site systems are discussed.

Planning for impacts of the future of sea level rise are also brought up.

Strategies for promoting and protecting tree canopy.

Other topics like solid waste management and renewable energy are also included.

One of the most important topics discussed in the comp plan is growth management.

And while we focus on where not to grow, a large component of growth management is also where and how to grow.

The fact is that we are expected to grow by an additional 50,000 residents by 2045.

How and where that occurs needs to be laid out with careful consideration of the impacts of growth and to ensure that we are prepared to support that growth.

We have embraced the reinvest and preserve strategy, which looks to hold the suburban expansion within its current boundaries while looking to redevelop keynodes of the city at higher densities.

The fact is density must increase in order to accommodate projected new residents without encroaching in on suburban and rural lands.

The number of places where plan costs for urban mixed use is decreased actually from previous plans, but where it costs for it, it is critical that we are firm in that density and promote that.

That means that proactive infrastructure and service investment must be will be necessary to support that growth.

Rural Chesapeake must be protected.

That's a theme that we heard over and over again.

We devote a whole portion of this chapter to the unique circumstances that impact this area of the city.

We discuss things like use, aesthetics, and the economy, and how to support them.

When it comes to housing, affordability is a huge concern for residents and can be addressed through the construction of new houses, both specifically affordable housing and not, and also supporting existing housing and making sure that those areas continue to flourish.

Data shows that there is a mismatch between the type of housing being built in Chesapeake and the real needs of residents, which must be communicated to the development community.

We introduced the housing continuum in this chapter and talk about how people move up and down the continuum depending on life circumstances.

Promotions mean people move up.

But we we have heard loud and clear is that people want to have housing choices close to where they live.

People will hold on to a house that is too large and too much to handle just to stay in an area, even though that they wish to downsize.

There's a lot of opportunity out there to help out with these situations.

So we need additional housing options to help support this population.

Supporting existing housing is critical.

By keeping our existing housing stock in a good state of repair means that we have more vibrant neighborhoods and the ability to provide quality housing at reasonable price points.

At the other end of the spectrum, there is also a growing need for supportive housing for those who are cost burdened.

Placemaking and design contribute directly to the economic prosperity of an area.

In most cases, a person picks where to live based on its high quality design and quality of life and then finds a job there.

There are certain design elements that specifically that we are sp that we specifically call out because they are important, and we want to make sure that there is an emphasis on working with them with the development community, particularly things like reducing the prominence of garages.

But we also know that Chesapeake is different from the across the across the city and has different aesthetics and culture that we should promote.

So rather than trying to bring a singular identity or brand to the entire city, we give general principles regarding placemaking and design.

We discuss opportunities to increase areas for public art, repurposing portions of parking lot for placemaking opportunities.

We discuss streetscapes, landscaping, wayfinding, and gateways.

We also discuss the importance of historic preservation and the importance of protecting resources that once are gone will never return.

Tourism is also mentioned as an important component of our economy and future expansion opportunities that that will bring.

Now, Chesapeake is known for its high quality of life because of its many great services and that the other departments provide.

So in this chapter, we want to toot our own horn a little bit and talk about the great things that our different departments do for our residents.

This includes fire, police, parks, schools, libraries, CBC IBH, human services, and more.

We're trying to highlight the individual asks of each department so they can use them to support CIP requests or grant requests, supporting innovative libraries and well-resourced public safety.

These things are important and the plan speaks to them.

This is a section for bringing together the entire city as part and partner in the comprehensive plan.

So this plan doesn't establish priority projects or timelines for policies with adoption.

Instead, what we do offer is how we will know when it is time to implement a project.

So grant funding opens up and what will make implementation successful.

So cross-department collaboration and transparency.

We believe in a providing a public publicly accessible tracking dashboard that will help with keeping us accountable for the progress made on the plan, and we intend to develop those once the plan is adopted.

As important as the main document of the comprehensive plan is the small area plans and other related studies that provide in-depth detail and information to help us uh best plan for those areas and topics.

So while these plans have always been part of the comp plan, the new layout of the document allows us to better explain which documents are now truly part of the comprehensive plan.

And speaking of these plans, you have been busy over the past two years and have adopted many different plans and design guidelines.

We have the Deep Creek Plan, which is still underway, and we also have an expected start of the Western Branch Area Plan, which will be kicking off in early 2026.

We also have a place for City Council adopted policies like the LOS analysis and the solar energy policy.

We list out other documents from other jurisdictions like the Hampton Roads Hazard Mitigation Plan and the joint land use studies that we have been referenced.

We also include 2232 maps in here, so we map out extensively where all the known city facilities are to help uh to help uh make sure that the reviews of 2232s are minimized.

So I know that this is a ton of information, and we'd like to reiterate that we are certainly open for more conversation, and we hope to engage with you as we move forward.

We're excited to be at this point and look forward to engaging with you as we begin the public hearing process.

Mr.

Manager, uh we are going to this is going to be part of our, as you mentioned, uh, our retreat.

So I encourage council members if you have questions to probably keep them broad and any uh specifics, say for our retreat.

Having said that, Mr.

Newland.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Uh Mr.

Manager, Mr.

McMirror, thank you for the information.

This is a nice overview.

I do have a question generally.

It looks like we have done a lot of community outreach, but if citizens are interested in still providing us feedback, is this plan publicly available?

And if so, where, and then how can they provide us feedback up into the public hearing point?

Yes, ma'am.

The plan is publicly posted on the planning department webpage.

Uh, we are accepting public comment, you know, specifically through the comment period, which ends this Thursday, but we would certainly continue to encourage the public to engage with us beyond that as well.

Um the planning commission public hearing will be next month.

So, you know, we we cut it off at the 25th, so that we could get all the comments included in their package.

But again, you know, until this is adopted by council, we are certainly taking any public comment that anyone may have.

Other questions or comments?

Ms.

Ritter?

Thank you.

Um what about the master transportation plan?

Yes, ma'am.

The master transportation plan is close to being full development at this point.

We are expecting a final copy from uh the consultant here very quickly.

So do you plan to incorporate that into the final presentations?

Yes, ma'am.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Bitter.

Any other questions or comments?

Mr.

McMirror, I know we all are really do appreciate uh the hard work you all have put into this, and particularly the extent of which you have uh reached out to get public involvement.

It's always a very important part of something that when you think about what we are going to be like the next 20 years.

Uh it's it's quite it's very important to particularly to younger people.

Mr.

Manager, do you have anything else that you want to add?

I just had two uh final thoughts um from staff.

Uh, number one, I just I echo what you just said.

I really would like to commend uh Jimmy and Kevin and their team.

This was a huge amount of public participation over several years and with with a few different city councils during that time.

So at each time, we um Jimmy tried to take um direction from council, where would you like to see the community go and then work that through your your boards, committees, and commissions, um, communicate with uh with the community citizens and the business community.

Um so I just want to really say thank you, Jimmy, to you and your team.

And then also one thing I was really happy to see when Jimmy prepared this presentation as the city manager, um, and I'm sure it is something that that made uh Vice Mayor Ritter very happy as well, is the commitment to a dashboard on a process of how we hold ourselves accountable.

So a lot of times in plans, there's policies adopted, and it's very hard for the public to see how are we holding ourselves accountable to making progress.

And so this will really be a first for the city.

Um so I think both as a transparency tool and as an accountability tool for for us.

Um I think it's a wonderful addition.

You know, I think of people who move to the area and they look at what city or where they want to live.

And I think one of the things they look at is a well-managed city, a well-planned city, and I'm just real excited to be part of that.

So thank you.

Thank you very much for your hard work.

Any other comments?

Thank you.

Any other topics?

So we're done.

We were beginning our we will begin our regular meeting at 6.30.

Thank you.

Council is now in session.

I would like to recognize Councilmember King at this time for our indication and the Pledge of Allegiance.

Lord, you are the almighty, everlasting creator of all things.

We bow in your presence and glorify your holy name.

We thank you, Lord, for breathing breath into our bodies and for awakening us to yet another day.

We thank you for the great city of Chesapeake and for the two hundred and fifty thousand citizens who you've placed in our care.

Please bless, protect, and keep them safely under your wing.

We thank you for the leaders of the city, Lord.

We pray for their safety, health, and well-being.

Please provide us with wisdom and direction today as we unite to make decisions that are in your will for the city and our citizens.

Please give us insight, clarity, compassion, and guidance as we search for creative solutions to sometimes complex problems.

Keep us focused on loving our neighbors and on putting them before our personal interest.

Council Member Bunn.

Here.

Councilmember Jeffreys.

Here.

Council Member King.

Here.

Councilmember Newman's here.

Councilmember Ritter.

Here.

Councilmember Smith.

Here.

Councilmember Ward.

Present.

Councilmember Whitaker.

Present.

And Mayor West.

Here.

On behalf of the City Council, I am pleased to extend a warm welcome to our newest council member, Jeff Jeffreys.

Councilman Jeffreys, we look forward to working with you as uh we work to uh to serve our citizens.

So congratulations, sir.

Earlier this afternoon, Councilmember Ritter was chosen to finish the term for vice as Vice Mayor.

Congratulations, Ms.

Ritter.

Next is the approval of the proposed agenda.

Are there any changes to the proposed agenda?

Move approval.

Thank you, Ms.

Newman.

Second.

Thank you, Dr.

Ward.

Please prepare to vote.

Please vote and record.

Motion to approve the agenda as presented is stopped by nine-o vote.

The minutes of the meetings of August twelfth and nineteenth, twenty twenty-five are presented for approval.

Motion, please.

Move approval.

Thank you, Dr.

Ward.

Second.

Dr.

King.

Please prepare to vote.

Please vote.

And record.

Madam Clerk.

The minutes from the meetings of August the 12th and 19th, 2025 are adopted by a 9-0 vote.

City Council meeting constitutes a limited public forum.

Therefore, public comments must be relevant to the items on the City Council's agenda or otherwise reasonable considering the purpose of the meeting.

As established by the City Council's rules of order and procedures, any speaker that delays, interrupts or otherwise disrupts City Council's ability to conduct this meeting in an orderly manner by disorderly, insolent or disturbing action, speech, or other conduct will be declared out of order.

Madam Clerk, are there any speakers who wish to speak prior to the presentation of the public hearing items?

No, sir.

Thank you.

Next is can council's consideration of non-public planning hearing items.

Madam Clerk, would you please present?

Item A.

A resolution providing the city manager with authority to execute a cable franchise with Cox Communications, Hampton Roads, LLC for the term and upon the conditions herein stated, including the right to own, construct, operate, and maintain a cable system along the public rights of way within the City of Chesapeake requested by public communications.

Thank you.

Are there any speakers?

Yes, sir.

Yes, sir.

We have one speaker, Vic Nichols.

This is a very short comment on this.

Um the public at one time did have a board on cable, and council got rid of that.

They need to reinstate that and allow the people to be able to weigh on on decisions like this.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That's all the speakers.

Yes, sir.

Thank you.

Motion is in order.

Move approval.

Thank you, Mr.

Whitaker.

We have a second.

Second.

Thank you, Dr.

King.

Any discussion?

Please prepare to vote.

Please vote and record.

Motion to approve the resolution as presented is adopted by a 9-0 vote.

Next item.

Item B, a resolution providing the city manager with authority to execute a cable franchise agreement with Verizon South, Inc.

for the term and upon the conditions stated herein, including the right to own, construct, operate, and maintain a cable system along the public rights away within the City of Chesapeake public communications.

Do we have any speakers on this item?

No, sir.

Thank you.

Motion, please.

Move approval.

Thank you, Dr.

Ward.

Second.

Thank you, Mr.

Whitaker.

Any discussion?

See none.

Please prepare to vote.

Please vote and record.

Motion to approve the resolution as presented is adopted by a 9-0 vote.

Item C an ordinance amending section 13 of the franchise ordinance awarded to Verizon Communications to occupy and use the streets, alleys, and public places of the City of Chesapeake to install, maintain, upgrade, repair, and remove poles, wires, electrical conduct conduits, subways, manholes, fixtures, appliances, and a telecommunications system in the corporate limits of the City of Chesapeake.

Public communications.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Do we have any speakers?

No, sir.

Thank you.

Motion, please.

Move to approve.

Thank you, Mr.

Weddick.

Thank you, Mr.

Bunn.

Any discussion.

And please prepare to vote.

Please vote and record.

Madam Clerk.

Motion to approve the ordinance as presented is adopted by a 9-0 vote.

Next we have citizens' comments on agenda items only.

Do we have any speakers?

Madam Clerk.

Yes, sir.

We have one speaker, Vic Nichols, speaking on various items.

I'd like to put out that for the Planning Commission.

For the people that are up for that, we have a firefighter, an architect, a surveyor, a realtor, somebody that's in construction.

Another one that's in construction for homes.

One that is worked on real estate law and land use with greater than 6,000 real estate transactions.

And an engineer construction firm where the SEC has them as being fee delinquent.

It seems there is quite a bit of conflicts of interest there.

And I'm wondering exactly why it is not a little bit more open to people as to who is getting appointed there.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next is consent agenda.

And Madam Clerk, before you read the consent agenda, I would like to count call on Council Member Jefferies for comment.

Thank you, Mayor.

I am an employee of the city and a member of its police department.

I am disclosing this personal interest because City Attorney Item No.

As the police department is a group of three or more persons, and all of its members could be affected by this transaction.

The City Attorney advises I can participate if this disclosure is made.

Therefore, while I do not have a conflict that bars my participation, I hereby make this disclosure and affirm that I am able to participate in this transaction fairly, objectively, and in the public's best interest.

Thank you, sir.

Madam Clerk.

City Clerk Items one, refunds, a Cal Cartage, warehousing and transloading LLC, $20,000, $20,514.14 for prorated business license due to terminated business.

Item B, Cal Cartage, Warehousing and Transloading LLC, $14,051.93 cents.

This was for personal property tax refund.

Resignations, Kevin Finn, Historic Preservation Commission.

B, Andy Curley, Bicycle Trails Advisory Commission.

City Attorney Item 1, an ordinance amending Chapter 30 of the Chesapeake City Code in title Finance and Taxation, Article 8, entitled Utility Tax, Division 2, entitled Enhanced 911 Tax to repeal Sections 30-238 through 30-240 thereof.

Item 2, an ordinance amending the Chesapeake City Code, Chapter 74, Section 74-37, repealing that ordinance as it is no longer supported by Virginia State Law.

That concludes the consent agenda.

Thank you very much.

Are there any items council members would like to remove the regular agenda?

Seeing none, motion please.

Move approval.

Thank you, Ms.

Through Dr.

Ward.

Please prepare to vote.

Please vote and record.

Ms.

Noens.

Motion to approve the consent agenda as presented is adopted by 90.

Next is the regular agenda.

Mr.

Price, would you please present your items?

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Item 1 has four parts.

I will read them all as one item related to consideration of actions related to the Cuffey Community Center pool requested by Public Works and Parks Recreation and Tourism.

One A is a request to appropriate $2,650,000 to the Cuffy Community Center Pool Capital Improvement Project.

One B is a request to transfer $3,669,307 from the Community Center Improvements Additions and Expansions 1 Capital Improvement Project to the Cuffy Community Center Pool Capital Improvement Project.

Item C is a request to transfer $930,693 from the Community Center Improvements Additions and Expansions 2 Capital Improvement Project to the Cuffy Community Center Pool Capital Improvement Project.

And item 1D is a request to amend the revenue source for the $4,600,000 transfer and the $8 million of general obligation debt general government bonds to $12,600,000 of general obligation debt South Norfolk TIFF bonds.

Thank you.

I assume we can vote on all of these on one vote.

Is that correct?

I'll go to you, Madam Attorney.

And that was your intent.

Mr.

Manager.

Okay.

Motion is in order.

Move approval.

Thank you, Dr.

Ward.

Second, please.

Second.

Thank you, Mr.

Jeffries.

Mr.

Bought.

Pretty good.

Thank you.

Any discussion?

Mr.

Smith.

Yes, Mr.

Mayor.

The question I have is in reference to the entire amount of money of $12 million coming from the stop and off of TIFF funds.

I want to know if you can explain that as to it being a project that could come from the general funds.

Because it is a project for the whole city and not just South North.

Could you explain?

Mr.

Point.

So the TIFF funds are to be used for capital improvement projects within the TIFF district, whether it benefits the entire city or not.

So but but can only be used within that district.

South Norfolk TIFF has performed very well over the years, and we we did a really good job building out this bidding out the South Norfolk municipal building.

And so there is reserve capacity in the South Norfolk TIFF.

There are there is more money in the TIFF than there are eligible projects for TIFF funding.

So if we don't use TIFF funding to do the project, then we could use general fund revenues, but then we would declare a surplus in the TIFF, which would drop into the general fund anyway.

So the effect of it is the same, but when you have when you have a dedicated source like the TIFF funding, it is always best to use those funds first so that people within the district can see that it has been using used in the district to the greatest extent possible.

Thank you for that.

Could I make one suggestion?

Any money not used, go back to that TIFSONAW?

Any overage.

We would only draw down funds from the TIFF that are necessary to pay for the project.

So if there's money left in the project, um if if if we don't use the entire budget for the project that you're saying the TIFF monies would be the last monies out, I can check to see if we can make that happen.

Yes, sir.

Mr.

Manager, can you just kind of make sure we're all clear that what happens to TIFF money if it's not spent?

Um if it's not spent, it's declared surplus, and so it goes to the general fund for whatever city council decides to use it for.

So we really try when we have eligible projects to use TIFF funding for those projects.

Very good question, Mr.

Smith.

And uh you are satisfied.

Thank you.

All right.

We got to vote.

We do have a motion for approval and seconded.

No other discussion.

Please prepare to vote.

Please vote and record.

Motion to approve City Manager Item 1, A, B, C, and D is adopted by a 9-0 vote.

Next is citizens' comments on services, policies, and affairs of the city, non-agenda speakers.

Madam Clerk, do we have any speakers?

Yes, sir.

We have several speakers who will be given three minutes each.

The first is Vic Nichols speaking on city affairs, followed by Dr.

George Reed.

On the comprehensive plan, I was shut up because I saw how some of the suggestions from people played out and why they would and would not work.

There are a lot of parts that work for Greenbrier, but some really don't.

The number one problem listed by residents is traffic, and so far I've seen zero in getting those problems resolved with years of broaching the subject.

Did we spend time telling folks how and why their suggestions will work and not?

Because education helps.

And if you shut me up from speaking it, I'll find another way because people deserve to know.

We had another don't allow the peasants to speak when we put a member on the City Council issue again.

The U.S.

Constitution guarantees us the ability to address grievances with the government.

A group of us watched movies, and last Friday it was the American Miracle.

I suggest council see it, especially in light of the silencing of the Chesapeake lambs.

We had a lady who posted that she lived in Greenbar senior apartments where they are infested with NATs and roaches.

Trash rooms have completely full of trash, haven't been cleaned in months.

One elevator is working for 92 apartments.

There's mold in the billing in the building that they refuse to remove.

They paint over it and just rent it out to somebody and there you go.

The City Health Department, the inspector, all of them came out and basically blew them off.

Maybe we should put a moratorium on senior places until the city that cares actually proves it will take action.

You can do something when you want to.

I know that.

I waited for 44 seconds now, a new record at Eaton Way North turning right on Greenborough Parkway.

Traffic was backed up past the bank.

Eden Way North of Volvo turning left backs up to the lake.

So tell me again how the comprehensive plan is so good that Greenbrier is getting more development and more traffic since infrastructure management is on you.

Are we going to change the rules so that the Planning Commission and the people are aware of all the developments in the pipeline?

Proved or whatever or not, built or not, it doesn't matter.

I got called out for it from the dais, and you know, in about a decade, that's never happened before.

But that's how much of a problem it is.

We need to address it.

Councilmember Smith, they've taken millions of dollars for years from the Green Bar TIFF for the general fund and couldn't care less about fixing our general traffic problems.

So that should answer your question on how that really works.

Take a look for the past 10 years or even longer.

I've watched it happen.

Thank you.

Dr.

George Reed, representing SELF and new Chesapeake Men for Progress, followed by Tommy Hart.

Good evening.

I came there this evening thinking I would be participating in a democratic process.

And when I arrived, I found out that one of the most important positions on this council was selected behind closed doors.

And to say that you're honorable is a mistaken word.

Because, in my view, you're not.

You don't honor citizen request.

You don't listen to citizen requests and concerns.

You just use your power.

Use your power to make whatever decision you want to make affecting the citizen of this city without their input.

To me, it is shameful to walk in this chamber thinking that I was going to have a a say in who the next vice mayor would be.

You took that away from me.

And I'll never forget that.

Tommy Hart representing self speaking on public safety, followed by John Quinlan.

Members of the council, my name's Tommy Hart, I live in 1900 St.

Brides Road, Chesapeake.

Tonight I come before y'all to tell you about a robbery and murder that happened back in, I believe it was in 1978.

But uh I'm working my way from backwards.

There was a young man named Clarence Trustee.

He was a night clerk at a shell station on Route 58 across from the uh airport.

Mr.

Trustee made a complaint to the Chesapeake police that he was being stalked by a Chesapeake policeman named George Pappas.

Nine days after he made that complaint, he was found robbed and shot to death in his door.

The first police officer that went to the scene said that Mr.

Pappers was parked at the entrance to the Chesapeake, not any it's Hampton Roads Airport, I think.

Right straight across from the jail station where the murder happened.

He could have gone on over to the station, but he waited until the first police officer got there.

And then Detective Bailey got there.

Detective Bailey, as soon as he got there, he saw some money had been dropped going around the right-hand corner of the store.

He went to see where the money trail went to, and Lieutenant Pappers told him to get out of there, go in the store and leave it alone.

He would take care of it.

Detective Bailey went into store, and he told me that he had three paper bags that had objects in it that was around a cash register that he thought might have some fingerprints on them.

He said the Lieutenant Pappers came in and said, What you got in the bag?

He said, I got some evidence from there by the side to cash restaurant.

And he said that Lieutenant Pappers reached in the bag, grabbed the first item and rubbed it in his hands, stuck it back in the bag, and when he reached for the second bag, he snatched it back.

And that's when Detective Bailey was removed from the case because Lieutenant Pappers was the commanding officer of the whole detective department in the Chesapeake police.

He detective Bailey went to the chief of police and he said, you know, something's got to be done.

And he said keep your mouth shut, I'll take care of it.

And that's the last debate heard of.

Now Bailey is dead.

But Bailey was going to come up here and speak.

He said, when I got y'all's attention, which I haven't got yet.

But uh he was going to come up here and speak, and unfortunately he died before he got a chance to come up here and speak.

But uh the reason I'm going back all this and how I know about your time is up.

Thank you.

John Quinlan representing self speaking on affairs of the city, followed by Jennifer Knight.

Uh good evening, everybody.

Uh I spent the last five minutes adjusting this speech to make it the past tense.

Because like Dr.

Reed, I thought I would be heard.

I was foolish.

Dr.

Eller Ward was the clear choice to serve as Chesapeake's vice mayor.

Yet political movement maneuvering in the shadows was handed to Debbie Ritter.

This decision wasn't made quietly with was made quietly without transparency and without the kind of balance and fairness the city the city and its citizens deserve.

While Chesapeake residents deserve this, they should know why this was pushed behind closed doors, especially when Dr.

Ward's qualification speaks for themselves.

Vice Mayor is not just an honorary title, it's a position of leadership, requiring vision, experience, and the trust of both council and community.

The council move forward without open debate, public discussion, or a genuine weighing of records, which undermines the legitimate legitimacy of the office.

Our result, our uh instruction, just send an email to the mayor.

When these decisions are orchestrated behind the scenes, it sends a dangerous message.

The political alliances, no matter what that matter more than the qualification.

That deals more that matters more than democracy, as John Stewart Mill once cautioned.

The worth of a person is in proportion to the objects they pursue.

And government, the worth of leadership is the portion of the principles it upholds.

If the process is tainted by secrecy, partisan maneuvering, and the office itself, democracy cannot thrive in the dark.

It demands sunlight.

For nearly two decades, decades, Dr.

Ward has been one of the most experienced voices on City Council.

She has represented Chesapeake on a regional basis, like the Hampton Roads Policy Planning District Commission, Transportation Planning Organization, and where her leadership helps secure over 20 billion dollars in funding for our region.

She has been chaired many commissions and serves as vice president of the Virginia Board of Education and spent 35 years as an educator and administrator.

To have bypassed her for vice mayor is not simply a slight against one council member, it's the rejection of balance.

Chesapeake is a diverse city with a diverse population.

Leadership positions should not should reflect that diversity.

The Vice Mayor is more than just a second of in command.

The role sets the tone and collaboration for council.

Choosing a candidate in the dark without input or balance risks deepening mistrust in local government.

At a time when transparency and representation or representation are needed the most, council instead is moving in the opposite direction.

Mill argued that leader uh liberty and representation are not optimal, optional luxuries in governments.

They are the very foundation that give government legitimacy.

To not die that to deny that public transparent process, choosing its leaders, strips the citizens of their rightful role and a democratic accountability.

Dr.

Ward has proven herself time and again to be a leader leader for this entire city.

She's delivered results, preserving Chesapeake's history, advancing education, securing resources, uniting communities.

She's been a steady principal voice through leaders for through decades of service.

Thank you, sir.

Next speaker, please.

Jennifer Knight, representing Cell.

Followed by Ethel Mitchell.

Hi, good evening.

I'm Jennifer Knight and I live on Ballahack Road.

Let's shine a light on a big pink elephant who ambles into council chambers from time to time.

It's political theater.

It was so large at the July 15th meeting that it stifled citizen voice.

How do you all differentiate between citizen voice and lobbyists while respecting everyone's First Amendment rights?

Each of you can tell the difference between a citizen whose life is going to be turned upside down by an application for development and a member of an organization feigning care and concern for our community while truly only focusing on financial gain.

These organizations brag that it pays to join them after city council votes.

But it's literally their members who have to pay them.

They are the antithesis of grassroots movements.

They're like astroturf, fake plastic grass.

Does anyone believe them when they speak?

It feels like a farce that's disrespecting this process.

Last year, a policy was proposed to identify and differentiate lobbyists from citizens.

However, this council voted to change the application for development to merely list lobbyists.

But is that even being enforced?

How do you feel when lobbyists drag laborers who have been out all day working in the elements into the council chambers and brand them with buttons and t-shirts?

Do you believe that they are all citizens of Chesapeake?

Do you feel like these workers are being exploited?

Do you wonder if they are getting paid to appear?

Do your votes reflect your wonderings, or do you pretend like you can't see the pink elephant?

Your citizens access and reference VPAP reports and look for causation and correlation between campaign donations and your votes.

This was the same night the pink elephant denied about 50 of your citizens access to a process that your own plan of government denotes as being very important.

Lastly, I will provide Ms.

Madison with a copy of a newspaper article from Farmville, Virginia.

It reports that the applicants whom you all granted a conditional use permit for an agri-tourism venue identified as PUD or Planned Urban Developers merely a couple of years ago, just a few hours from here.

Please label and identify the pink elephant in the council chambers.

The political theater is obstructing citizen access to participation in government, as well as your view to authentic citizen voice.

It's an attempt to diminish citizen participation, which is contrary to your own plan of government.

Your citizens anticipate immediate action to put an end to this farce.

Thank you.

Because if you all can't honor and protect this process, I don't know who can.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Ethel Mitchell, representing South.

Followed by Sherman Blake Marlowe.

Thank you, Alpha Mitchell, 2128 Rock Creek Drive, Chesapeake.

Not knowing that the Democratic process was not going to be at uh applied here, I have to read this as I wrote it.

Good afternoon.

First of all, I would like to give my condolences to the council members on the passing of Vice Mayor Dr.

Dietrich.

With that being said, I would like to offer my support that the vacancy be filled by Dr.

Ella Ward.

I have spoken to several prominent members, Chesapeake residents, as well as non-president prominent.

I declare myself as a non-prominent on how to define in case how many votes we think we should get or how she would be elected.

And in each case, I have been told that the votes simply are not there.

So my mind immediately went to which votes are not there.

The vote for a lady, a council member who has given more than 25 years of successful, humble, and selfless service to this city and to the resident, the vote to give to the citizens of Chesapeake a loyal, honest, vibrant council member who has given more time and more effort to this council and to this city of Chesapeake, the state of Virginia, and thus to the United States of America, more than anyone else in this city chamber this afternoon.

And of course, I could go on, but I have only three men three minutes.

So I ask that the moral, the honest, the just, the fair thing be done today by Dr.

Ward's fellow council members, and that she be appointed or voted as Vice Mayor of Chesapeake, Virginia, because she deserves it more than anyone else in this council does.

Thank you.

Sherman Blake Marlowe, representing Self, introducing himself as a new leader in the community and lead pastor of Chesapeake Christian Center.

Good evening, Honorable Mayor West and members of City Council.

My name is Sherman Blake Marlowe, and I have the honor of serving as lead pastor of Chesapeake Christian Center, a non-denominational, multicultural, multi-generational church located right in the heart of the historic South Norfolk.

I've had the privilege of holding this role since September 1st, 2024.

And during that time, I also founded Hope for Sono, which is a nonprofit community-based initiative committed to empowering the South Norfolk community by providing comprehensive resources and innovative solutions that inspire hope and drive lasting progress.

In these dual roles, both as a pastor and as a founder of a nonprofit, I've been able to walk closely with members of our community, but that's not all.

I also serve as a school resource deputy at two schools in South Norfolk.

This position places me in daily contact with students, educators, and families, and it gives me a unique and firsthand perspective on the challenges, needs, and opportunities facing our youth and our neighborhoods.

So tonight, I'm here simply to introduce myself, not just as a clergy member or as a city employee, but as a committed partner, a willing servant, someone who loves the city and is deeply invested in seeing it flourish.

Over the past year, Chesapeake Christian Center and Hope for Sono have hosted numerous events, outreach efforts, and support services aimed at uplifting families and strengthening community bonds, from school supply drives to neighborhood cleanups to mentoring programs.

We've worked hard to be a consistent and compassionate presence.

We've embraced the city's motto, the city that cares.

And in that same spirit, we proudly declare we are the church that cares.

For years, our church has been somewhat of a hidden gem in South Norfolk, but we no longer wish to remain hidden.

We are here and we are ready to be an active and visible asset to the City of Chesapeake and all its communities.

Our sanctuary seats 500 people.

Our campus includes a multipurpose fellowship hall and several classrooms, which serve our weekday learning academy.

I share this not to both, but to extend an invitation.

If there are ways of I'm sorry, if there are ways our space, our volunteers or our services can assist the city in that capacity.

Please know that we are available and eager to help, not just on Sundays, but any day that is needed.

Thank you for your time and your leadership.

I look forward to the opportunity to serve alongside you.

And if you ever need anything from me, please do not hesitate to call.

May God bless you all and may God continue to bless the city of Chesapeake.

Thank you.

Mayor, that concludes the speakers that checked in.

I do have some that signed up that did not check in.

Do you want me to call those names?

I assume they're not here.

No, I assume they're not.

Okay.

Thank you.

Pastor Sherman Blake Marlowe, welcome.

And thank you for all you are doing for our community.

To the speakers who are express opinions regarding the selection of the vice mayor, I will tell you that this has been a practice since I've been on council.

Selection of the vice mayor is not been a public discussion.

It is by charter a decision that is made by the council, and therefore the council made the decision.

There was opportunity to weigh in on emails and so forth, but it's never, to my knowledge, been a matter of public uh discussion.

In fact, it's always been uh immediately after the swearing in, which there was no public discussion, at least since 2008, what since I've been out here, just uh just as a response to your concerns.

Next, uh Madam Clerk, uh excuse me.

Next is our boards and commissions.

I'm gonna turn the gavel over to Vice Mayor.

Yes.

Thank you.

I'm sorry, Dr.

Ward.

Yes.

Uh thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

I'll be very brief.

This is a comment on the question.

Yeah, thank you.

That's what we did.

Next uh is uh selection of boards and commissions.

I'll turn the gavel over to uh Vice Mayor Ritter.

It's gonna be hard to get used to that.

Um if y'all would just hit your lights so I know when you want to make a nomination.

Um the first will be the Chesapeake Agricultural Advisory Commission.

Are there any nominations from the floor?

I'm waiting.

Okay.

Oh, you don't have any.

Okay, this is all new to me.

Um, Mr.

Whitaker.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

I'd like to nominate uh reappoint Roxanne Stone Cypher for citizen farmer, and also William Mercer, citizen farmer.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Whitaker.

Are there any other nominations?

Is there a motion to close and appoint?

Move to close and appoint.

Second.

Thank you.

Ms.

Newens.

Thank you, Mr.

Bunt.

Mr.

Buddha.

Thank you.

Um in favor of appointing reappointing Roxanne Stone Cipher and appointing William Mercer.

Please vote in the affirmative.

Thank you.

Next, we have the Chesapeake Bicycle and Trails Committee.

Um, there are three incumbents eligible for nomination, and one vacancy of a planning department representative who's non-voting.

Um are there any nominations from the floor?

I have some.

Yes, ma'am.

Um, the incumbents are authority.

The appointment, uh Donald Barrett, Michaela Lofton, and Rogard Ross as a citizen rep.

And I think and so Landy.

Ms.

Lindy Londing, Mr.

Lundy.

Landing, Mr.

London, as the plan is the plan.

Yes.

Thank you, Dr.

Ward.

Um, any other nominations?

Move to close an appointment.

Thank you, Ms.

Newman.

Second.

Thank you, Dr.

Ward.

Um, if in favor of these names, please vote in the affirmative.

Thank you.

Next is the Historic Preservation Commission.

There's one appointment to consider the planning department non-voting representative.

Is there a nomination from the floor?

Ms.

Mayor, I'm a nominate.

Olivia is it Knox?

Thank you, Dr.

Ward.

Are there any other nominations?

In that case, we'll take a motion to close and appoint.

So moved.

Thank you, Ms.

Newens.

Thank you, Dr.

Ward.

All the um members vote in the affirmative, please.

Or not next is an one appointment to consider for the Chesapeake Interagency Consortium.

That appointment by code would be a member from the Court Services as their representative.

Is there a nomination from the floor?

Madam Vice Mayor.

Yes, ma'am.

I'd like to nominate Nicole Taylor for court services rep and without objection, move to close and appoint.

Thank you, Ms.

Newans.

Is there a second?

Second.

Second.

All prepared to vote.

Please vote.

Thank you.

Tidewater use services is our next appointment.

There's one appointment to consider, and again it will be the court services representative.

Is there a nomination from the floor?

Ms.

Newans.

Thank you, Madam Vice Mayor.

I'd like to nominate Nicole Taylor for court services and without objection, move to close and appoint.

Thank you.

Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

All members prepared to vote.

Please vote.

Thank you.

Next are nomination two boards that need nominations from the floor that are considered to be interview boards.

So the nominations will take place tonight.

Those folks whose names are put in nomination will be interviewed by the council.

And the appointments will be made, Ms.

Madison.

October the 23rd.

Okay, thank you.

There are two appointments to consider.

Neither of the remaining members are eligible for reappointment.

So we'll accept nominations for interviews from the floor, please.

Dr.

Ward?

Oh, sorry.

I would like to nominate Lamanda Connor on one of those appointments.

Thank you.

Mr.

Smith?

Yes, I'd like to like to nominate Fody Perkins.

Okay, thank you.

Any other nominations?

Yes, Ms.

Newens.

I'd like to nominate Mr.

Lawrence Spray.

Okay.

Thank you.

Any other nominations from the floor, Mayor West?

I'd like to nominate uh Charlie Johnson.

Thank you.

Excuse me, Mayor Newens.

I didn't get your who you nominated, please.

Mr.

Bray, Lawrence Bray.

Thank you.

Are there any other nominations?

At this point, Ms.

Madison, do you want to read the names back?

Yes, please.

Lawrence T.

Bray, Lawanda B.

Carter, Charlie J.

Johnson Jr.

And Farley Perkins.

Okay.

For those people concerned about our processes, would you just explain now what you will do for the interview boards?

We will reach out to all four of these and schedule uh interview either on October the 14th or the 21st.

Is that correct?

And you all will be introduced and able to interview them, and then we will come back at the next meeting, which is actually the 28th, not the 23rd, as I've previously noted, and choose choose those.

Thank you.

We'll move on to our final set of nominations, please.

The planning commission.

There are there is one incumbent interested in reappointment.

Um so there are three appointments to consider and will the same process will take place as does um with the previous board.

So are there any nominations from the floor, Mr.

Bunn?

Thank you.

I'd like to nominate Lee Howard and Mr.

Clayton Sproull.

Thank you, Mr.

Bunn.

Are there other nominations?

Ms.

Newins?

I'm sorry, Mr.

Whitaker.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

I'd like to nominate Jonathan Foster for interview.

Thank you.

Mr.

Whitaker, Ms.

Newens.

Thank you, Madam Vice Mayor.

I'd like to nominate Mr.

Thomas Rettenauer and Mr.

Antonio Taylor.

Thank you.

And Antonia Taylor.

Are there any other nominations from the floor?

Thank you.

Ms.

Madison, could you read those back to be sure we have them correct?

Yes.

Clayton L.

Spruel for reappointment.

Jonathan Foster, Lee Howard, Thomas Rettinaier, and Antonio Taylor.

Thank you very much.

And the same process will be followed, correct?

That is correct.

And the interviews will need to start at 3.45 on the 14th.

345 on the 14th.

Everybody have that?

Thank you very much.

Thank you, members of council.

Thank you, Ms.

Rudder.

Next is unfinished business.

Any council members have any unfinished business at this time?

Ms.

Ritter?

Thank you.

A few weeks ago, we had a discussion about restructuring speaking time.

And the council had quite a long discussion and came to a conclusion on the rules change.

And do you remember that we could review that?

It is ready to go to you all.

Catherine has presented it to me and I have read over it and I'll send it tomorrow.

Okay.

If I might to Miss Lindley, do you have the specifics of what the council has asked for?

My recollection, I apologize, I drafted it uh a few weeks ago, but my recollection is that you said that zero to ten speakers other than the principal applicant would go to five minutes, five minutes, and then eleven to I believe 15 would go.

Is that Sandy has a face?

It may be better.

I can pull it up.

I apologize.

I don't remember it was a lot of numbers.

Yeah, they currently have five minutes, so I'm not sure we didn't.

If you would like me to pull it up on my computer, I can give you the details exactly.

That would be um terrific if you could, because I'd like to have that go on the next agenda.

Yes, please just give me one moment.

Thank you.

I think the whole council would like to have it.

Let's let's pause and let her do that.

Oh, and let me just ask if there are any other items and give uh Slinley some time to do that.

Any other items council members would like to bring under uh unfinished business.

Dr.

Ward?

I'm sorry, I'm I'm sorry, it's not unfinished business, but I didn't want to, and most of the persons who were um interested in speaking, uh they had no way of knowing that things were happening in closed session because we are not allowed to let people know about that vote.

So I'm thinking that they came thinking that they would possibly be able to at least let council know, but most of them have left, so I was trying to catch them before they left.

Uh, and thank them for even though that it was already decided that they spent their time, you know, and gas coming down thinking that they might have had some input.

Um so those are the kinds of procedures that, and I know I've been up here 19 years, and when it was basically uh the mayor just made a recommendation that we voted for that person for years, but uh I did want to thank them uh for their time because they are citizens and they do have a right to at least express their concerns about their leadership because they don't get to vote.

You know, in some cities they really do get to vote for the vice name publicly.

There may be something we wish to consider for changing our rules and order of or or whatever needs to be, but uh we are simply enforcing what what we are supposed to do at this particular time, but it may be something we wish to to explore for the future.

Are you ready, Ms.

Lenley?

Yes, I am, and thank you for your indulgence.

I'm showing my age.

Um what you had decided was basically to have different allocations um similar to what you have now with the principal applicant, which is just one person representing the applicant for land use applications, and then time allotted for all other speakers.

And this is outside of those speakers who would sign up to speak at the beginning of the meeting.

You know, those people who speak at the top of the meeting on all agenda items.

So if someone is speaking at the time, one individual item comes up for consideration.

If there are between one and ten people signed up to speak, the principal applicant will get 10 minutes, which is similar to now.

All other speakers would get five minutes, which is similar to now.

If you have 11 to 16 speakers, the principal applicant would then shift down and get seven minutes.

All other speakers would shift down and get three minutes.

If you have 17 or more people signed up to speak, the principal applicant would get five minutes, and all other speakers would get two.

And that was what your conversation was last time, and you reached kind of a consensus on it.

So that is what is drafted for your consideration.

Thank you.

And we look forward to uh that discussion.

Any other uh excuse me, we'll go to new business at this time.

Any council members have new business they'd like to bring up.

Thank you.

And there is uh that concludes our new business.

There's no closed session, is that correct?

You are not conducting a closed session this evening, but I would like to read in a motion for October 14th.

Yes, ma'am.

And may I ask one clarification?

Will this be for interviews for Chespeak redevelopment housing authority and planning commission or just the planning commission?

Thank you.

All right.

I'll read the motion.

A motion to conduct a closed meeting on Tuesday, October 14th, 2025 at three forty-five PM in Chesapeake City Hall to discuss, consider interview prospective candidates for appointment to city boards, commissions, and authorities for the purpose of considering candidates for the Chesapeake Redevelopment Housing Authority and Planning Commission as permitted by Section 2.2-3711 A one of the Code of Virginia.

Second.

Okay, that's the answer if you are not going to be able to do that.

I have an emergency one of our location.

September sixteenth, two thousand twelve, in the city of Chesapeake.

Brandon Peller's body was dropped off at a Chesapeake General Hospital.

And uh the last time the victim was seen alive was that morning.

Prior to being dropped off at the hospital, I believe he was with some friends in the Kempville area of Virginia Beach.

So through tracking his phone, we're able to put him in that location of Centerville and Kemp's Vill.

Several phone calls were made in and out of his telephone, and the last one connected to the network right about the city line between Virginia Beach and Chesapeake.

Peller, two brothers and an acquaintance.

We believe what happened somewhere around the time frame prior to going to the hospital that one of the brothers was doing some side work and called Brandon Peller on the phone to ask him to help with the side work.

On the way to pick up Mr.

Peller, they were flagged down by an unknown vehicle, their own words, with an unknown person in it.

And this unknown person advised them that Mr.

Peller had been shot.

The victim owned a silver Mercedes.

That vehicle was also located within the city of Chesapeake, down off Saddlehorn Drive and processed.

Then he had his own child and he really changed the way he thought and the way he acted, and he was very important to him.

We're a long-distance motorcycle club that has men and women who have the same passion of riding our iron horses.

Buffalo Soldiers are a uh first African American all unit in the in the U.S.

Army.

A vast majority of our members are veterans, retired police officers, uh veterans from various branches of the service.

And he wanted to start an all African American motorcycle club at that time that would have a positive impact on the community and the country.com.

Hi, my name is Marvin with the City of Chesapeake Waste Management Division.

If we miss your container on collection day, please leave it at the curb and we'll send somebody back as soon as possible to pick it up.

You can call us at 382 City, or you can visit us at CDFC.

Always remember to have your can out by 7 a.m.

the morning up, so we may be able to get it.

Thank you.

Hi, I'm Officer Dupre Foster with the Chesapeake Police Department, and today we're gonna learn about the SWAT team.

I'm here with Sergeant Sparrow.

Good afternoon.

Hey there.

Thanks for coming out and hanging out with us.

Yes, sir.

So tell me a little bit about the SWAT team and what it's all about.

What do y'all do?

So the SWAT team is a collateral unit within the department.

Currently we have 26 operators, and then we have one uh commanding officer, which is a lieutenant.

Uh the SWAT team is basically stood up to respond to high risk situations, whether they be high risk warrant services or barricaded subjects, hostage rescue.

Uh we also do high risk tracking in the woods, and some type uh sometimes we do dignitary protection if we have uh you know VIPs coming in the area, like Vice President Pence came not too long ago.

So wow, see how we do a lot of cool things.

Yes.

So what does it take to like become a SWAT team officer?

A lot of people ask that.

You have to go through the application process.

Basically, you have to have an exceptional e-val, it exceeds eval, uh, no use of force issues or anything within your uh your file.

You also have to be able to uh have good marksmanship skills, so 90% or above in uh pistol qualifications.

And once you qualify for that and go through the background investigation and pass a physical fitness test, there's a five-week course.

Uh we call it the basic SWAT operator course, and it encompasses pretty much everything we do.

Uh, since we're a collateral team, people that come out of the basic SWAT school are are operational at that point.

They have all the skills they needed to be an operator.

Um, and that includes building clearing, water operations, um, firearms, um, and all everything pretty much that we need to do our job effectively.

So that training, do you all send an officer somewhere else for specialized training?

No, we do that in-house.

Uh we have, I would say collectively, you know, it's probably over a hundred years of experience put together between our senior operators as well as our new operators, and they come from all backgrounds, some come from the military before they were here.

Uh, we often uh cross-train with some military, so we pick up a lot of stuff that we can put together uh in-house and do our SWAT school.

Nice, and so some of the things that the equipment that you use.

Can you talk a little bit about that equipment?

Anything special?

I guess you have a lot of special.

Uh yeah, so we have we have all kinds of equipment.

Obviously, we have our basic our entry gun, sir, which is uh 11.5 inch barrel, it's a what we call AR-15 uh rifle.

We use suppressors on those.

Uh the snipers have a 308.

Um it's a JP precision rifle, and that's that's for long-range uh engagements.

Uh, we also have the breaching unit, they have all their various tools which uh range from manual breaching tools to explosive breaching.

Um they also use hydraulic breachers.

Uh we have a maritime unit which has zodiac uh little inflatable boats with motors in case we have a water out, we can get there you know by water.

We also have a tech unit, which is probably our up and coming unit where we're starting to utilize more tech on the SWAT team.

So we have you know miniature robots, we have large robots, we have pole cams that are on a long pole.

We also have drones now, so we have drones, we've incorporated that in the SWAT team.

Now with the drones, we have a separate drone team in the department.

Correct.

Are they joint with you all?

How's that work?

No.

So the UAS team within the department, um, their responsibility is more or less for a major instance, they're gonna give you the bird's eye view in the sky.

Um they can also do uh for accident reconstruction and whatnot, they can give aerial for that.

Um, not so much on the tactical side, so if we need a drone to go indoors, uh that would be more us.

If we have you know a lot of obstacles to where they would be worried about uh damaging their drones are much more expensive.

So I think one of theirs probably is about $30,000 just for one.

Wow.

So they're not really too keen on getting that close to obstacles, as we're ours are a little bit less expensive, and you know, we can we can do a little bit more with them and and risking them damage and get them closer to the events.

How long have we served on the SWAT team?

I've been on uh this is my fifth year total.

Uh so some guys on the team, and we have one guy that's been on for 20 years, so a few that's been on a little bit less than that.

So we have a lot of experience, and we also have a lot of new guys, which is good, so we're bringing up a lot of new people.

Okay.

And so, what would you say for someone who say they're interested in law enforcement, they want to be a SWAT officer.

See all these TV shows nowadays with SWAT and all these things.

What could you tell them to prepare themselves to become a police officer, maybe even a SWAT officer one day?

So being physically fit obviously is number one.

Uh we carry a lot of gear.

Uh, not you know, we just have we have a rifle, pistol, and all that stuff, but also our our entry gear, which includes um soft armor and entry plates and also a ballistic helmet.

So you can be looking to carry anywhere from 30 to 40 if you're a breecher, maybe even 50 or 60 more pounds on your person, you're getting from point A to point B to wherever the problem is.

And sometimes, depending on where we're at on the call out, you know, you could be 50, 100 yards, you gotta get to the staying physically fit, uh keeping up with the marksmanship skills.

You know, once they're officer and they come to the department, even if they're not starting out with good marksmanship skills, they can come down to the academy, and the instructors are more than willing on working with them and bringing that up to the level it needs to be.

Um, and just conducting themselves in a professional manner once they get here, staying out of trouble.

Obviously, for one uh use of force is a big thing, making sure there's no problems with use of force complaints or decision making.

Um, and and pretty much that's it.

You know, being a good officer all around on their primary duty, having a good eval is what we're looking for.

A good deal.

Hey, well, thank you so much for hanging out with us, Sergeant Sparrow.

Sir, take care.

Thanks so much for watching.

That's all we have for today.

If you want to learn more about the Chesapeake Police Department, visit us online at ChesapeakeCleefs.com.

Life doesn't always give you time to change the outcome.

Pre-diabetes does.

With early diagnosis, pre-diabetes can be reversed.

Take the one minute pre-diabetes risk test today.

Go to do I have prediabetes.org.

Make sure you have the lid nearby that you can smother the fire.

Turn off the burner.

Do not move the pan or the lid until everything has cooled.

Then douse everything in cold water before throwing it away.

Inspect your stove top to make sure there's no permanent damage.

And if a fire starts in your oven, turn off the heat, keep the door closed until it's cool.

Then have it checked or serviced before using it again.

Stay safe in the kitchen.

Hi, I'm Sherry with Waste Management Division of Publix Works.

Please place your uh yard waste and clear plastic bags at the curb.

And if we don't get to you immediately, please leave it there and we'll get to you ASAP.

For more information, please visit City of Chesapeake.net slash trash.

Thank you very much.

Today I'm going to talk to you about physics.

Come on in, girl.

Let's go.

This is the first rocket to get humans to Mars.

Really tall.

I'm a rocket structural engineer designing and building parts of the rocket.

You are the generation that will be stepping foot on Mars.

So I have a group of astronauts on my hands.

Yes.

You can become a rocket scientist or whatever else you want to be.

That you'll see, or oyster castles in this case.

So the oyster castles will protect the wetlands and the wetlands are gonna protect the shore from eroding.

So see you can build them up high and interlock them.

So it helps it it's stable, it's a very stable port platform to protect the shoreline from erosion.

We have 777 oyster castles that we're gonna put in on this north facing point.

It's gonna be about 130 linear feet of oyster castles.

And the entire project is going to be 670 linear feet.

The rest of it will be with the coconut core logs.

And then behind this, we're gonna backfill with sand and we're gonna plant them with the native wetland grass called Spartina Ulta Neflora.

In order for something of this magnitude to occur, you really have to have a lot of community support and community backing for the project.

They need to understand why it's important and why it's gonna benefit the health of the river.

And so we'll need help with if you don't want to carry a log, we need help carrying this down, these down.

We you know, we have a lot of materials to get down there.

It's a combination of creating a new shoreline or at least extending out your shoreline to a place in which it previously was established.

The baby oysters, oyster spat will be floating around in the water, and they're looking for a place to hatch themselves onto.

So these oyster castle structures, they provide that perfect place for the new baby spat to find its home.

They really over time just begin to look like a beautiful oyster reef.

And then as you have more oysters there, you also see higher levels of fish biodiversity, um, crustacean biodiversity, and then the other just marine life that exists within our waterways here.

And we're really focusing on Indian River because it in the latest state of the river report, it failed as far as bacteria.

So we're trying to implement living shorelines and rain gardens, and we're about to launch a pet waste campaign.

Our partner HRSD just found out that it was not from humans, so it's probably from dogs.

You know, people think that pet waste is fertilizer, it's not, it's very harmful, has a lot of harmful bacteria.

So keep your soft shorelines, your living shorelines and wetlands are really important.

It's really important to pick up your dog waste.

It's really important to try to filter storm water when you can.

So as of last Wednesday, we brought in 30 cubic yards of sand.

We think the whole project might take about 120, so we'll be about a quarter of the way just through the sand.

And then the sand is necessary because we need to make the proper elevation for the wetlands to thrive and grow, so then they can protect the shoreline from erosion.

And so, what you have over here is the crawl logs, and behind me is the oyster castle that we've uh put in.

And eventually this will both act as habitat for oysters, and we're gonna put like uh 80 bushels of oyster shell on here, and it'll also help protect the uh shoreline here from the rose, and if you can see how clips happening over there.

The Indian River, which we're standing in right now, has indefinite water quality issues because of bacteria and fertilizer that washes in from lawns and oysters are a great filter.

They filter like 40 gallons of water an hour, and so we wanted more oysters, and that's what kind of started us.

Um it's surprising to see how many volunteers are out here.

People really care about uh their local environment, and they obviously really care about the watershed around here.

We have a commitment to doing both a service activity and an environmental outreach.

So, this was planned into our work schedule, so technically we're out of the office, but it's our way of giving back from the company.

And I've learned that it's a lot messier out here than I ever thought it could be, and I think that this kind of outreach program would be really great to clean up the shoreline because it needs it.

Wanted to do some good.

Yeah, it is.

I love me out.

I'm doing uh hard work, and uh I have learned that oysters are really important for the river and they can filter out a lot of uh the contamination that's in there.

Yeah, and it's really hard to build an oyster reef.

Oysters like to settle on hard boxes like this, they prefer oyster shell, but they'll settle on concrete also.

Over time, they'll be covered with oysters.

We hope.

So, this is a long-term project, it's a marathon, not a sprint as we've been saying.

Um, but it's exciting because now you get to look at it, and it really you can tell we're building a wetland and a living shoreline.

Welcome to the Chesapeake Public Library.

We want to learn about our family history.

Do you have anything that could help?

You can check Ancestry.com here at the library or heritage quest.

And it's free.

Do you love story times?

That's also free.

I need to send some documents to my school.

We offer scanning and faxing, or you can always scan your document and attach it to your email.

Free.

Do you have any movies?

We've got all kinds of movies.

Free and free.

So come check us out during the fall season, the leaves will, of course, clutter the lawn and make it shore.

During the fall season, the leaves will, of course, clutter the lawn and make it chore.

But please remember not to rake them or grass clippings into storm drains or ditches.

They clog up the flow of storm water and can lead to flooding.

Leaves and grass clippings can also wreak havoc on local waterways as they decompose.

Ideally, just mulch them right into the lawn using your mower.

This contributes water and nutrients to the lawn and can minimize your need for fertilizer.

If you have too many leaves or grass clippings to mulch and need to get rid of them, place them in clear plastic bags or compostable paper bags, pile them by the curb, and public works will pick them up on your scheduled garbage day.

There's no need to call for bulk pickup for this collection.

Each residence is limited to 30 bags of leaves or grass clippings each week.

The number goes up to 50 bags in the months of November and December.

But remember, mulching and place with your lawnmower works great too.

For more information, call 382 City or go to Cityofesape.

Parents make mistakes.

Sometimes they forget.

And that lapse can lead to disastrous results.

Every 10 days in the U.S., a child dies from heat stroke after being left alone in a hot car.

The inside of the car heats up faster than you think.

Never leave a child alone in a motor vehicle.

Look before you lock and visit Where's Baby.org for more life-saving tips.

Every year, cyclists are either injured or killed by motor vehicles.

So let's do our best to prevent accidents by keeping the following rules in mind.

Cyclists have a right to use the roads, but drivers should be cautious and give cyclists at least three feet of passing distance and only pass when it's safe to do so.

Cyclists should wear helmets, be highly visible, use bike lights and mirrors, and wear reflective gear after dark.

And don't forget to always ride in the same direction as traffic.

Whether you're in a car or on a bike, the same road rules and traffic signals apply to everyone.

So let's look out for each other and keep our Ches Peak Roads safe for all.

And as you can see behind me, the volunteers are just uh finishing up playing planting the marsh, and that marsh will help stabilize the shoreline and uh stop the ongoing erosion that's happening at this project.

Oh, go, go, go, go.

And I have never seen the turnout at a volunteer project so intensely on a weekday.

So we've been doing this now for about three weeks.

We've had um people from the city of Chesapeake come out, which we we've really appreciated.

The city participating.

We've got residents at Chesapeake, Norfolk, and Portsmouth coming out, college students from all the major colleges here in Tidewater come out, and and just people who are interested in helping the river.

We probably have had over 70 to 80 volunteers over the three weeks.

It was pretty amazing.

Um, if you need help that there's people out there during the weekday that's willing to help you.

I will barreled a bunch of uh sand, so that's really what I mainly did today.

And I planted the fences too.

So that was cool.

I've never done anything hands-on like this, so it was a really good experience, and I hope to come back one day and see everything, you know, grow and that you know, to see that actually helped and did something.

We've been fighting some high tides, but we're really moving along.

And as of last week, we finished placing sand and we planted another 3,000 plants.

Hopefully, we'll be done by the end of this week.

It's going really well.

Yep, we've been really, really pleased.

Hands down, there's no way that we would have been able to accomplish this much in this little amount of time without the like outstanding volunteers that we've had.

So huge kudos to them.

Really, hats off.

Stewardship of the environment, stewardship of our river.

It is so impressive.

Got a huge age range of people out here.

And to a person, they're positive, they're encouraging one another, they are loving what they're doing.

It's kind of on the level of prison labor, but no one's complaining about it.

And uh young and old men and women, families, it's really fantastic and encouraging.

And because of that, we were able to install uh 45 core logs, uh, over 800 oyster castles.

We put in 115 tons of sand, and then we planted the area with over 5,000 marsh grasses.

And because of that, this project now will serve as a buffer between what occurs upland and then what eventually goes into our waterway here at Indian River.

Uh we will, as a result, see the reduction of 20 pounds of nitrogen that goes into the river annually, uh, 10 pounds of phosphorus that goes into the river annually, and nine tons of sediment that goes into the river annually.

And then also as a result, we'll just see a natural boom and the oyster population and fish and crustacean species that will come here to visit this beautiful wetland and the oyster castle sill.

Over 120 people came to volunteer in this project, both from inside the Indian River community and from the uh larger Hampton Roads area.

We have information about this out on the Friends of Indian River uh Facebook page, and and so we're trying to get word out, and there's been a lot of positive feedback on everything that we've done here.

We expanded the wetlands by some 3,000 square feet, and we put in nearly 800 oyster castles, which should help build the oyster population.

That was very important to us.

The work we're doing will hopefully improve the water quality and the wildlife habitat and make the river a healthier and better place for everybody.

These people really needed us.

Be there for your community at National Guard.

Life doesn't always give you time to change the outcome.

Pre-diabetes does with early diagnosis, pre-diabetes can be reversed.

Take the one-minute pre-diabetes risk test today.

Go to do I have prediabetes.org.

You're watching Chesapeake Television.

So this is our second uh tag a cat event.

Uh, we found over the past couple months, several years that vehicle catalytic converters are a very high theft item.

The reason for that is catalytic converters, which is a which is part of your vehicle's exhaust system.

They have a lot of precious metals, a lot of high-value metals inside these, and what happens is uh when these devices, these converters are stolen, there's almost like a black market for them where uh the thieves take them and they they sell them for the materials in them.

Uh a lot of times it's it's hard to prosecute these because if you find uh a suspicious individual or vehicle with a bunch of cellulite converters in it, it's hard to find where they came from.

So, what we decided to do is we were able to uh get some grant money and we purchased an etching machine.

So, what we're doing here today is we uh basically it's an event where citizens bring their car here.

We use the etching machine to etch the vehicle's VIN number on the catalytic converter, and then we're using um high heat fluorescent orange spray paint to just spray paint CPD on the catalytic converter.

And our hope is that if uh a thief goes under your vehicle and sees this fluorescent orange paint with CPD, hopefully it'll be a little bit of a deterrent for them.

They'll realize that it's marked, you know, it's it's not worth the the risk is not worth the reward in their case.

Royce's record service, uh, you know, huge thank you to them.

They're volunteer volunteering their time.

We've been on Tilden Avenue in Chesapeake.

Uh and uh this is the second one.

We're planning another one in June.

We we don't have the exact logistics worked out on that yet, but if you follow us on our department social media, our Facebook page, Chesapeake Police Department, um, as soon as we find out and get that more concrete, we'll be posting it there on our on our social media.

A couple things you can do to kind of make yourself the the hardest victim to be.

Um park under well lit areas, you know, try to park around other cars, um, things like that.

And unfortunately, some of these uh thieves they're they're very skilled and with the right tools, they can get up underneath the vehicle and within 30 seconds to a minute, they can have that catalytic river off and and load it in there.

Uh the suspect vehicle and and they're they're down the road.

And and it could be a fairly expensive um it's it's a very expensive repair, also.

We're talking in into the thousands of dollars to repair these.

Hey Pets, does your human have an emergency kit ready for you?

Mine does.

It has enough food and water to last me at least three days, plus my medications, copies of my medical records, and a first aid kit.

There's also this cute picture of me and him together, just in case he has to prove ownership.

I guess if you have one of those cat pets, you should have kitty litter and stuff like that for them too.

But why would you have a cat when you could have a dog?

Just barking out loud.

Make sure your human is prepared for emergencies.

Learn how at ready.gov slash pets.

All right, ready?

Seek up seek up, seek, seek, seek, seek up, seek up, seek, seek, seek.

Yes, yes, show me.

Show me.

Show me.

Show me.

Quincy is an electronic storage detection canine, and he can detect um a chemical that's sprayed on all memory chips and any device from something as small as a micro SD card to a very large computer.

He is mainly used for uh child exploitation, human trafficking, um, and that type of crime, but we've recently found that he can alert to card skimmers, card readers, um guys, other dogs are trained just like he is, have located uh phones from homicides and um different crimes.

He's alerted to um items that have been buried to the ground.

Um he also alerts to items buried in the water.

Um he is also cross-trained to comfort live victims if we come across them on scene when we're doing warrants, and he will also help comfort them while they're testifying in court.

Well, my biggest concern was that I have another dog at home and how she was gonna react to him, but they've uh taken to each other very well, and um my boys adore him, so they like uh like him just like they like our dog, and he's very good with them too.

I mean, he is cross-trained to do victim comfort if we come across the live victim.

Show me.

So he's very loving as you can see.

He just does this.

He would do this all day.

Like on woof woof.

Hey Pets, does your human include you in their emergency planning?

Because they should.

My human has made sure that I will have somewhere safe to go if he ever has to evacuate.

He's also created a buddy system with our neighbors.

So if an emergency happens while he's not home, they will come to make sure I'm okay.

No matter what happens, he will never leave me home alone if there's a disaster in our area.

Learn more about how you can prepare your humans for emergencies by visiting ready.gov slash pets.

The community emergency response team, ZERT, is a partnership between emergency services and the citizens of Chesapeake.

By training volunteers in basic emergency skills, our community is much more prepared for a disastrous event that could overwhelm or delay the city's fire and EMS services.

Teams are located throughout the city, meet monthly, and train quarterly.

CERT needs more members who want to give back and serve their community.

For more information about CERT and how you can help, go to City of Chesapeake.

Prior to me getting um promoted to sergeant, I was a handler for just shy of four uh 15 years.

Hey, this is uh Echo.

Here I I really wanted a dog.

Yeah, come on.

We uh identified um Echo as a uh candidate, and thanks to Chief Seleschi who approving it, giving us the opportunity to uh work her.

Now I uh I'm back in the game, so to say, and uh she's she comes home uh with me.

Uh she loves the family, the family loves her, they're able to get a uh get around her and play with her.

So she came um to the shelter initially as a stray, and we did hold her for her stray period.

We were able to locate her owners.

Uh however, her owners weren't able to provide the care that she needed.

They recognized that and they wanted Echo to have a better life.

We recognized her potential as far as being a good working dog.

Like a little cat.

We recognize this potential all the time.

You know, and these animals aren't just wonderful companions.

She works for for play and and uh affection, love.

But they do make great working dogs, especially specific breeds that need a job to do.

Yeah, she doesn't work for food.

Okay, good, get up in the camera.

Finding her in animal services uh saved us a lot of money because usually we uh spend uh the prices are going up, so we're spending up to $10,000 for a dog.

Um, so that saved us money there, and then putting our own school on saved us additional money.

And she's just a big lover.

She likes to jump and hug and give kisses.

Honey, what I think you need is a socket wrench.

I played JB basketball.

I'm sorry, I don't think it looks right.

This is good, and it's all good, baby.

Isn't it really all good?

If you love me enough to routinely test your handyman skills, not to mention the strength of your marriage, then of course you'll visit nhtsa.gov slash the right seat to make sure I'm in the right car seat.

I'm gonna call my dad.

It's a great accomplishment.

It's one of the hardest schools that you can go through.

Um, especially being the first female in Chesapeake to have passed this school.

Um, it's very rewarding.

It's very uh exhilarating to say the least.

Uh thank Sheriff Jim O'Sullivan for giving me the opportunity to be able to go through this school and and to obtain this certificate in my portfolio.

Yeah.

Well, Sheriff's Office is extremely proud of McKenzie, Deputy Powers, uh, for her accomplishment.

Um, she's the first female in the city of Chesapeake to be able to graduate such a school.

I happen to know her from when she was in high school, uh volleyball player, uh competitive volleyball, and then Oscar Schmidt volleyball.

She's always been tenacious and an athlete and real competitive.

So then when she joined over here, uh she always stood out as things we would want her to do.

She graduated through the police academy for extra certification.

Uh she did a great job with that.

And then she has a bit of a passion with uh monster trucks and things like that.

She could probably put one together, take it apart.

So this is ideal for her.

It's in her wheelhouse.

So one of the main things that they teach you in training is slow courses.

You're at about five miles per hour controlling this 850-pound bike inside of small cone areas, and when you first start, you think there's there's no way I'm gonna put this in this little area, and as they build you up and you build the confidence within the bike, you realize that you can, but getting past that mental uh block is the hardest part.

We use them for not only parades, um, any escort that we have to do funerals to presidential.

We can also do traffic control with them, um, traffic citations, anything along those lines.

These are these are built for.

I see all the the guys that are out doing it, and there's only two other females in the Hampton Roads region, and uh really only one of them rides, from what I understand, and being able to be that female presence out there to show other women in the department or that want to join or from other areas that they can do it and that you know it's it's obtainable.

It's super important to our mission and the sheriff's mission.

Uh Jim O'Sullivan, as we expand the program, as we extend the expand the unit that we're able to encompass everybody, males and females to do the job, and you know, with her being the first, it can open the doors to maybe sometime down in the future having a second female.

Oh, absolutely.

I can't wait until I'm out there serving the city of Chesapeake on my new rod.

Yeah.

Okay, look forward.

It's the vines.

There are trees that just kind of take over, so we were working to uproot them, cut them, spray them to prevent them from growing.

Oh, you got it, you got it, keep going.

Sorry.

I got you instead.

There we go.

There we go.

What are all the invasive species you're talking about?

Well, there's a whole mess of them.

Right now, though, we are focusing mainly on different species of Ligustrum, which is commonly called privet, um, and English ivy specifically.

As you can see, the privet crowds out stuff on the floor.

The ivy acts as a ground cover cover that then creeps up trees, and then as it gets verticality, it puts out its seeds and spreads to these natural areas.

So that sounds invasive to me.

It is.

No, and it's important to have folks, wonderful people out here volunteering, like the people over at Dollar Tree and the uh folks here at Chesapeake to make sure that we can kind of combat these invasive species together.

I think we got a lot done.

We were super energetic, uh, had great teamwork, got a lot, a lot done, had a couple huge massive piles around.

So I think we did great.

If you look here, this native pawpaw tramp plant was um crowded out by the ivy, it had no chance of growing.

Um, and now we might be able to see fruit from it.

Um we clear it from the trees over here so it doesn't take over the tops.

If you look back there behind you, you might see a whole bunch more.

Um, it's a lot of work, but it's really rewarding, and it's it's good to find something that I'm able to do to help community.

Is that the ticket to do the job?

Yeah, some of them um the privet when it's too big to pull up, we cut it and treat it with the chemical so it doesn't take off roots and it had been cut before, so a lot of it's hard to get up now.

So if I have a big vine, Ivy vine, I cut and spray.

If I have a big privet, cut and spray.

Um, but uh a number of groups, um, some small, some very large, some businesses, some just individuals.

Um, working with our staff just to clean up our parks and to get it rid of a lot of these invasive plants.

All right, now if I go from that side, yeah.

There we go.

It's so important that uh we have so much uh extra help out here uh as well as some of our other parks, uh, just because it's so many things that our staff, especially when we get in the middle of uh mowing season and edging season and all, just trying to keep uh uh other facilities nice and beautiful.

But this is just the other extra things that just really um just are priceless in helping us so that will just be uh help us with long-term maintenance and also preserve the park and the trees and um and a lot of the vegetation for many many years to come.

We got a lot more people willing to do community service around here than I would have expected, and I like that.

It's a really good thing.

Everybody has a dream.

And with a little help.

I made it.

Our next adventure takes us to yet another park on the water.

Elizabeth River Park is nestled right beneath the Jordan Bridge with ADA accessible pathways, amenities, and more.

On this brisk yet beautiful morning, we perused the grounds under the bridge and ran into one of our park technicians that is usually on site or in the snack shack.

It's convenient, it's a beautiful park, breezes, shade.

It has a comedy fit.

There's nothing like a waterfront park with a nice breeze as you take your walk with your pets.

We have signs posted throughout the park.

Your dog always, always has to be on a leash.

You're required to pick up after you pit.

Again, we have the mutt hit stations.

We have access to the Jordan Bridge, which is a mile across and a mile back.

A lot of people actually walk or run or jog their dogs across the bridge.

I don't think that's for penny, but Elizabeth River Park has it all.

Great grills, a view, gazebo, outdoor exercise equipment, playgrounds for people, and a dog park too.

So one for the large dog, one for the smaller dogs.

One of the unique things about the Elizabeth River Park is that we actually have a fishing pier.

Dogs are allowed on the peach.

Woo-hoo.

Thanks, Mr.

Lightfoot.

We'll save the crabbing lessons for later and visit the dog park too.

Happy trails and happy tales, everybody.

We'll see you next time with Penny in our park.

Many many years ago to provide that service to the seniors, and I'm just so proud to be able to carry that tradition on today.

Yes, we're having lots of fun.

The vendors and the stuff that we got and the information about uh Medicare and stuff, you know, information that I didn't really know about.

All right, let's get into the round of applause.

It's such an honor to give back and celebrate the individuals who've given so much to our society.

I like to say they're the giants whose shoulders we stand on, and anytime we can recognize their awesomeness, I'm here for it.

As I mentioned, look, walking around and getting the sage wisdom that only comes from experiencing life.

Am I the only one in here that's nice to say?

I think so.

Are you having fun?

You having fun?

Yeah, lots of fun.

What's your favorite part?

What did I like best?

Oh, I like music.

The band, that's a good feeling for me.

See the seeing citizens doing the thing that they want to do.

Yeah, I'm having fun.

What's your favorite part?

Just eating.

The cheesecake.

I think it's an entertainment, and also the food is always good.

Cool.

We have a packed house here today, and it's uh it's the hardest ticket in town.

The best part of this is just seeing their smiling faces, they're true heroes.

They paved the way for me and my children, and it's just an honor to be in the same room with them.

A man who loves sharing his ideas and thoughts and feelings with children.

A man who believes in the power of having the voice and exercising that he's a really good.

One more at a time.

Please join me in bringing back home to the OEM, our aerial, how we can.

I think the message is, you know, who are the people, what are the places, what are the things in my life that have had an impact or an influence on who I became?

And I like to think that Chesapeake played a role in that.

And how my family, this city, played a significant role in who I became as an artist, as a writer, as a man.

So we're gonna talk about that today.

We have come a long way in Chesapeake because the fact that Dr.

Adams so elegantly and eloquently recognize and acknowledge this young sister, Shania, who's written a children's book.

When I was in high school at Great Bridge, I graduated in 1986.

Not only would you have not, not only did we not see any black authors in our school or in the city, I don't ever recall seeing a black author outside of my house.

And I lived with two of them.

It says a lot.

It says a lot about who you are.

It says a lot about where we are, and I just want to take this moment and make sure that you acknowledge that because it says a lot about who you are and where you're headed.

Do y'all understand what I'm saying?

I had an opportunity to speak to some students from Great Bridge High School on the yearbook committee and uh journalism club, and they asked some really important questions that I think are gonna guide my talk today.

One of the questions, if I recall, was there a moment in your life where you thought that you were gonna be a writer, you were gonna be a writer who wrote something that mattered to young people.

Was there like a moment where you knew your words were gonna have that type of impact?

The other question was were there some teachers who impacted you and helped you become who you are today.

My favorite book as a three-year-old, which I used to run around the house screaming was Fox Sox Knox Box, Fox and Sox, Socks and Box.

I loved me some Dr.

Seuss.

And so as a three-year-old growing up in New York City, I memorized this book and read it and recited it every day.

Well, one particular day I was at school, I went to a school called Riverside.

It was inside of a church called Riverside Church, built by John D.

Rockefeller.

And so at the end of the day of school, I built a house out of these wooden blocks.

I wanted to show my mom and surprise her.

This was a castle, you know, in my mind.

And so she arrived to pick me up, and before she get, you know, came in to get me, this kid came over and he kicked the blocks over and knocked my house down.

And of course, I went up to him with my weapons.

The only weapons I had.

And I said, those were my blocks that you flipped.

Lest you want a quick payback, better fix my quick block stack.

Right?

And he started crying.

And when my mother came in, the teachers were like, Mrs.

Alexander, when you talk to you, your your son Kwame is arrogant.

He intimidates all the other kids with his words.

And my mother said, thank you.

And my fondest memory of high school was the crushes I had and playing tennis.

And I started out being a pretty average tennis player and ended up by my senior year being the number one player on the team.

So I learned a lot about resilience and perseverance at Great Bridge High School and in Chesapeake.

I'm writing a book now about tennis about Althea Gibson.

But certainly it impacted my my writing because everything I do is about helping young people understand that they have a voice, that they matter, that they, you know, one of my favorite quotes is I am the greatest, not because I am better than anyone, but because no one is better than me.

And that's something I learned here in Chesapeake.

So what we have here is we have a residential structure uh that's set for demolition in a couple weeks.

And I've went through and I've made sure this the structure's safe for firefighters to train in.

It's uh low visibility conditions, and they have to go through and make a search and try to find victims inside.

As a fire department, we don't they don't come across very often that we have a structure that we can fill full of furniture, fill full of smoke, and get inside and train real life scenario.

A lot of times we're using concrete burn buildings, and we already know the layout when we go inside.

But uh in this situation, the firefighters have no idea the layout, they have no idea where the victims are.

Like when they get that call at two o'clock in the morning and there's a report of victims inside.

This is the same setup here.

That's a problem.

That's the brother on this way.

Firefighters are coming off their engine.

Uh they're gonna be stretching a hose line to the front door, and they're gonna make entry and do what we call a oriented search.

And that's where they take their hose line in, and the in the event they find fire, they can put it out.

They're gonna be oriented to their members in the hose line and going off that line into bedrooms looking for victims that may be inside the structure and dragging them outside.

And then we also can do a what we call a vent inner search.

This is when we pull up in front of a structure and a family member is out front and they're stating, hey, my family's inside, or my child's inside, and they're in that bedroom right there.

As a fire department, we're gonna come off the engine, we're going straight to that window, we're gonna take the glass out of the window, we're diving in, we're gonna go across the room and shut that door.

That'll isolate us from the heat and fire and give us a chance to do a thorough search of that bedroom.

Isolate.

Uh, you can't see anything, all you can do is feel.

Uh so you've got to feel around for that victim and get him right back to the window and outside.

That uh that makes it so we don't have to go in and search find our way through the house because houses can be very chopped up.

It allows us to get right in that bedroom and get them out as fast as possible.

Because at the end of the day, it's about them.

Good job.

Uh, we've got everything set up, trained like it's a real deal, and y'all put in the effort like it was the real deal, and we appreciate that.

Yeah, man.

Thank you.

Good stuff.

Yeah, realistic.

And then go back and talk about it, learn about it, and uh be ready for a real thing.

Thank you.

Good job.

Appreciate it.

All right.

Hey pets, does your human have an emergency kit ready for you?

Mine does.

It has enough food and water to last me at least three days, plus my medications, copies of my medical records, and a first aid kit.

There's also this cute picture of me and him together, just in case he has to prove ownership.

I guess if you have one of those cat pets, you should have kitty litter and stuff like that for them too.

But why would you have a cat when you could have a dog?

Just barking out loud.

Make sure you're human is prepared for emergencies.

Learn how at ready.gov slash pets.

All right, today in the studio, we have a really interesting topic that we're covering, and we have real live meteorolog meteorologists.

Wow, I knew that was gonna be a hard one to say.

Jeff Orrich, Eric Seymour from the National Weather Service, Wakefield, both meteorologists, right?

Correct.

Yeah.

Thank you guys so much for being here.

You know, I think everybody's idea picture of a meteorologist is like the seven-day forecast, and you know, on the evening news.

And yeah, with the exactly, we got rain coming, all that stuff.

Um, there's actually a lot more to this science.

Tell me a little bit about what you guys do out at Wakefield.

Jeff, we'll start with you.

So we're really behind the scenes.

I mean, we were a federal agency, so we've worked for the federal with the federal government.

But our job is to really do all the forecast and warnings and provide the information at the local level.

So we do cover a pretty good sized area.

Chesapeake's almost somewhat in the middle.

We go all the way up to Maryland.

Uh Ocean City.

Yeah, we go across to uh like Fort Apia Hill and like over towards Hanover, Ashland.

We have all of Richmond.

Um we go as far west as Farmville in Louisa and Carl Lake.

So if you're going out to Carl Lake, Lake Gatson, uh we forecast for those areas down to Elizabeth City.

Um so it ends up being 66 different uh counties and cities that we have to forecast for.

And the other side of that is our obvious the all the water because with the rivers, the tributaries, the bay, the ocean.

So we do a lot of marine forecasting for all of our marine partners, the everything from the Navy uh to the Coast Guard to you know the fishermen, the pilots, and then we also get really big into a big issue around here is tidal flooding.

So we forecast tides nowadays, just like we forecast weather.

So we've been really kind of expanding what we do and how much information we provide.

So you know, here in Chesapeake, yeah, we're forecasting the weather like you see every day, but we're also forecasting the tides and what's happening with the water levels here.

So you know, that's one of our big problems around here is is tidal flooding.

And we'll definitely get into that because that is uh something here in Chesapeake because we are so low and we are so flat and so close to the water.

Um you mix that the tide with rain and all that sort of stuff, and and it can uh spell some issues.

Eric, what about you?

What what is what is your forte uh at Wakefield?

Um I'm the warning coordination meteorologist.

So I am the liaison between our guys that are doing the forecast and everything that Jeff was talking about, and then working with the emergency management community, um, working some with the media as well, um, trying to trying to be that go between answering questions, um when we're changing things, when things are new that are coming in.

It's my job to make sure that you know those folks know the new things are out there, the new techniques and new tools that are available to try to help, especially with the emergency management community, trying to help them make decisions, things like that.

Um we get to do some things too where we get to play a little bit, doing tabletop exercises and stuff like that.

So you know, we get to sometimes look at interesting weather cases and apply them in real time and then see um what decisions people make, what things, what things we need to communicate.

In a lot of cases, it helps us then improve um, you know, improve our communication, improve the information that we provide to help people make decisions in a timely fashion.

I think that's a really important piece of this.

So the city's emergency management department um gets their info from you, the scientists, the experts who are saying this could happen, and then emergency management kind of takes that and runs with whatever the plan may be, right?

That that's kind of how it works.

You guys keep in contact with them.

We do.

I mean, our our our role when you talk about hurricanes or winter storms or anything like that.

You know, we're the meteorologists are doing the forecast, they're issuing the warnings and everything, but then there's another whole aspect of it now that comes up for us.

It's just as important as the forecast.

We call it decision support services, uh, but really bottom line, what it is is us basically working with our key partners, helping them understand what the weather threats are and sometimes what they aren't, you know, because there's sometimes there is a lot of talk about different things, you know.

There's always a lot of hype out there, you know, on social media, this, that, and the other sources.

So it's like what's real, what's not real, um, what are the real threats and how bad are those threats going to be?

When are they going to occur?

Um, and we also start talking about what ifs, you know, say, okay, this is our this is our best guess.

I mean, we think it's gonna do XYZ.

We think, okay, the water level is gonna hit five and a half feet.

Maybe there's a chance it could go to six and a half, and so what's the chance that that might occur?

So we start talking in probabilities, you know, uh narrowing down the focus as much as we can to help folks know what to expect, and then also talk a little bit in probabilities because we know you know, tracks of storms can change, things can change, especially that last you know, 24 hours where you have to make maybe some quick adjustments.

And so kind of helping our partners stay ahead of that in case there are changes to the forecast that they could adjust quickly.

And if you think about what all of this was like 10, 20 years ago, it was a very different game.

You guys have incredible technology now to be able to get pretty darn close to what's actually gonna happen.

Talk to me about some of that technology that you guys are able to use to make these accurate forecasts.

Well, I think there's a couple different things.

Um, you know, we've had a lot of changes with like satellite imagery, things like that that have got it's gotten um used to be, you know, a lot of times we would see maybe at best would be a 15-minute between image.

So now we have stuff we can see it minute by minute.

Um so that makes a big difference.

So you're able to then take what's actually happening in reality and then take a look at what the models are saying and and and start comparing apples to apples that way and make adjustments to the models.

But the models have gotten a lot better too.

They've gotten a lot more detailed, um, the ability to, you know, as computer technologies changed, it can process so much more data.

Um so and and then we have not only do we have you know, 15, 20 years ago we had like maybe like one or two models.

Now you're talking, we've got so many more models, and you're able to then start taking those models and actually kind of averaging them all together to start coming with consensus views and things like that.

So you've had so much change in that at that point to be able to get the forecast more exact.

And you know, then when you start talking in the near term, you'd look at some of the changes that's happened with radar and things like that, where we're able to, you know, we're we're almost to the point we can almost a lot of times we can, you know, we can see now like if a tornado is on the ground, we actually have the ability to actually see the data, you know, see, you know, um, you know, will we, you know, some of the I wouldn't say damage, but some of the you know, grass and things like that that give debris that gets pulled up into the storm.

We can see that now.

Um so it's so it's made a difference in in that respect as well.

So you've got a lot of those, you know, new tools now for us to work with, and it's helped us get the forecast a lot more accurate.

It's helped our partners too.

I mean, it I go back to the 20, 25 years ago, you know, Floyd and other storms, um, even getting into a little bit of Isabel, um, you know, the the the accuracy was good, it's not like it is today.

Um and so now, you know, when we're a lot of times we're three days out, you know, from a storm, you know, there's there's a lot of that's pretty good confidence.

You may not know every single detail, but there's pretty good confidence on how it's gonna unfold, what the impacts are gonna be, the general impact areas, even with hurricanes.

I mean, three days out, you're you're there's still error, but I mean you're still pretty you're pretty narrowed in, I mean, from a preparedness perspective.

So we're definitely able to communicate, I think, with a lot more confidence.

Um, and we're seeing our our partners, the emergency management, state, local level, even federal level, you know, they push decision timelines further out because they kinda have to because the population increases, so that's kind of forced issues, you know.

There's no way of getting out of here without going across the bridge, you know, pretty much.

So and everybody from North Carolina's coming this way, you know, in a hurricane situation, you know, evacuating.

So they're either coming here or they're going down uh towards Rocky Mount.

So, you know, we're having to make decisions further out in time, um, but the accuracy further out in time is is improving.

So we're we're able to communicate with more with more confidence.

And again, we talked about probabilities.

So with all the models that Eric talked about, you know, we are definitely able to say, okay, you know, this is what we expect, let's say, you know, 50 mile an hour wind.

What's the chance it might go to 75 mile an hour wind?

Um if we're talking about sheltering, you know, what's the chance the winds may go over 110 uh mile per hour wind and maybe start to threaten some of the some of the school shelters.

So, you know, we can definitely have more educated conversations and provide a lot more information now than we used to.

I I think you touched on a really good point there about the education.

Like you guys have the forecast, you have the science that goes behind it, but there's also that um helping the community understand what that means for them and you know the probabilities that a huge piece of it and and to be able to convince the community of why they should take a certain action, um, knowing full well that you know the storm could totally turn the other way and nobody you know could be prepared for that.

But um I think that's a really interesting and really important piece of it.

Um let's talk a little bit about the confusing parts.

There's there's every different kind of watch and warning.

You know, you got a hurricane watch and warning, uh storm surge, flooding.

Um, and then having to educate folks on the difference between a watch and a warning and what what do folks need to be paying attention to?

What do they need to be honed in on and and what do we need to help them understand about this stuff?

Yeah, the first thing we talk about hurricanes, especially, you know, uh first thing a homeowner, anybody down here should do is assess their threats.

So, you know, what are your threats, you know, right where you live at your house.

You know, are there large trees nearby?

So, you know, are falling trees gonna be a problem?

I mean, you look at the different tornadoes that have come through here.

I mean, you have pines and oaks that are you know huge that are coming through houses as if they're just you know sticks of butter and a knife going right through it.

So that's a huge threat.

We lose people from falling trees just about every time a tropical system comes through here.

Uh they're falling into people's houses, they're being crushed, um, injured.

So that's you know, what's the threat there?

What's the threat from flooding?

I mean, you know, a lot of areas around here are low.

So if it if it rains real heavy and there's a lot of ponding around your house or on the roads, I mean, imagine what 20 inches of rain might do.

You, you know, and all of a sudden water's in your house now.

Not only that, maybe it's it's the way you're gonna evacuate.

You know, if you wait too late and all of a sudden you've had eight inches, ten inches of rain, and now the roads are flooded, you you can't leave and even if you want to.

So you gotta assess that you know, think about that.

And then also the tides aspect of it.

You know, if if we get into just a good, you know, king tide, you know, high tide, and the water's close to your house, or we have what's called minor flooding events, you know, and you the tides are kind of coming up, or maybe the road that you again you're trying to exit out on or evacuate that water's coming up to the edge of that.

And if we start getting some good storm surge, that's all gonna be flooded.

So you assess your threats.

I think that's that's the first thing.

Um and then when you get to the hurricane watches and warnings, you know, hurricane watches just you know, that's put up about 48 hours before the storm is gonna get here, and they push the timeline out.

As accuracy is increased, they push that out farther and farther.

So it's more of a heads up that has hey hey, you got about maybe two days, 48 hours before this hurricane is gonna get up here.

You get the hurricane warning at about 24 hours, maybe 36 hours.

They say, Okay, now you're within the twenty four hour window.

So that's really definitely getting into that go no go phase.

I mean, if you're gonna go, you're going to evacuate when the hurricane warning is out, that's when you