Good afternoon and uh welcome to the Hampton City Council work session.

Uh Madam Clerk, will you call a role, please?

Councilman Bowman.

President.

Vice Mayor Brown.

Here.

Councilwoman Campbell.

Present.

Councilwoman Pierre B.

Present.

Councilwoman Harper.

Present.

Councilwoman Muggler.

Present.

Mayor Gray.

Present.

And we have two items on uh afternoon agenda for presentations.

Uh the first of those uh is one from uh Christopher U Christopher Newport University.

So uh city manager, we want to introduce the first item.

Sure.

I'm just really thrilled that we have with us today, President William G.

Kelly from Christopher Newport University to share with you an exciting partnership that they have embarked on with Hampton City Schools called the Hampton uh Captain's Program.

It's a an important part of our college and career academy focus at the high schools, and I don't want to steal us thunder by saying more than that.

Uh, but I do want to pass on regrets from Dr.

Haynes and Dr.

Cagiano, who are actually at a national convening of Academy School Systems, but in their stead, we have Dr.

Shemika Pollard with us as well to you know really share this exciting program that has been undertaken uh in partnership with CNU.

So, with that, Mayor, if it's okay, we'll present President Kelly.

Yes, good welcome.

Well, good afternoon, everyone, and thank you so much for being here.

Mayor Gray, Council members, City Manager Bunting.

Uh, I truly appreciate the opportunity to be here with you uh with members of my team uh this afternoon and Mr.

Mayor, we we continue to pass our condolences and keep you and your family in our thoughts and prayers.

Thank you, sir.

Real quick on my on who I am, because I haven't had the opportunity to meet everyone yet.

Uh my name is Bill Kelly.

I spent 36 years in the United States Coast Guard.

Uh prior to coming to Christopher Newport in 2023, I was a superintendent at the United States Coast Guard Academy.

So, very similar to the Naval Academy or West Point, just a little bit smaller.

Uh and it's been a privilege and honor to come back to Newport News.

I was a resident of Newport News from 91 to 94 when I was stationed in Yorktown, Virginia, and my wife Angie and I are really thrilled and honored and just enjoying being back in this wonderful community.

And I appreciate the opportunity to be with you today to share two things, if I may.

One is our strategic compass, which is our strategic plan that we've set out for the next five years, and that really encompasses um what we're going to talk about with regards to the Hampton captains and uh Mr.

Brandon Jones, I know will provide even more detail on that, and we're very, very excited about that.

Our strategic compass was created by our our campus community, and it was the first strategic plan that we've had at Christopher Newport since 2006.

It really entails four key points that over 200 members of our community developed.

One, we're going to remain anchored in the liberal arts.

That's who we are.

We're a liberal arts uh college, but we're also uh developing uh programs that have graduated over 50 percent of our students with a STEM degree and over 20 percent with a business degree.

So, all total over 70 percent are graduating with either business or STEM.

And we're we're almost ready to cut the ribbon on an 83,000 square foot science and engineering research center, which we are very excited about uh because not only is it gonna benefit the university, but it's gonna benefit the peninsula.

It's got uh two-story drone lab, internal drone lab, the only one of its kind in the state of Virginia, uh, incredible laboratory spaces and maker spaces, and we're looking for opportunities to share that uh not only with our students and our faculty, but how we can best share that with our community.

We are also committed to connecting with our community.

We believe as a regional public university, and we are the finest regional public university in the state of Virginia, and we're striving to be the best in the nation, that we need to serve our community.

So the opportunity to be here with you today to talk about one of those programs is greatly appreciated.

We're also looking to build the foundation to thrive in order to be sustainable into the future, much like the city of Hampton.

We need to make sure that we are financially stable, and one of the ways that we can do that is through enrollment of students.

And I'll talk in just a moment about the great programs that we have with Hampton City Schools.

But mayor, you and I have talked about it briefly.

We saw a 50% increase in the number of Hampton City high school seniors that graduated and came to seeing you last year.

And I just want to thank you for the support.

Um, and I look to build on that program.

We look to build on that going forward because we want these students to stay home in the peninsula, get a great education, and then put down roots in your fine city.

And finally, we want to create a culture of inclusion and belonging on our campus.

I believe that Christopher Newport University has everything that it takes to be the most inclusive university in the state of Virginia.

That is a very tough couple words to say in today's time and place, but I truly believe that we have everything in place to do that, and we are gonna work in that direction.

We are also here today to share some great news and say thank you for the support we've received from Dr.

Raymond Haynes, a proud Captain for Life class of 1992.

And Dr.

Haynes has been a wonderful partner to work with as is has his staff.

And we're just excited.

I think that that relationship has really contributed to the uh to the growth in Hampton City High School students that we see.

They now see us as an opportunity.

They're not driving up 64 past C and you to go to the other fine universities in the state.

They're coming and checking out their hometown university.

And I'm very appreciative to uh to Dr.

Haynes, and we'll actually have him on campus next week.

He's one of our three distinguished Virginians this year, and so he'll be engaging with our students throughout the year.

Um we also have a brand new partnership, and what we're here today to talk about with the Hampton City Schools and the Hampton's captains program.

Uh and I'd like to introduce Brandon Jones in just one minute.

And Brandon is the CNU's senior director of school partnerships and our lead architect for this new program.

Uh and they briefed it to us uh at Bethel High School back in the spring, and I was just thoroughly impressed, not only by the work of Brandon, but by the work of your team, by the work of your the folks in the Hampton City School System, and Ms.

Shemika Pollard is here today.

She's the chief of secondary education for Hampton City Schools, and I know she'll speak about your role in that relationship.

But before I turn it over to Brandon and Shamika, I just want to take this opportunity again to say, Mayor, thank you.

I want to say thank you to Dr.

Haynes.

I know he's he's out in Kansas City right now, so he can't be with us, but we are greatly appreciative of his support and all of your support as we kick off the Hampton City Captains program.

I know it's gonna be a success, and I appreciate the opportunity to be here with you today.

And I look forward to any of your questions or comments uh at the end of the presentation.

Brandon, over to you, sir.

Good afternoon.

Honored to be here, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council members.

Um it's often not it's not often that I get to see you all outside of work, but when I do now I make connections.

Um, Mr.

Bowman, I frequent your restaurant all the time.

You live right around the corner from me.

Um, Mayor Gray, we met some weeks ago, some months ago.

Mr.

Brown, I sat in front of you during one of our performances, and I was so tall that you had to ask me to move.

Same thing.

Same thing with you, Miss Harper.

I think I took up three seats.

So it's good to see you all here, and I'm excited to talk a little bit today about our partnership.

Um, it would be remiss if I didn't start by thanking our partners in Hampton City Schools.

Um, I uh the president was gracious when he said that I was the architect, but I'm only a part of that.

Um, Miss Heard, the Academy's team, the executive team, um, all those people, the students themselves have made this have made this partnership and the program what it will be.

Um, I also want to distinguish a little bit between the partnership and the program itself.

Um the spring, I believe it's spring, Miss Pollard, we were named the first educational partner with Hampton City Schools.

And in that partnership, it really is distinct three distinctive prongs, right?

One of those is an annual event called Biz Talk.

And Biz Talk really brought all sophomores in Hampton City Schools to our campus that are in the public service quadrant to our schools to hear a TED talk kind of presentation about their field, but then also to align them with engaging experiences across campuses, across campus.

So for each pathway, they had an engaging experience, whether that be um uh and a reenactment, whether that be a conversation with people in those fields and those lines.

So the idea is again granting them education and experience at the same time.

Number two is the Hampton Captains program, which is really an evolution of the lead ambassador program.

So for those of you that were part of that, I know um City Manager Bunting, again, good to see you again as well.

Sorry, I know you were a part of that at Bethel.

Um, so those lead ambassadors, these young people's leadership in schools, but we went after talking to them about their role, we figured that we want them to do more as leaders and what does that look like?

So I'll talk a little bit about that, but we're developing these young people to elevate student voice as a whole in Hampton City schools.

And it's not us at C and you saying this is what it should be, and it's not them at Hampton City School saying this should be, but it's truly a partnership to determine what's best for kids and what's best for students.

We know what they need to get to be successful after they graduate in high school.

They know those things that worry them, things that they want to learn, things that they want to develop.

And so by doing that and working with the professionals in that field, we know we are.

We started last week with our first program day.

We are developing these young people, not just to impact these young people, but to impact the school division as a whole.

So that's an important part.

And then also the third part of that prong, the prong of that partnership is membership on a task force.

Um, this is a longer goal, but the idea is that we get people in the room, K-16, kindergarten past that, 16 years of education, right?

After college, to figure out how we as a you as a kind of region can develop what their path looks like.

How do we have a pipeline?

We call it a cradle to career pipeline so that there are people outside just the school district, outside of the higher education institution, but in the in the community itself that help these students figure out what their next is.

And so this is kind of a mantra that we utilize their next because not every student wants to go to c want to go to college.

Not every student will go to work, or not every student will go into the military, but how do we work with all those people to ensure that when they start school in Hampton City Schools and graduate, hopefully from CNU after that, but whatever they decide is their next is how we build and how we're structuring this program with input from them from the professionals and kind of other stakeholders in the field as well.

Um I do want to go ahead and pass a little bit to Miss Pollard, and I may say a couple of words after that, but that's kind of just the context from which we are with from which we're working.

Good afternoon, everyone, and I do have a script because there are some things that we want to ensure that are said today.

Um, as you all know, I am Shamika Pollard, Chief of Secondary School Leadership for Hampton City Schools.

Um I'm happy to be here on behalf of our school board and our superintendent Dr.

Haynes, as well as our entire school division to showcase and celebrate our inaugural education partner, Christopher Newport University.

As a division, as you well know, we are creating intentional, formalized partnerships that enable us to collaborate and advance our collective missions to move our community forward.

As you heard, through this partnership known as Hampton Captains, we are ensuring that our division aligns with economic outcomes.

We know you like the sound of that.

We are working together to elevate student voice.

And one of the ways we're doing this is by reimagining our current ambassador program through a K-12 lens while also creating memorable learning experiences that align with our learning continuum and the portrait of a graduate outcomes such as Biz Talk, as Mr.

Jones just mentioned.

In our division, we have a partnership engagement framework.

The framework provides a structured approach for assessing and deepening collaboration between external partners and our school division.

Spanning from event representative to fully immersed partner, it outlines six different levels of engagement based on the degree of collaboration, contribution, and shared accountability.

We are pleased to let you know that Christopher Newport University is a fully immersed partner, so much so that we're actually looking for office spaces for Mr.

Jones and Miss Robinson.

Through this partnership, we intentionally collaborate to advance our individual organizations and our collective mission to empower students to achieve their academic and career aspirations by fostering a collaborative K-16 Plus.

So kindergarten to college and beyond educational pathway.

Together, we aim to bridge the transition to post-secondary institutions and careers, promote educational equity, and cultivate the next generation of informed, skilled, and engaged citizens for our fine city.

This is a transformational relationship.

And on behalf of our school board and our superintendent Dr.

Haynes, we thank Christopher Newport University for investing in our students and truly embodying our motto, and you all can say it with me.

One community, one transformation, excellence with intentionality.

Absolutely.

I think it's important to know just to go along with Ms.

Pollard is how we do this.

Again, not just college, postgraduate life, developing leadership competencies and skills and implementing legacy projects.

Not only how it doesn't impact you, but how does it impact those that you are leading, those that are following you?

Students will participate in these seven on-campus program days all year.

We had a first one Friday, I mentioned it.

Not only would we develop and work on their next, but also how do we prepare them with certain skills like speaking in public, right?

Teamwork, professional networking, and things like that.

So I think the most important thing, and I'll end on this, um, is that the partnership establishes a foundation, right?

It's based on professional trust, a shared vision and the promise of young people, and a belief in the abilities of our employees.

It would be remiss again if I didn't mention the integral role of the students, principals, academy coaches, and executive team has played in the evolution and implementation of our partnership programs.

We are just as excited about the potential of the partnership and the things we have not yet created as we are about the things currently in action.

In some ways, when you have the three the three things I just mentioned, the opportunities for innovation and growth are only limited by how we think.

Thank you very much for that.

Any questions from from Vice Mayor Brown?

Yeah, thank you.

Uh outstanding, this is so exciting.

Uh I wish I was a high school student again.

Many years ago.

But I I just questioned what scholarship opportunity may there be for uh young persons who may want to attend the university.

Is any consideration by them being in this program?

Absolutely.

I think one of those things is that uh so I guess for context, I did not talk about what I did prior to the Hampton City Schools partnership.

But I run a program in Newport News Public Schools called Community Captains, and that's really a college prep program for high school software juniors and seniors preparing them for that.

Attached to that, there are scholarship monies.

Um we have that same idea for what we want to do with the Hampton Captains.

Obviously, that um we are not yet fully funded regarding that, but right now we're relying on the expertise of the people in the room.

Um we have, as the president's mentioned, uh an increase in the students from Hampton applying.

Um we also have been absolutely got a PIV graph oh PIV grant where um keep looking back, I'm on camera.

A PIV grant where we we are able to provide scholarships for students that are coming from Hampton City schools.

Um it's really about the peninsula, but the Hampton City schools themselves is where we find that those students probably um we want scholarship money attached to that.

So nothing yet solid except for the PIV money that if students say that they want to come to CNU is available because they are Hampton City School student.

Absolutely.

Just had one question because you know in Hampton City Schools, we're having huge success with uh dual enrollment and then kids being able to you know matriculate to various you know universities, you know, obviously there's some cost savings there.

But is that uh connection already worked out with C and U for students that are endure enrollment to be able to kind of seamlessly transfer uh to to CNU?

There's no official process yet with the dual enrollment.

However, these are I think again back to what I said about the partnership.

We're fairly new in the partnership, about less than a year old at this point, but the idea is that we can build those things based on the need.

The program itself is based on the needs of the students.

We didn't say this is a model that we wanted to bring to Hampton City schools.

We listened to what the needs were of the school division before we developed it itself.

So I think the more we learn, the more we become strength our partnership strengthens.

I think those are things that we definitely have to look at um as a result.

Um so what we do know, Mayor Gray, is that those courses taken through Virginia um Peninsula Community College will transfer to state schools in the state of Virginia.

So those students and those dual enrollment courses, their courses will transfer.

Okay.

If I might amplify what um both of them said, um all Virginia public universities take those credits if they are earned through the community college.

The private colleges don't necessarily do that.

Right.

But all of the public institutions agree to do that.

Just since we're having the conversation for the benefit of larger public, yeah, you know, who may be wondering about that.

Good.

I think I also would I'd like to add regarding the scholarship question, our mindset is that we never want financial struggle or financial the inability to pay to be something that stops the student from attending CNU.

Um, much like the Nuclear News program, there are things that we have built, not maybe at the very front end of that, but built in so that those students that are or that choose or identify a CU as a place that they want to be, that we work to make sure that that happens as well.

Um with as little um with as little challenges to their financiality.

So a lot of words that just jumble, but the idea is that if they want to come to seeing you, we try to eliminate any of anything that would block them from doing so.

Um I think it's also important to understand that in the program, we do not recruit directly.

We do not recruit my ideas if a student wants to come to seeing you it's because they've been on campus, because they know us as a support structure, but the idea is that we're preparing them for whatever their next is.

If seeing you is that's an option, that's something that we love to have.

But if not, we're our commitment to the community as being a hometown university is to make sure that they're prepared for what's next.

Um Councilwoman Therabs.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

I am extremely excited about this program.

Um I grew up in Hampton.

Um I went down the street to Wayne Mayor that used to be uh part of um Christopher Newport.

Um so I'm a liberal arts uh graduate and had a very successful career in NASA.

So STEM is very important to me as well.

Um and um we have so much to offer in this region, we want people to come back here to live, work, and play.

Yeah.

So I really appreciate um this partnership.

I I did have a question around um, and if this is too much in the weeds, then then I can follow up.

But what what are your targets in terms of participants?

And since you mentioned K through uh 12 and beyond, how does that look in terms of the number of students that you want to run through this program?

Absolutely.

Do you want to go to the case?

I can start and you can finish, that'd be great.

So with our ambassador um program that we currently have in place, it was only high schoolers.

Um we are expanding the Hampton City Schools ambassador program to include K through 12.

Um and so what you will see as you continue to visit our schools and our programs, you will see our youngest learners serving as ambassadors for their schools, and it could look a little differently in each school.

And it could look a little differently in each school.

They could be tour guides, they could be greeters, but we are training them for their next level when they get into middle and high school.

Um, and you've seen what our high schoolers do as student ambassadors.

Um, but with the Hampton Camp captains, that is for high schoolers, and that is really preparing them for their next level, but also helping them to prepare the next generation to take their places.

Um, and if you wanted to add to that.

So this summer we have the summer leadership institute with all the lead ambassadors.

And what we wanted to do was kind of develop a formal role for what they were, what they wanted to do, um, and then also ways in which to use that role.

Many of them said they wanted to work with younger transitioning grades, so middle school to high school, elementary to middle school.

So we took a top-down approach.

Let's develop what we know this role to be, and then we can scale it back based on the grade levels based on the middle school.

We know it looks different, not as intense, not as complex, but still some of those things that we want to build these young people up so that when they get to their when they get to high school, or if you had no idea or no interest, now you do when they get to high school being being a lead ambassador, then a lead ambassador as well.

The idea is that we just want to utilize students to make change.

Um, one of the things that they said is that they want to have a seat at the table.

And more than that, just a hand at the table, they want to have a say about what happens to them and how they work with their peers, and this is a way this is a great forum to do so.

We know also that those two and so fifty, they're the Kremlin Krum.

So, one of the things that we work with them in those programs is how you take me out of the equation and talk about how we move your your peers, what they need to be successful or to find success.

So the idea is that this is really a truly a partnership, not just between us and the school system.

Well, yes, us in the school system, but the students they're in as well.

Yeah, and I'd like to add, um, Mr.

Jones mentioned it, but I don't know if you caught it.

At that first program day, we had 50 um lead ambassadors to participate in that Hampton Captain's program.

But each school also sent five buddies.

So those are younger students who are not lead ambassadors who we're building up.

So that was 70 students who were hosted by Christopher Newport University last Friday.

Absolutely.

Um, and it's just not happenstance.

Again, we've had focus groups with students, we had focus groups with executive team with principals as well.

So it's truly as you as you said, immersive partnership.

Um, and for me, kind of the epitome of what a partnership should look like.

Well, thank you again for the work that you're doing and um for the university, and um any way I can help, just let me know.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good.

And uh to President Kelly, uh thank you for you know the presentation with you and and you know highlighting the partnership with the Hampshire City Schools, great to see that.

I know it's I know it makes it easier when the uh school superintendent uh is one of your alums.

So it hurts.

That's that doesn't hurt at all.

But I do want to say that you know, I've uh you know, I think you know now Christopher Newport really is no longer kind of a best kept secret in terms of how I end in the in the region or in the commonwealth.

And uh, and then the other thing about it is you know, I find myself on your campus all the time for various meetings, so you've opened your doors to the community to come in for events.

I was you know just there uh last week for the uh Boy Scouts event, and uh so I'm even starting to learn all of the names of the buildings, and I don't feel so lost when I'm the campus because of the frequency at which I'm uh I'm there.

So but uh thank you for all you're doing in the community, and uh we look forward to uh continuing the partnership and seeing more of our students uh uh you know attend uh Christopher Newport.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Appreciate you for the time.

Presentation, yes.

Yes, okay.

Um updates today on work.

Sorry, I thought I had on.

We're delighted to give you updates today on work that our public works and parks recreation leisure services departments have done over the last year and some work that's underway this year in support of the strategic priorities of excellence in government and placemaking.

As you know, we we we usually do this about this time of year every year.

And today you will be hearing from interim public works director, Michael Bowery about the public works contributions, and then following him, our new parks recreation leisure services director, Del Krininen, um, on the work that the Parks Recreation Leisure Services team have been doing.

I think you'll be really delighted to see how much we've done, and for the benefit of the public, you know, we're we're always doing things, we're always trying to improve our community.

And sometimes we go to a ribbon cutting or you see something on social media and then you move on and you don't remember it.

But when you do a year and summary review, you realize how much our teams have accomplished for the community.

So I just want to say how proud I am of our city staff and the work they're doing in support of the monies that the council is allocating to make our community an even stronger and better place to live in the future.

So with that, Mr.

Bowery.

Good afternoon.

Mayor Gray, Vice Mayor Brown, members of the council, city manager Bunting, and City Attorney Sidnore.

I'm privileged to be given public works' strategic priority update.

Infrastructure development and maintenance are vital elements that impact various city council strategic priority areas.

Excellence and government projects improve and maintain city infrastructure and equipment to include facilities, street maintenance, and fleet services.

Living with water projects help reduce flooding and improve waterways, such as through stormwater management and dredging.

Safe and clean projects promote a safe, clean, and healthy city, such as through solid waste collection, litter cleanup, wastewater operations, traffic management, and storm preparation.

Placemaking projects enhance the sense of place in the city, such as through neighborhood new neighborhood construction efforts.

Our mission is to provide innovative, reliable, and sustainable public infrastructure and services that enhance the quality of life for our community and support the growth and development of our city.

Listed below are the 11 divisions that comprise of public that make up public works and contribute to these efforts.

Our engineering services team oversees the construction of all capital improvement projects.

Those projects completed within the last year that align with the Excellence and Government Strategic Priority Area is Grant Street Roadway Extension, the Mallory Street Road Diet, which took the two lanes of travel in either direction and reduced it to one lane and then added a bicycle path going up the entire strip of Mallory Street, the Queensway streetscaping improvements, living with water projects include the Salt Ponds Dredging, Hampton River Dredging, Sherwood and Hygia Drainage Improvements, Safe and Clean projects include the WIF Fire Station and the Photo Enforcement Program continuance.

Placemaking projects this past year include the War Memorial Stadium Locker Room renovations.

Engineering projects that are ongoing for this next upcoming year include various roadway safety improvement projects citywide, traffic signal improvements to include the flashing yellow areas, little back river road reconstruction, pedestrian improvements, both phase A and Phase B.

Living with Water Projects, the Coliseum Lake Weir replacement.

Safe and clean projects include the Hampton Police Division, Langley Air Force Base Police Training Facility Construction.

Placemaking projects going on this this year include the Mercury Boulevard pedestrian improvements, the at Seldon Dale and King Street, the old Buckrow pedestrian improvements, and the power plant sidewalk pedestrian improvements.

This includes over 90 buildings.

Services they perform include mechanical, electrical, plumbing, lighting, custodial, and security services.

This past year they completed over 3,600 work lists.

They upgraded over 1,400 existing lighting fixtures to LED, contributing to approximately $35,000 of annual savings.

They replaced 20 HVAC system.

They completely remodeled the Northampton Library.

17 office spaces were remodeled and two conference rooms.

They replaced over 150,000 square feet of flooring citywide.

They cleaned the HVAC duct work in all 10 fire stations, installed new building automation systems for the American Theater and Jail Annex, replaced approximately 175 cloning fixtures, replaced over 300 feet of water lines and replaced 17 hot water heaters.

These are some of the examples of the work they performed this past year.

The images from the top show their work being done at the Northampton Library.

And we also got to participate in some rather fun projects as you see the bottom right with the photo frames that are displayed throughout the city.

We we constructed eight all together.

Completed 460 walk in service repairs, processed over 1.1 million gallons of fuel, and activated 81 pieces of equipment and new vehicles.

This past year, our fleet services department division, in coordination with the Hampton Fire Rescue was able to purchase six mission critical ambulances totaling over 2.3 million dollars.

This past year they collected approximately 120,000 123,000 collections a week, which is about 6.4 million collections per year.

Encompassing this included four 43,200 tons of household waste, over 4,700 tons of recycling, over 4,400 tons of yard waste.

Our Hampton NASA steam plant provides solid waste disposal services for the city of Hampton and thus energy for the NASA Langley Research Center.

This past year they reduced waste going to the Bethel landfill by 70%.

They processed over 30,000 tons of refuse, generating 150 million pounds of steam for NASA Langley facility.

Some notable maintenance projects completed this past year include the uh upgrading of the plant cooling tower, conveyor belts being replaced, uh replacing a new with a new induced draft fan, numerous enhancements to the boiler and equipment, and they started replacing the overhead bridge crane replacement.

Those were all funded through our CIP process.

Our Clean City Commission provides environmental education and public outreach events to maintain Hampton as a clean and beautiful city.

11 tons of trash has been collected by public work staff during our April's walk Hampton Clean citywide event.

We have another event coming up in November.

We do it twice a year.

It's really enjoyed by city staff, and uh we're able to go into the community at various different areas, and public work shuts down for a day and focuses on litter cleanup efforts.

3,390 city volunteers were engaged in 395 various environmental cleanups, presentations, tours, webinars, social media, public outreach events, and things like that.

7,600 volunteer hours resulted in a savings to the city of approximately 258,000 dollars this past year.

Our stormwater operations division cleaned and maintained over 2 million feet of infrastructure.

This includes 1.4 million feet of rear ditches cut and cleaned, 1.3 million feet of main outfall ditches maintained, 32,000 feet of street side ditches cleaned and rehabilitated.

Some notable stormwater improvement projects this past year included work on Salters Creek Road, North Campus Parkway, and Pennsylvania Avenue.

Our entomology service team, which falls under our stormwater operations division.

This past year they set 340 mosquito traps, collecting approximately 30,000 mosquitoes.

They tested 56 mosquito samples for diseases.

They treated 580,000 feet with herbicide of roadside right-away areas.

They treated 500,000 feet of aquatic habitats for mosquitoes, and they treated 1,000 red imported fire ant colonies.

This past year they resurfaced 37,000 tons of asphalt roadway.

Replaced over 380,000 feet of linear thermoplastic pavement markings, replaced and repaired over 4,400 roadway signs citywide, and completed approximately 2,150 dominion work orders for street light upgrades.

Signal detection upgrades were continued citywide.

They performed over 78 traffic studies in an effort to reduce speeding.

They upgraded and replaced 75 signal cabinets and continued the repair and replacement of guardrails throughout the city.

They maintained the city's wastewater system.

This past year they cleaned and inspected 400,000 feet of wastewater infrastructure.

They installed over 40,000 feet of cured in place pipelining, and they rehabbed 200 manhole structures.

This is an image of one of the sewer line rehabilitations.

As you can see on the image on the left, you kind of see that bright spot.

That's where a utility board through our pipe.

The image on the right is using that cured in place pipelining method.

It's a trenchless method that allows us to repair the pipe without digging it up and being very invasive.

As you can see, the repair has been made and it improves the integrity of the pipe.

This is an example of a storage well rehabilitation.

The image on the left, as you can see, is very old.

We completely rehabilitated it, and now you can see on the image on the right.

We we are less likely to have any kind of failures from that.

Uh our wastewater operations team this past year installed an emergency generator at one of our pump stations.

This allows for seamless transfer of power.

A lot of time during storm events, we'll have our pump stations go out and we'll have to transport generators to each facility.

This allows for that to be you know automated so we don't have the failure of those critical infrastructures.

Public works is responsible for summer storm uh response.

Public works parks with wreck and Hampton Police Department.

Employees are trained and equipped and ready for storm response.

This includes 100 plus vehicles and equipment prepared to clear roadways, uh, and we are prepared for rapid response to tidal and storm-related flooding issues.

The other part of the storm response is the snow uh response.

This we are prepared for rapid response to snow and ice related events this past year.

Uh we saw three back-to-back snow events, so we were able to show that we were prepared.

We cleared approximately 1,800 lane miles of roadway across repeated weather events.

Uh 1,100 tons of salt was used during anti-ising and de-icing measures throughout the storm response.

Training is paramount to public works.

Uh this past year we continued our in-house uh CDL training program, training a total of 29 employees that have successfully received their CDL.

We have continued uh our use of our heavy equipment training simulator.

We train public works staff.

We've had Hampton City School uh teams come in and students come in and test out our uh heavy equipment simulator in addition to interns.

We've also implemented this past year a new virtual reality training program.

So it's like the 3D goggles, it's a supplement to our CDL training program.

So participants are able to go into these goggles and they're able to point out different aspects of the trucks, and it's a addition to help with uh the CDL training program.

We continue many partners, partnerships, uh events that were held this past year include the Hampton City Schools Career Fairs, My Future My Journey Programs, Clean City Commission Tours, and Steam Plant Tours.

Other collaborations were continued from Hampton Grade School Recycling Program, the Summer Youth Program, Hampton City School Academies, and the New Horizons Educational Center programs.

In summary, Public Works provides services for our community in many ways.

Our employees are committed to providing the most safe, efficient, and cost-effective services while upholding exceptional customer service.

This time I'll take any questions you may have.

Councilwoman Harper.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Michael, for your presentation.

You all have been very busy.

Very, very good.

I have one question, and I know me and you have talked about it before, but for the sake of the general public, the um waterworks has been doing work in various areas throughout the city.

When they have finished the work, the roads are not so great of them, you know, kind of covering up the work that they had been doing.

And I know me and you have talked about um because citizens have said that you know they're having problems.

Well, you know, it's it's damage to their cars or whichever, because the streets are totally un uneven with the repair work that they have done for the sake of the public.

Can you let them know that that's being taken care of?

Maybe you know, uh a time frame that you guys are are uh taking care of that.

I know on Chapel Street, um Apple, and is some other areas near um Victoria Boulevard that are that have stated that that has taken place, which I have seen myself.

Yeah, so Waterworks we have a close partnership with Waterworks, so we communicate a lot with them.

So any kind of problems that or concerns that citizens have, we're able to communicate those with Waterworks, and they're able to give us a pretty quick response.

The areas you mentioned uh in our utility policy, the Chipel Street and things like that.

If they damage a certain percentage of our roadways, we've incorporated a policy that holds the utility companies accountable to repaving the entire streets, and in that that neighborhood in particular, because they're way over the percentage of the impacted area, those all of those streets will be repaired.

Um we will continue to hold them accountable for such services like that.

Uh and for some of the other areas, we are able, so you mentioned Apple Street.

That is actually a sanitary sewer project that's being done uh from by public works through a contractor, and we will be repaving that entire area as well.

Okay.

It did.

I just I just wanted um the public to know if someone may be watching that are having issues that they will know that that'll be taken care of as well.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Uh thanks for the presentation.

Very informative.

Uh, you know, it's not never lost on me the amount of work that goes on with uh public works uh behind the scenes.

Uh you know, we don't always see them.

I see you have quite a few members of your team uh sitting in the back.

Uh I would uh like to give you just a quick opportunity to uh you know maybe share some of the positions you might be recruiting for out in the community because I know you know there are all types of you know positions.

Uh you you mentioned the CDL and the CDL training.

Uh certainly that's one that uh you know kind of a covered credential in the in the community.

But what are some of the other positions you might be recruiting for in public works?

So currently we are recruiting for, we have our facility superintendent position posted.

We have many wastewater positions posted to include uh infrastructure inspector, uh civil engineer technician, uh we have many equipment operator positions throughout numerous divisions between our stormwater, solid waste operations, traffic operation team, and we do offer the in-house CDL training program.

So you come in, you have a good mentality, a good work uh work effort.

Then I mean you put in the time, we'll put in the time as well.

We have that.

We have been very successful with our CDL program, and we have not had uh we've had a hundred percent success rate with it.

Excellent.

All right, other questions.

Okay, all right.

Thank you for your presentation and continue good work you're doing.

And now we'll have Mr.

Crennum, our fantastic new parks recreational leisure services director.

All right, all right, welcome, Darrell.

Good afternoon, Mayor.

Vice Mayor, Council members, Madam Manager, Madam City Attorney.

I'm here today to discuss the Department of Parks and Recreation and their placemaking efforts and how it ties into the city council priorities and strategies.

Our placemaking vision, it says we are Hampton, our diverse connected coastal community, reimagining and celebrating our shared historical spaces.

What that truly means is that we are looking to connect people through our events, our activities, and bringing people together so they can have quality experiences and life-changing events.

Some of our special events that we're very proud of.

Uh Groovin by the Bay, 11 concerts.

This was expanded, and they average 250 to 300 participants each Sunday.

Crabtown, uh, August 31st to September 1.

It's a huge event.

Bluebird Gap Farm Festival just occurred this past weekend.

Very much a success.

People thoroughly enjoy Bluebird Gap Farm Fall Festival.

The new Veterans Day Parade will be hosting that November 8th this year, but this will be the second year, and that stemmed from its implementation last year.

Some of our in-house events, special events, we have Santa's Attic, Holiday Parade, Wonder Walk.

Uh, these are holiday events that are geared to celebrate and bring in the holiday season, and to bring people out again who I will have diverse community members come out to enjoy the holidays together.

Our larger events, special events are the new carousel carnival uh that started April 5th, 2025.

Hampton Museic Mosaic Festival, the Bluebeard, the Blackbeard Pirate Festival, which is our largest event, and crowds come out probably close to almost 12,000.

But this event is huge.

I know when I was in Norfolk, always heard about the Black Beard uh Pirate Festival, and it continues to grow each year.

So very pleased with that event.

We had some in-house ribbon cuttings, uh Lake Hampton, sensory activation vehicle, the War Memorial Stadium, uh Crawling Crab 5K, Half Marathon, Tyrod Taylor, Thanksgiving event, food truck Fridays, and June 10th event.

We have eight Hampton centers, four community centers, four neighborhood centers.

What we want to do is introduce the public to wholesome activities that'll bring families in to enjoy to recreate together.

And there's an old saying the family that recreates together stays together.

And that's the model we've always tried to use, and we want to continue to do that.

But again, I always put this caveat in with anything that I present to you.

We're always striving to improve.

While we have good quality programs, we can always do better, and we look and seek input to improve all the time.

We have specialty centers, two specialty centers, the senior center and the therapeutic recreation center.

Very pleased with the outcome and the events that happen at our senior center and the therapeutic recreation center.

And you may be aware at the senior center.

We're currently performing some maintenance there.

We finished the exterior painting.

Now the work will start on the interior in the parking lot as well.

Youth engagement is key, getting our youth involved.

We do this through partnerships with the Office on Youth Development, libraries, and other partners as well.

But this is the focus of our programming, ages six through 10, ages 11 through 14, and ages 15 through 18 as well.

And these are some of the ideas and programs that we currently have.

Again, always looking to expand our program venue.

Athletics and aquatics, I think are very key.

A lot of youth play sports.

That's how you build your socialization skills.

That's how you learn about teamwork, and that's how you meet other youth.

So athletics is key.

Again, looking to enhance.

We've actually talked to some new, I say exterior partners who are outside the city that are looking to help us expand our legs.

So you'll see changes in the future with some of our athletic offerings.

Aquatics trying to get more people to understand and conquer their fear of water because you have a city that's engulfed by water, so our youth need to know how to swim.

So we'll work on enhancing those programs as well.

Museums are key because they preserve Hampton's history.

They provide outreach to different people to come out because people have different histories, different experiences, and there are cultural differences.

So museums help bridge that gap.

So you'll see examples of the audience reached where the events took place at the different museums.

We have off-site permanent installations at Mary Jackson Neighborhood Center, Hampton Aquaplex, War Memorial Stadium, and we have temporary exhibits also that encourage people to appreciate the arts and appreciate Hampton's history.

Alright, next we have placemaking projects that we've completed in FY25.

And this is just a snapshot shot of some of the projects that we've completed.

Buck Road Beach Playground.

The main thing behind this playground was making sure it's an inclusive playground for all.

It's appealing.

We're hoping to draw youth to come out.

It's a beautiful playground.

Darling Stadium Improvements had a chance to walk the stadium a week ago with ACM Mitchell.

It's a beautiful stadium.

I would love to have played on that field when I played, but um Darling Stadium is beautiful.

Sandy Bottom, Yurk Project, we replaced and updated the units to give tourists and others that come out that want to actually rent these units, a quality of life experience and a top-notch experience for rentals in the park.

Bluebird Gap Farm Plan.

We have a conceptual design that we finalized, and we're working through that now to continue where we can actually bring it before the council at some point in time once it goes through the manager's office.

But Bluebird Gap Farm is very, very exciting because the potential is unlimited at Bluebird Gap Farm.

These are some of our maintenance projects that have been completed.

All these projects were funded through Capital Improvement Project Dollars.

And as you go through the list, you can see some of the things that we're involved in with repairing and providing maintenance.

And it is key to provide maintenance project funding because it actually curtails deferred maintenance when you have maintenance projects in existence that you can complete.

We have many departmental collaborations, and we could not do some of the things that we do without our partners.

Lake Hampton was wonderful.

That was in partnership with Public Works and Resilient Hampton.

The Shoreline Operations Station, Office of Youth Development, Police, outstanding.

Virginia State School Museum panel.

We're working through community development engagement, and we're working with others to make sure that this becomes a success as well.

These are the placemaking projects that we have in progress.

Playground replacement, Mary T.

Christian Elementary School.

We're replacing pieces of equipment, and we're adding areas for ages two through five.

Those are your tot lots, your smaller youth playgrounds.

And all of the playground replacements that we complete at on school sites are in conjunction with Hampton Public Schools.

Which is why we fund this and support this.

Thank you, Madam Manager.

Playground replacement at Peak Elementary School, and again, in conjunction with Hampton Public Schools, and as Madam Manager mentioned, these are public playgrounds.

And we're replacing equipment.

The main thing is making sure that they're ADA compliant.

And that's been huge.

When we do that, that's why we place playground equipment.

Therapeutic recreation centers should not be on this list because it's already completed.

And it was very important to have an ADA compliant playground in a therapeutic recreation center.

So we're very happy that that playground has been completed.

Sandy Bottom Nature Park playground is in design right now, but the primary reason is we wanted to relocate this playground from inside the woods where safety was a factor, and families and young kids could be safe because they'll have eyes on that playground and it'll be visibility.

So that's in the design process right now.

Aberdeen Elementary School Playground, that's also in the design process.

And we'll be building another top playground there, which will be ADA compliant.

Little England Playground does not have a playground, so we'll be adding a playground behind a Little England Cultural Center.

All right, one of our larger projects is senior center renovation.

And again, I mentioned that earlier.

We finished with the exterior facade painting, and we're getting ready to make the parking lot improvements and do the interior work.

The Buckwheel Beach Observation Pier update.

This is for the safety of the pier, making sure it's aesthetically pleasing, and also just making sure that people can enjoy quality of life.

And when you're on the pier, you feel pleased that you're on the pier and there aren't any rough edges or things that seem like they've been neglected.

And so that's what we're doing with the Buckwheel Beach observation pier.

Sandy Bottom repairs.

We do have a grant for 130,000 that came through the Department of Conservation and Recreation to assist with the wetland trail regrading and surfacing.

The parking lot will be repaved, critical sections of it, ADA improvements, and trailhead amenities.

These are three conceptual plans that we're working on in partnership with other departments.

River Street Park, and you know that was disrupted by the VDOT Bridge expansion.

Firefield Park, and if I could just say a few words about Briarfield, I think that is a destination park.

I still think this park could draw many tournaments, enhance revenue, and become a tourist destination point just with some upgrades and maybe a retransformation, but this park is a jewel.

Yes, sir.

We have a conversation.

A few years back about the fields, uh I guess the softball fields, and that if we uh somehow expanded uh the reach of the field or change the base alignments, I don't know what, but we could we could host more softball tournaments at the fields there.

Is that something you'd already looked at or had any had new time to do?

As part of the Briarfield Master Plan.

We'll look at field realignment and maybe we might even look at sports turf as well because I think maintenance costs sometimes can drive how many tournaments you can have and the condition of your fields.

Most of the teams that want to come out want to make sure that one, the fields are safe, that it's a good place to play.

The environment is conducive to tournament play.

So I think sports turf is the long the best way to go, but also seeing if we could add additional fields and making sure that the amenities around those fields are conducive to families because some families have young ones, their older kids or adults might be playing in a tournament, but you still have other youth that needs some things to do around the park.

So all that would be part of a master planning process, sir.

Vice Mayor Brown.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh Crenton on uh Briarfield, um, there's a tennis court there, and we had heard uh some time ago about the condition of it, uh lighting and some other things.

Is that something that's being upgraded or has been upgraded?

Uh no, sir.

It hasn't been upgraded yet, but we have a contractor that's lined up to do work probably in the next two to three weeks to repave that court.

Okay.

And uh as it relates to uh Virginia State Park, I know there's some that that's a work in progress, but uh what is going to be done to maintain the historic um uh value of in perspective of that site in terms of a park.

Sir, I think we're gonna try to protect the integrity of the Virginia State School as much as possible.

Uh we do want to make sure we get in front of the city council first before any formal plans are introduced to the community.

But the main thing is to make sure that we honor the integrity and the history of the school while we're going through this planning process.

If I might add, we've been working with stakeholders in the community, both neighborhood residents as well as former teachers, employees of the Virginia State School to seek their input.

One, because we want to be sensitive to the neighborhood that will be home to this park, but also we want to honor to your point, Vice Mayor, the history of the property.

Um, and we invite other stakeholders as soon as the consultant is on board and ready to begin that neighborhood group and other stakeholders will be re-engaged to be part of that process.

Thank you, Madam Manager.

Uh, that's my presentation.

I want to thank everybody for their support, the council, madam manager, and if you have any other questions, I'll be glad to address them.

Any other questions or comments?

Okay, thank you for your presentation.

Great work.

Thank you.

All right, that concludes all of our presentation.

Okay.

So uh from there, are there any regional issues?

Are there any items of new business?

All right.

Uh Madam Clerk, will you read the motion for closed session?

Yes, sir.

The motion to convene your closed session is pursuant to Virginia Code sections 2.2-3711 point A, point three and point eight to discuss proposed acquisition of real property for a public purpose in the Greater With area, and to consult with legal counsel regarding title and other legal issues regarding the proposed transactions.

Point three and point six to discuss proposed disposition of real property and investment of public funds in the LaSalle quarter, where discussion in an open session would adversely affect the city's negotiating strategy and financial interests.

And point one to discuss appointments as listed on the agenda and to discuss the performance of appointees to a local border commission and possible termination of saying.

All right, we need a motion of a second.

So moved, Mr.

Mayor.

Um second councilman Bowman.

All right, Vice Mayor Brown.

All right, Councilwoman Campbell.

Councilwoman Theravy.

All right.

Councilwoman Harper.

Aye, Councilwoman Muggler.

Hi.

Mayor Gray.

I so we will uh convene in closed session in the Lawson Conference Room at 2 15.

Um following the closed session, council will reconvene the open meeting in the Lawson Conference Room in order to certify the closed session and then proceed to adjourn the meeting.