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Hello, everyone, and welcome to Real Virginia, a show about Virginia agriculture and the people who produce the wonderful local products we enjoy.

Brought to you by the Virginia Farm Bureau.

Here's what's coming up on this week's show.

We learn what it takes to start a farm.

The yield highlights local farm to table creations.

And the story of how this women's soccer player is using agriculture to improve athlete safety.

It's just a pee baby.

Welcome back to Real Virginia, everyone.

We're coming to you this week from Spruceberry Farm in Cumberland County, where William Raymond and his family raise Christmas trees, pumpkins, and small fruits.

Starting a farm is no minor feat, and Mike Voyak unpacks what it takes to get growing.

We've all been there, driving down a rural road, seeing a wide open cornfield, or a herd of cows, and thought, what would it be like to own a farm?

Well, if you have ever wanted to make that dream a reality, we have some tips, advice, and resources available to help you get on your way.

Throughout the Commonwealth, there are a plethora of services and resources to assist first-time farmers get their operations up and going, such as Virginia Cooperative Extension, Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, and the Virginia Beginning Farmer and Rancher Coalition Program.

However, your first step should be to narrow down what type of farm you want to start.

As William Crutchfield of the Virginia State University Small Farm Outreach Program explained to us.

Well, if I woke up tomorrow morning and I wanted to start a farm, the first thing I think to come to mind is what type of farm I want to start.

And then I would look for resources that are available to me.

And one of those resources would be to reach out to the small farm outreach program here at Virginia State University, where we help small farmers make big impact.

We provide technical and financial assistance to help small farmers become sustainable throughout their career if they want to be a farm.

But the first thing I think I do is make sure I found the type of farming that I want to do.

There's so many variations today.

And not everybody is suited to be a livestock farmer or a produce farmer.

You got to figure out what's the best path for you and your operation.

Your biggest advocate on this agricultural adventure will be an extension agent who can help answer all your questions when it comes to local farming.

So when I go out there, uh well, preliminary when I'm on the phone with them, I ask them when I come out when we schedule our visit, give me some ideas of where you want to go because that's the only way I'm going to be able to help you.

I mean, I can come out and tell you every single possible thing that you could do in agriculture in Virginia, but you're going to need to narrow it down yourself.

Before you put any infrastructure in, going in and doing your research, like I said, coming up with a plan, having that idea, calling your local county offices if you don't even know where to start, and just say, hey, listen, I bought some farm, farmland, and I want to do this, this, and this.

Can you tell me what I need to do?

And even if that comes down to zoning or any type of rules or regulations that they have around farming in the county, it is super super helpful to reach out to your local people first.

Another major aspect of a farm is understanding that this will be a labor of love.

It's a 24-hour seven-day-a-week operation, regardless of the type of farming that you're doing.

It's going to be hard work.

So if you're not used to backbreaking labor, might not be something that you want to get into.

Along with the extension agents, your fellow farmers will be your greatest allies.

Farming is a business, and finances play a major role throughout this endeavor.

Agribusiness focused banks and lenders can be a great resource for freshman farmers.

Colonial Farm Credit, we offer uh a ton of products for farming and in rural uh rural America.

Uh for the farming operations, we offer uh land financing, uh equipment financing, and that can range from a tractor to a trailer to to a truck used in the farming operation.

Uh, we also offer lines of credit that will help you bridge the gaps for the the income uh and expenses throughout the the operating season of your of your operation there.

The biggest key to success is preparation and planning.

The biggest thing I've learned about farming from being a child on farms versus owning a farm is that you just don't put it in the ground and it grows.

There is a lot of work getting the soil prepared, the land prepared, the weed controlled prepared.

Really thinking through some things, working through some budgets and reach out to Extension or your local folks to help because you're probably gonna need it and need to be creative and um think about diversification.

Uh like William has done here.

He started out with the Christmas trees and kind of planted as he went, but now he is big scale agritourism.

Um he has a pumpkin patch, he's putting in berries, like he's diversifying in all different kinds of ways to kind of bring income in when it's not Christmas time.

So um just think about those things and the sky's the limit.

President Dwight D.

Eisenhower once said farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil and you're a thousand miles from a cornfield.

Meaning becoming a farmer isn't a decision that should be taken lightly.

But with planning, preparation, and utilizing the resources available to you, you too can become a successful Virginia farmer.

For real Virginia, I'm Mike Voyak.

2026 marks the international year of the woman farmer.

To celebrate, real Virginia will spotlight females who are an integral part of Virginia agriculture in each episode.

Meet Dr.

Dixie Watts Dalton, a Virginia farmer from Lunenburg County, turned nationally recognized agricultural education teacher.

Dr.

Dalton has a PhD in economics and has inspired generations of students at Virginia Tech and Southside Virginia Community College, building programs that strengthen rural communities and empower future farmers.

Dr.

Dalton is the president of the Colonial Agricultural Education Foundation Board, serves on several respected committees, and has been published in numerous journals and popular press.

Honored with distinguished teaching awards, Dr.

Dalton's career reflects innovation, service, and dedication to agriculture.

She is celebrated as a trailblazer, mentor, and champion for women in agriculture.

Virginia Farms raise an incredible diversity of products.

New this year, the yield highlights the connection of farmers harvest with local businesses.

Join us to see how a one-of-a-kind nectarine became the star of a Stanton restaurant's dessert.

I am Mary Godinez.

We are on Cross Keys Farm.

And it came into her family in 1868.

So we have a long history here on this property.

And so that's what we're doing here at Cross Keys Farm.

We actually grow about 185 different varieties of apples.

Here in the farm stand, we have about 17 that you can pick.

And now that they're producing fruit.

So it's just awesome to see that happy people that come here and taking pictures.

And oh, I can't believe I picked my my own peach.

I picked my own apple.

And they're chewing at them as they're walking out the door.

So it's awesome.

So Ruby G, I'm really excited.

Um is what I enjoy of my job.

Um I go to a lot of different farms, um, and I see all kinds of fruit.

And uh but this Ruby G, I found it on uh uh donut uh donut peach um tree, and they had just one little twig that had two unique uh nectarines, and I'm like, man, that's something.

That's gotta be something.

So I took the little twig and grafted it and made several trees, and it came true.

It's uh a nectarine, not a peach.

And uh so it's really exciting when you find something like that, and you know you you got your name behind it, and uh we got customers and they're really excited about it.

So we're hoping it's gonna do it's gonna do good for us.

I love being able to pick your own fruit and vegetables that you grew.

There's something absolutely magical that I've never been able to describe that when you grew that vegetable and grew that fruit and then take it from the tree and directly to the table.

It just does something in your soul that doesn't happen when you get something from a grocery store.

Um, food really should feed more than just your stomach and more than your body.

It really should feed your soul, it should feed your spirit.

My name is Yen Bowden.

I'm the chef owner of Maud and the Bear and the Shack restaurant in Stan, Virginia.

So I've been working with Mary now for uh probably I want to say almost 10 years.

Um, you know, she yeah, she's amazing.

Uh her and Roel are amazing people that grow amazing product.

I mean, there's just no way around it, and they get to introduce us to so many new varieties and species of different apples and you know the those those uh Ruby G's, man.

I mean, that's theirs, right?

Um, they they're they're all in.

Um, and so there's a real symbiosis in that uh with us.

Whereas, you know, I'm the same, I'm all in.

I'm here for my guests, I'm here for my producers.

Um, you know, my producers come first, my staff come second, and there's the guests.

Um, and that's the way it is based off of those relationships.

I mean, that's that's why we are who we are.

The Ruby G's are pretty unique.

They're they're pretty phenomenal.

Um, and a very unpopular opinion.

Um, nectarines are better than peaches.

I don't care what anybody says.

Um, I think they have a better uh acid sweet balance, and I also think that they're much more consistent, so you're more likely to get a delicious nectarine than you are a delicious peach.

When she brought those Ruby G's to us, uh, this I guess last year.

You know, we we're always trying to figure out uh new desserts.

I'm not a pastry chef.

But that helped out front.

I'm not a pastry chef.

Um, so we're always trying to figure out things that we can execute at a high level that are appealing to the eye as the palate and as the palate, and um uh you know, roasting whole fruit is one of those things that's kind of fun.

Uh, we have a wood fired oven here too, so roasting whole fruit in a wood fired oven is kind of kind of neat.

Um, you get a little smoke, you get a little char.

It's delicious.

Um, so yeah, it was just a conversation.

It's like, hey, these are delicious.

They're a little firmer uh than most nectarines.

We all love nectarines.

What happens if we just roast them whole?

So we rested them whole to taste them, and it's like, okay, well, what if we bathe in the caramel?

We use a good bit of dairy and we produce a good bit of whey from that, so our caramel turned into a whey caramel.

Um so basically, instead of using water, um, you double the amount of liquid and use whey um and make your caramel the same way.

So it's sugar and whey, and you cook it down until the sugar caramelizes, and then you add butter and cream to it, um, and it turns into your sauce.

Um, so yeah, so we bathed it in that, and it's like, okay, well, what else do we have right now?

Well, the mushroom that we all love uh that instantly reminds most people of nectar uh apricots are chanterelle mushrooms.

Um and chanterelles are abundant here.

Um, and we have people bringing us local chanterelles all the time.

So uh we made a chanterelle ice cream, so it's it's got that apricot-esque aroma to it.

Um, you know, flavor-wise, it's super earthy.

It plays off the caram really well from the earthiness and the bitterness from the caramel, uh, the sweet and the mushroom go very well together, so it just kind of all tied together, and then the last thing we added was hazelnuts.

So the great hazelnuts over the whole thing, and once again, it plays off the it plays off the fruit, it plays off the mushroom, and it plays off uh the caramel.

Although summer may feel like a distant memory, Chef Tammy has the perfect brunch beverage recipe for roasted tomatoes.

Learn how to use them in smoked Bloody Mary's in The Heart of the Home.

Hi, I'm Chef Tammy Brawley from the Green Kitchen, and welcome to Heart of the Home.

I am so excited about today's recipe.

I've been doing this for years, and I absolutely love it.

I'm gonna show you guys some tips, some techniques and things like that.

But one of the things we're gonna start with is smoked tomatoes.

I was at a farmer's market many many years ago, walked by this guy selling produce, and I was like, what is that smell?

And he says, Oh, I smoked tomatoes.

I'm like, oh my gosh.

I came back to my kitchen, I started smoking tomatoes.

I made a smoked arabia sauce, which would knock your socks off, spicy with bacon and things like that.

And then I learned also too that I could do a bloody merry water with the smoked tomato juice.

And that's what I'm about to show you guys.

This does require a special pan.

Now, I'll be honest with you, you could probably get away with making one of these with an aluminum pan.

Too many details for a little DIY, so we're just gonna use the actual smoking pan that we've got.

We have got um some sawdust chips.

I happen to be using um hickory at this point, and we have a pan here, and it goes right into the middle, a good couple of tablespoons.

I'm gonna go ahead and move it over to my burner.

And notice that this is definitely sawdust.

These are not your big chips of wood like you would put on your outdoor grills.

Definitely saw dust into the middle of the pan on the bottom.

No liquid whatsoever, no oil, no water, anything of the sort.

And then we have a drip tray here.

And I'm gonna reach off camera and grab my nonstick spray.

You want to spray the rack.

This is gonna go on top of those sawdust chips.

And it's at this point that you decide what am I gonna be smoking?

I do a smoked salmon that would knock your socks off.

But today is gonna be tomatoes.

Now, I also am gonna recommend that you do the smaller tomatoes.

These are camparis.

Um, you could get away with romas, but what you want to keep in mind is that there's a lid that's gonna go on this pan, so you don't want your really large tomatoes.

I am not going to peel them, I'm not going to take the cores off, and you'll understand why when you see when they come out.

So we're gonna place our tomatoes core down in our pan.

All right, and now we're gonna take our lid here for our pan.

This is a grooved lid, it fits right around the edges.

And you're gonna see it start to smoke as um not long after I turn the heat on.

I am turning it on high.

The center of the heat is where those sawdust chips are.

In a few moments, it's gonna start smoking.

You'll see where it comes out of the opening, and I'm gonna completely close the pan, and these are gonna take about 20 minutes to smoke.

Maybe um a little less, sometimes a little more.

But you'll see the finished product.

In the meantime, what do you think we want to do with that smoked tomato bloody or smoked tomato water, I should say, and we're gonna make some delicious bloody Marys.

Um, love doing this.

Sunday brunches are certainly a great way to do it.

So, what we've got here are a few garnishes here, and I've got a stainless cup.

I am gonna go ahead and fill it with ice.

And now we're gonna come back and we're going to add a standard cocktail recipe is usually two ounces of liquor or so.

So we're gonna do two ounces of vodka.

We're gonna do two parts of a Bloody Mary mix.

And this already has some spices and things added to it, but we're gonna garnish it even further.

So we're gonna add the Bloody Mary mix.

Now we're gonna add this is what your tomato water is going to look like once we finish the tomatoes, and you'll see that.

One part of the smoked tomato um broth mix.

And now we can stir that up a little bit.

Now, what are your favorite garnishes for a Bloody Mary?

I'm gonna show you mine.

We want to add a little bit more horseradish because I like everything spicy.

Stir that up.

And then we're gonna strain it into our other glass of ice.

I believe the recipe I gave you says you can use the cocktail shaker.

I'll be honest with you, I don't have a cocktail shaker that has a lid, so I'm just gonna use one with the strainer.

I'm gonna pour it right over our ice here.

Looks like I might could have doubled that.

And I've got some spicy pickled okra, one of my favorite things.

I tell you what, you can take a girl out of the south, but you can't take the south out of the girl.

I'm gonna put some spicy pickled okra, a delicious strip of bacon.

Can't go wrong with bacon, and a celery stick.

All right, let's check on those tomatoes that we've been smoking.

I've turned the heat off.

We're gonna turn our pan around.

Now keep in mind this is going to be very hot, so you want to be real careful.

Here we go.

What you're looking for here is the tomatoes, the skin should have started um peeling off, and that's really important, and they're gonna be somewhat soft.

These are also going to be a little softer than um bigger tomatoes because of the size, and that's okay, there's nothing wrong with that.

So now I've got our tomatoes over top of a bowl with the colander, and I'm just gonna mash them.

And you're gonna see that juice to start coming out, and we're gonna let that drain after we've mashed it.

All right.

All right, and there you have it, and that is a smoked tomato water that you can really add to just about anything you want, but I choose to add it to a Bloody Mary.

We made this earlier, so excited about this.

We've got a couple parts of vodka in this, we've got a couple parts of Bloody Mary mix, and then we have a part of the smoked tomato water.

If you choose not to have alcohol, that's totally fine.

Just leave the vodka out.

You don't have to have to have that, and you will certainly still get that smoky flavor.

I'm Chef Tammy Brawley from the Green Kitchen.

Join us next time on Heart Up the Home.

Yummy.

Whether it's your lawn or the field of your favorite sports team, turf grass is essential for safe and sustainable recreation.

We go to Virginia Tech to learn how a former student athlete is using her love of research to keep her teammates safe.

On the pitch, every step counts.

For Virginia Tech alumnus and former D1 soccer player Ava Vyth, the field beneath her feet has always mattered, first to her game and now to her research.

I started at Virginia Tech not knowing anything about the turf grass industry, not even knowing it existed.

Um, really just so focused on soccer, that's really all I cared about.

Just fell in love with it, and I just loved being able to be around the game, interact with athletes, and just use my own experiences too to kind of help um guide my research project ideas.

As an undergraduate, Vythe competed on Virginia Tech's women's soccer team as she traveled to opponents' fields, pre-game preparations planted the seed of curiosity.

When we would go on away trip, so we would purposely get there the day before just to train on their field and get acclimated to it the day before the game.

We would always kind of talk about the the playing surface before games and sometimes even use the surface to like change our stra game plan, honestly.

That attention to surface sparked a question.

Could field conditions influence safety?

A summer research role with Dr.

David McCall, a turf grass pathologist focused on precision management and field playability, helped Vythe explore the answers and turn intuition into measurable science.

We're looking at diseases that will come in and uh you know essentially kill the grass, leaving bare spots.

As far as the precision management side of things, what we're trying to do is figure out where to put the right resources at the right time.

She was naturally gravitated towards opportunities to test uh field playability.

That was a focus within our lab.

Uh, it seemed like the natural fit, and and she really kind of jumped into that role and absolutely took over and and just did a tremendous job with that research.

Vythe's masters focused on how within field variability affects athlete safety and performance.

She studied common turf grass stressors like spring dead spot and winter kill, and then brought athletes onto four contrasting playing surfaces.

The idea behind that study, um, kind of the gap in the literature is a lot of studies are just looking at natural and synthetic, natural and synthetic.

We really wanted to dive deeper into the variability within both field types, so that's why we included four fields.

So we had two natural and two synthetic, and then of both of those surface types, we had a low usage field and a high usage field.

So, for example, we had our stadium soccer in lacrosse field, and then the rugby practice field.

So very just two different types of surfaces as well.

And then we also had two separate areas within each of the four fields that exhibited the most within field variability.

That way we can look at how it specifically impacted the athletes by using those wearable technologies.

So what we saw was um variability within all fields, mainly in hardness was the one thing that varied probably the most for this specific study.

We saw how it related to the athletes, um, the impact forces on their lower limbs, as well as their perception of the field.

When the data came in, one surface stood out.

Virginia Tech's premiered Thompson Field with well-maintained Bermuda grass.

Once we started looking at the data, both the survey data as well as our quantifiable data, it really broke out into um uh three tiers.

The top performing was that uh high-level uh natural playing surface uh where the the soccer teams play.

After that, we actually had the cluster of both synthetic fields.

Both of those uh performed very similarly, both in perception of from the athletes as well as the actual quantifiable uh numbers that we looked at.

The poorest performing was the uh rec sports natural grass Bermuda Grass field that gets overused extensively, always has the traffic on it.

Variability within the field that you can't necessarily see with your eye is when injuries happen.

So I kind of like to explain it.

So if you're running on concrete and then you transition to like mud or something, you can see that with your eye and your body subconsciously adjusts.

But when you're running on a field that has um variable hardness levels, moisture levels, or whatever, and you can't see that, that's when injuries occur.

So with my research, you're really trying to not only quantify this variability but identify where it is and how we can map it and make better, more selective management practices based on that data.

Vyth's testing centered on female athletes as they face elevated risk of ACL tears.

We had them wear, um, they actually wore in a vest.

It was a unit on their back, and that measured trunk acceleration, so basically what their upper body is doing during movements.

And we didn't see any significant differences with that, but that was the kind of the idea behind it because it had um a relationship to their knee angle and like just what their overall body is doing.

And McCall says that this type of research has implications for field managers at all levels.

Ultimately, what we're trying to do is figure out where the resources need to go so that they can produce the most consistent, most uniform surfaces as possible.

So everybody has somewhere safe to play.

And for Vife, her journey continues at Penn State as she strives to make the beautiful game safer for her teammates and generations of athletes to come.

My teammates are my why.

I they mean the world to me, and um, they've been my by my side throughout my entire time in Virginia Tech.

I think as long as I'm doing research on athletic fields, collecting data and just being around the game, I'll be happy doing whatever.

From the soccer pitch to research plots, Ava Vythe shows how agriculture touches every field of play.

For real Virginia, I'm Elijah Griles.

We're so glad you could join us to celebrate all the bounty Virginia has to offer.

From the kitchen to your home and garden to our beautiful wide open spaces, we're proud to say that this is real Virginia.

For everyone from the Virginia Farm Bureau, thanks for watching.

Make it a great week.

On today's show, we are doing food that will cover Sunday dinner, the holidays, and whatever else you got special.

Welcome to the Grill Sergeants.

Woo!

From the Army's Quartermaster Center and School in Fort Lee, Virginia.

Are you ready for this?

Beautiful.

Featuring music by the Taste Buds.

It can't get more better.

Now serving up the best meals, military style.

Woo!

Come on, give me some the grill sergeants.

All right, there it tastes buzz.

How you doing?

Now you know we could not do cooking shows without doing something that just covers everything special.

Now, you know, today what we're doing.

We are doing some gravy, some dressing, and a big beautiful turkey.

You know what that means, right?

Thanksgiving.

Yeah, it sounds like Thanksgiving.

Or it can sound like Sunday dinner, or it could be any other holiday that you want.

Now you all know over here in Television Land that turkeys take more than 30 minutes.

You know this, and I know this.

Especially with the size of turkey that we have in here.

In fact, I think the turkey we have in there could probably be half of a ranger battalion.

Now, to tell you the truth, I need a little help bringing that thing out.

So I'm gonna ask that Ranger Jones off there crawling through the woods, low crawling's gonna come up here, go in the refrigerator for me and bring out that beautiful, beautiful turkey we have in there.

We're gonna do some great things to it right now.

We're gonna make it mo better.

Now I'm from New Orleans.

There's better, there's good, and then from where I'm at, there's more better.

And this is definitely about to become more better.

Now I know.

Oh, here we go.

If you're wondering what this is on the turkey, that is ooh, we and wow.

All on this turkey.

This turkey is absolutely wonderful.

It is baked.

This turkey gave its life for the quality time we're about to spend picking the meat right off the carcass.

I promise you.

It was probably running through the woods and raised its little wing and said, I give my life.

There you go.

Alright, now, you know what?

I want something a little interesting today.

Can you give me a little military drum cadence for the wonderful?

Yeah.

That is absolutely what I'm looking for.

Today, we are doing some wonderful things to this turkey.

The first thing we're gonna do is we're gonna take some fresh herbs.

Now, somebody on the set said it reminded them of home, just the smell of the rosemary and the sage and all the rest of the wonderful herbs and stuff that we have in here.

And you know what?

We're not gonna do anything wonderful except it all in the turkey.

Oh yeah.

Beautiful, Mr.

Turkey.

You're looking wonderful.

Now we've got Mr.

Turkey's legs all nice and tied so that he doesn't spread and do everything like that.

We have all that right here.

Now, also want to make sure that we've taken all the giblets and everything out of there.

You understand what I'm saying?

All the gibblets and all the rest of that great stuff out of there.

But I'm not quite finished.

Ranger Jones, Ranger Jones, where are you?

Where are you, Ranger Jones?

Ranger Jones, don't leave me.

Where are you with?

Where you with?

Ranger Jones, I need some onions.

Let's get some onions.

Quickly, quickly.

Take there we go, right there.

Give me some onions.

Give me some onions.

Grab a pepper.

Grab a pepper.

There you go.

That's what I'm talking about.

Let's grab some.

We're gonna get some chopped up right now.

I'm feeling so just wonderful and excited right now.

We're gonna get that done.

Just whack, whack, whack, whack, whack.

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.

We're gonna stuff the onions and we're gonna put all of that great stuff in there.

Just whole.

Just boom.

Nice big pieces.

Cut them up long.

There you go.

There you go.

Nothing fancy.

Nothing fancy.

I'm gonna just take it just the way you got it right there.

You go ahead and give me some more.

Give me some more onions.

Give me some more onions.

Oh, that's beautiful.

We're gonna take these onions.

We're gonna take all this wonderful stuff.

We're gonna put flavor all in the inside.

Now, for those of you who don't know what the ooh we and wow is.

The ooh would be the salt.

That's the thing that gives you the basic flavor.

You see what I'm saying?

In fact, the ooh is like the bass player.

Basseman, just give me a little ooh.

Ooh.

Now, the weed would be like that piano player.

Give me a little we.

Well, you dad, you playing around something good now.

Yeah, uh huh.

Now, Mr.

Drummer, give give me tie all that together with a little wow.

Give me something.

Oh, there we go.

One to break up.

Uh-huh.

That's it.

That's it.

Now, all of that's working.

You hear how that's working all together?

That's the sound that it's making right now.

Now, when we put it in the oven, it's gonna take all those sounds, all that flavor, and it's gonna become magic.

Absolutely a most beautiful song.

You got it, give me some more onion and some more pepper.

We're just gonna take all this onion and pepper.

The ooh we and wow is our basic seasonings.

Some salt, some black pepper, and garlic, and we put enough on here.

All right, now you want to get the uh baking apparatus equipment check.

We've done all of our pre-culinary checks, pre-cover culinary inspections.

All right, we got it.

Are you ready?

Are you sure?

You positive.

We're going down, we're going down.

We're in the heat of battle right there.

It's on the battlefield, dropping it in.

Oven, 350 degrees, and we're gonna let it sit.

This has been wonderful.

This has been exciting.

I'm all out of breath right now.

I'm telling you, I don't know what to do, but one thing we're gonna do, we're gonna come right back after you take a break.

Take me on out of here, taste buds.

Some things are changing.

You know, whenever you hear that sound, that means something is about to change when it hits the pot.

All right, and welcome, welcome, welcome back to the grill sergeant.

We were in the heat of some turkey battle.

Let's just say we were fighting the battle of Turkey Hill.

You know what I'm saying?

Now, we have the turkey in the oven, and there's no rushing the turkey.

Some of you are wondering how long does it take the turkey to get done?

Well, one way you can find out is to go to Pentagonchannel.

We have all the information on how big the turkey, how small the turkey, how long the turkey, all of that's there.

This turkey is gonna stay in there.

It's full enlistment.

The full time it takes to brown, become beautiful, done until it is 165 degrees for 15 seconds.

Now, you can find out all the information, all the little tidbits on all the great stuff that we put on it, in it, and everything that's gonna happen to this turkey.

But by the end of the show, through the wonderful television magic that we have working with us, you're gonna see the finished product here in about another 20 minutes.

Right now, the one thing that you know what?

The one great thing that goes with turkey is the dressing.

And I already said we were doing dressing today.

Now, we had an interesting conversation talking to somebody today, somebody I believe they were from Massachusetts.

Yeah, up there in that state.

And we said we were making dressing, and they thought we were talking about salad, and it was the funniest thing.

Well, I guess that's you have to really be a cook to appreciate that joke.

But anywho, if you're from up there, you probably call it stuffing.

Well, we're not stuffing it in anything.

So for us, it's a dressing.

Now, from I'm from New Orleans, hey, it's been dressing my whole life, and we call it cornbread dressing.

So maybe that's just one of those those culinary divides.

You know what I'm saying there?

You know what I'm saying?

I mean, do you call you call it stuffing or dressing?

All about the dress.

Okay, dressing it is America.

We have one.

No longer can you call it stuffing, it may only be called dressing.

Now, what we're gonna do today, you know, that was democratic, wasn't it?

I'm talking about.

All right, what we're gonna do.

We have some beautiful bread.

Now, dressings have so many different ways that we can do this.

You can use just bread, you can use cornbread, you can use all of that stuff broke up.

Right now, we have some beautiful bread that we've just cubed up here.

Nothing else in there, just the bread.

But the magic of this, we're gonna kick this on here.

Beep, there we go.

And I'm gonna put a little olive oil in this pan.

Oh, yeah.

You know what's about to happen now.

Uh-huh.

Yeah, we're about to smell the place up with that's the what's the sound?

Every food has a sound.

And see my drummer, he's playing the sound.

That means I'm we're about to start cooking.

That means some things are happening.

All right, you see what I'm saying?

Some things are changing.

You know, whenever you hear that sound, that means something is about to change when it hits the pot.

You understand what I'm saying?

That's a beautiful thing.

Now, we could not have a great dressing without something extremely divine.

And next to the onion, there's only one thing more divine than the onion in cooking.

And what is that?

Garlic.

How can you forget the garlic?

That's why I'm talking about my taste buds.

Garlic, you got to have the garlic.

This is divine.

This is wonderful.

And the olive oil is bringing it all together.

One big melting pot.

We're gonna call this basic training.

Because I'm about to take all of these basic ingredients and turn them into one united effort in the fight against hunger.

Right here, that's what we're doing.

But I'm telling you, if I use any more military colloquialisms and jargon, this would absolutely be ridiculous.

But no doubt that I have quite a few more before we get finished with this assault on hunger.

You see what I'm saying?

It's just pouring out of me today.

It really is.

Alright.

We have our bread.

We have all what'd you say?

The olive oil is calling me.

So what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna grab my trusty spoon here.

Oh yeah, there we go.

That's what I'm talking about.

And then the onion.

Oh, there we go.

And the garlic.

Now we're gonna adjust for fire.

Bring it down.

Oh yeah.

That's it.

That's it.

Oh yeah.

Don't worry about it.

Sometimes the battle gets a little intense.

Sometimes the battle gets a little intense.

But don't worry about it.

Taste buds.

Give me something real military.

Like, yeah, give us something real military and nice.

Oh, yeah, here we go.

Woo!

There we go.

We're on the front line.

Combating hunger today.

Getting ready to feed the troops for your family.

And in doing so.

Keep it going.

We're gonna add our chicken and the meat that we have here.

Oh, goodness.

All the gizzards, all the chicken we have here.

This is absolutely beautiful.

Y'all make me feel like saluting right about now.

You understand what I'm saying?

Unfortunately, it's time for you to take a break.

I'm gonna keep this warm and show you what to do with it when you get back for the grill, Sergeants.

We'll see you in just a minute.

We are back.

We are back.

We are back.

I am in the heat of a culinary battle right now.

When you left, we have this beautiful, beautiful, beautiful stuff here.

All together.

I'm giving it some regulation.

A few technical manuals in there.

Some wow.

Motivation.

Right there.

We got the oowee and the wow all in here.

Seasoned up.

The salt, the garlic.

You know my peppers all in there, making this absolutely wonderful.

But you know what?

I need some hotel echo lima papa.

That means help.

So I'm gonna call Ranger Jones, Rachel Jones.

This is culinary six.

Culinary six calling Ranger Jones.

I need you right now.

Well, quit sneaking up on me like that.

No, I'm just kidding.

Here you go.

I need you to go ahead and stir this.

And then I'm gonna attend to this right here.

We're gonna add a little poultry seasoning in there.

You know, just bringing the sage and all that for our dressing, dressing America, dressing, not stuffing, dressing.

All right.

We're gonna put that in there and we're gonna get that all mixed up with the stock.

Now we're sharing this stock today.

Okay.

So don't hog it because I'm about to work on the gravy.

Okay, now while he's doing that, we're gonna just take some shallots here.

Whoop, whoop, whoop.

Beautiful.

We're gonna take some shallots.

Alright.

This is going in a gravy.

I don't need it minced, just need it chopped.

Just a nice light chop on there.

How are you doing over there, Ranger?

Oh, not too bad, Groovy.

Not too bad.

I didn't suspect.

All right.

Okay, there we go.

They're gonna sit there and watch.

You mind if I cook right here next to you?

That's fine.

That's what I'm talking about.

You get the elevation, I'll pull the trigger.

Right here.

All right.

What we're gonna do here.

I'm gonna work on the roux for the gravy.

All right.

This is gonna get hot.

Okay.

I'm gonna take all of that and put that in that bowl, and we'll pour it up in here when you've mixed it all together.

Are you ready?

Mix the uh saute as well as some stock.

Yeah, and stocking in the bowl.

Put it in the bacon.

Fantastic.

But you got one ingredient.

Eggs.

How about I crack those for you?

All right, you get those mixed, and I'll get the eggs cracked.

Got it.

Oh, here we go.

You got that?

You there?

Olive oil still calling.

We don't need a nine-line Medavac over there just yet, so it's not burning on me.

Here we go.

We ready?

Sure.

You sure?

Sure.

Because you're gonna mix this.

I'm not.

I just wanted you to.

Yeah, go ahead and get that.

Just hit them a little bit.

Okay.

You ready?

You sure?

Sure.

Get it all mixed up together.

Go ahead and get all that mixed up together.

And while he's doing that, I am gonna help out by getting him some stock.

That's gonna blend all of this together.

Oh my oh my.

The turkey is doing what it does.

And of course, this dressing doesn't take as long to bake.

This dressing is absolutely wonderful.

It doesn't take as long to bake.

We're gonna use some nice chicken stock to get this all blended together.

How you hanging in there?

I'm hanging, gross.

You really beautiful.

There you go.

You're gonna look like you need some more.

Yeah, I think so.

You think so?

Okay.

That olive oil is almost calling me, so I'm only gonna be able to help you for just a second more.

Alright, this is a this is an intense battle going on here.

An absolutely intense battle.

Oh yeah, go ahead.

I think that's gonna be perfect right there.

Okay, once he gets that, we're gonna put that down.

I'm gonna come over here.

I got the sound and no drum.

Now we you see what I'm saying?

Come on, taste bud.

Y'all concentrating on the eating.

There's no football game playing.

Come on, get on the ball there, take bud.

You know what I'm saying?

I need my theme music.

You know, every time I make a move, some theme music should be playing.

How's that look?

It's looking like dressing.

Okay.

Even though I'm getting nods back from the camera crew saying stuffing, but it looks like dressing to me.

Well, I tell you, if you can't take a good rib, you definitely don't want to be in the army.

I'm telling you.

I cannot be believed people have grown up with the misconception that you can have stuffing that's not stuffed in something.

You know what I'm saying?

I don't understand that.

That's like, why do we drive on on parkways and parking driveways?

I'll never understand it.

You you understand, you said I'm saying, those are the same people that call stuff in something when it's not stopped.

All right, here we go.

You you found that funny.

I'm telling you, it's it's the truth.

It really is.

It really is.

Okay, we're gonna put some shallots in here.

You think it's about ready to go in the oven?

Or is it a little bit more?

A little bit more, just a little bit more.

Okay.

Listen, that's gonna get popped in the oven.

You're gonna see the full scope of all the baking and everything.

Pentagon channel.mil, Mike India Lima, M I L.

Pentagon Channel.mill for all of the stuff that you think you missed, you really didn't miss it.

You can tune in there for all the written instructions and everything that you need.

Go ahead and get that in your uh in the bowl.

We'll pop that in.

I'm gonna finish up this roux.

We're gonna add the stock.

Get our gravy all nice and finished up, and before long, we're gonna be pouring this over some turkey and some wonderful dressing by the end of the show.

Stay tuned and come on back for more of the grill, Sergeants.

That's what I said.

Play it now.

We have a special guest coming today.

Special guest.

All right, I need you.

So he can.

Got me.

Welcome, welcome, welcome to the grill sergeants.

We are close to that time.

Right now we have to finish up this gravy.

We have some turkey and some dressing waiting on us.

We're gonna add this turkey and the gizzards, all the good giblets and everything that came out of the turkey.

We added that in here with this roux.

Oh, you you you you're not gonna take any chance about me talking about you, are you?

That's beautiful.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Oh yeah.

All right.

When you make gravy as good as this, it is definitely unforgettable.

Oh, there we go.

You stir that up.

Make sure you add enough stock.

Lump less.

No lumps, just love.

All in the pot.

You understand what I'm saying?

Absolutely beautiful.

Gonna stir this.

Ranger Jones, Ranger Jones.

This is Culinary Six calling Ranger Jones.

I need you on the scene, Ranger Jones.

We have a special guest coming today.

Special guests.

All right.

I need you.

So he can.

Got me?

There you go.

Hands finger, baby.

Hand signal.

That's all I need you to do.

All right.

Today we have with us General Cross, who's joined us today on set.

Come on in, sir.

Uh, the new commanding general, the quartermaster center in school.

We have over here visiting the set today.

And as you know, the taste buds are probably looking with a little bit of a scowl because they get to taste everything.

I know they have their forks and everything ready, but our honored guest today is gonna come in and you you you're gonna try some of this wonderful food, right?

Right, grill.

All right, that's what I'm talking about.

That's absolutely wonderful.

You know, I love, I'm telling you, these say, You did you hear that America said, Yes, grill.

You know what I'm saying?

I think you know, sir, I love, I love I love officers that do.

You know, y'all, y'all make great plans.

But you know, behind every great officer is definitely a great NCO.

You understand what I'm saying?

All right, it's the truth.

We have the this gravy looks wonderful, doesn't it?

Delicious.

I know.

Tell tell us a little bit.

What's your findest memory?

Of of Thanksgiving, of a holiday, Sunday dinner, anything like that.

Well, I can call you grill, right?

Yes, you can call me grill all day long.

I love that I'm just remember I had is everyone in the house got full.

Yeah, yeah.

Let me explain.

It was eight kids.

Two parents, two dogs.

You can eat all day.

Breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner, supper, and you had a midnight snack.

That's so beautiful.

I remember stuff like that too.

You're gonna give him the whole leg.

Is that what you're going for?

No, no.

We're gonna put just a little salt, just a little pop, salt, a little wow in here, a little wee, a little garlic, just a woohoo, just a little more there.

Get that nice and tightened up.

Let it sit.

There are no lumps.

The only thing in here is nothing but the beauty of the meat and all of that great stuff.

Absolutely perfect gravy.

Oh goodness.

Oh, that that does it all by itself.

I'm telling you.

Sir, if you would do us the honors.

How about a little I wish?

There you go, sir.

Your fork, you go ahead.

Oh, yeah.

Oh yeah.

Oh, yeah, that's it.

The turkey that we had started earlier is still turkerizing down in the oven.

The dressing we put in earlier is still baking and being wonderful.

But we wanted to show you what the dressing finally comes to an end, what it looks like.

Absolutely wonderful.

Though we have it that close to the cavity of the turkey, it is not a stuffing.

It is a dressing.

We just wanted to make that point quite clear.

And well, I don't have to ask.

If he's doing all of that, we already know that it's okay.

So we want you to know, hear from the grill sergeants, whatever holiday you are celebrating, whatever day of the week, show your love.

Share your food.

All right.

My name is Sarge and First Class Turner, and you have been watching the Grill Sergeants on the Pentagon Channel.

Yes, indeed.

Each year, worldwide, over a quarter of a million pedestrians are killed in traffic.

Millions of pedestrians are maimed or injured.

Join us for the next half hour as we look for solutions on perils for pedestrians.

On this episode, we talk with the head of Walkbike Nashville.

Then we learn about Nashville's new sidewalk law.

A doctor discusses obstacles to walking.

A cyclist discusses bicycle facilities.

Finally, we talk with the head of Walkbike Frankfurt and one of their members.

Stay tuned.

We're talking with Nora Kern, who's executive director of Walkbike Nashville.

What is Walkbike Nashville?

So Walkbike Nashville is a nonprofit that's dedicated to making Nashville more walkable, bikable, and livable, and really focused on ensuring everyone has transportation options and can get around safely and efficiently around our city.

What sort of issues have you been working on lately?

Yeah, so I mean we were involved a lot this past year in supporting uh the sidewalk bill that Councilwoman Henderson sponsored to increase and change our provision of sidewalk requirements across the city.

And now we're really gonna be focusing in on our major pikes and corridors to make sure that not only are there sidewalks along the the pike and along our really major busy streets, but that there's also a way to safely cross the street.

Um what we're seeing a lot of in Nashville is we're a spoken wheel system, so our city is very sprawled out, and we have these really major um pikes.

Um and our our general plan for the city, Nashville Next has said that we're gonna have a lot of our development along these pikes, and we're gonna be using the pikes to have mass transit and really grow our our transit system.

But the problem is a lot of these pikes either don't have sidewalks or have crosswalks every half mile or more.

Um and so unfortunately we're seeing a lot of our pedestrian um crashes, fatalities happening all on these same really major arteries, um, like this one behind us.

So we're really focusing in to make sure that the entire corridor is safe, um, not just walking along the corridor, but also being able to move freely across the street.

Yeah, it's pretty important, particularly with transit, because if if you're on the right side of the bus in the morning, you gotta cross the street to catch the the bus home in the afternoon.

Yeah.

Um does then mean we're gonna have to have more frequent signals or what other alternatives are there to get people across the street.

Yeah, well, we're really promoting a um a variety of different solutions.

I think for some corridors it means more frequent signals.

Um we like many suburban cities have a lot of super blocks that are you know a mile or or more in between um signals.

Another option we're really um pushing for is looking at ways to do safe mid-block crossings.

So um beyond just painting a crosswalk, can we do pedestrian island?

Can we have hawk signals or pedestrian signals that just come on for people who need to cross the street?

Um and then looking strategically at where the bus stops are.

So where are people getting off?

Where are they trying to go by foot?

Where are the apartment complexes and grocery stores, and how can we make sure that where there's the highest demand to cross the street, there's a way to do so safely.

Are any of these ideas strange revolutionary things, or are they all things that have been done somewhere before?

They are all things that have been done somewhere else.

Um it's certainly we have a challenge that a lot of cities have, um, particularly in the south and our more sparled areas.

Um we have the you know, these big streets are seven lanes across and they're built for cars, so it's certainly a challenge in terms of um changing the status quo.

Um sometimes these neighborhoods were built without any sidewalks or with no no vision for how people are gonna get around without a car.

And so it's really a question of retrofitting.

But um luckily, you know, there's a lot of great stuff happening in the United States and across the world that we can learn from.

And because the roads are so wide, there's actually a lot of room to work with.

So there's a lot of ways to kind of reconfigure how the street works and make sure it's efficient.

Um and make sure there is a way to kind of cross cross and have it be a permeable barrier and not kind of just dividing line within the neighborhood.

And the organization come up with ideas or you know, places where someone needs to have a good idea.

Who do you have to work with then?

Is it uh the state, the region, the the city?

You know, which uh who's whose streets are these?

Well, they're they're uh it's a little bit of all of the above.

Um often our bigger streets like the one behind us, 8th Avenue, are state routes.

Um, and so it certainly makes the process more complicated.

Um it requires the cooperation with the state, the department of transportation requires cooperation with the city, public works, and planning departments.

Um it also requires cooperation with multiple council members and a lot of different community stakeholders, um businesses along the streets, people who live in the area, and people who are using um the streets to commute kind of across across the region.

Um so there's certainly a lot of stakeholders.

We add on to that, you know, bus bus services, MTA, um it becomes a lot of a lot of people in the room.

Um, but it's really these are the critical streets that we need to be tackling.

Um, and so the challenge is hopefully one that could be overcome.

And walkwike Nashville's been around uh close to two decades now.

Um out there using the word pedestrian a lot, uh people walking a lot.

Um is there change?

Are people starting to think a little more about pedestrians when when they're planning and building?

Yeah, I think there's definitely been a huge shift within the planning and our our public works department.

Um our mayors over the last couple of years have really started to focus in on ways of getting around bees besides the car.

And so most recently, Mayor Barry has committed 30 million dollars for sidewalks for the second year in the row, which is fantastic and really significantly more than we've ever seen before.

Um so I think there is a groundswell both within kind of within the city, within the government, um, but also within the community.

Nashville, like a lot of cities, has a lot of people moving here.

People are coming from New York City, from all these bigger cities out west and up north where they didn't have a car or where they were able to walk around frequently.

And so I think as a result, there's been a lot of pressure for Nashville to figure out how can we be a city where you can you know get around some of the time without a car or all of the time.

And so I think it's fantastic to kind of see that growth and that change really brings some pressure onto the city to figure out what what the next phase of transportation is gonna look like.

We're talking with uh Angie Henderson who's council member for the 34th district here in Nashville.

What uh what has the council done regarding pedestrians lately?

So most recently uh in late April, uh we passed a comprehensive rewrite of our zoning provisions for sidewalks, so our sidewalk requirements, and that was almost a year-long process engaging uh stakeholders, the builder community, uh walkable community advocates to look at how we could best uh expand our requirements, um, but do that intentionally and strategically.

So not just saying sidewalks everywhere, um, but finding a framework that would get us really the sidewalks where we need them.

Um Nashville, like many southern cities that grew uh prior our post uh car, you know, the car-oriented development.

Um we we sprawled, and so you know, we've had about a five decades here where we've not really been building sidewalks.

So for some of our suburban centers, um, that's especially challenging.

We're kind of having to retrofit suburbia somewhat.

Um and so we're looking at those centers as part of our countywide general plan.

We went underwent a uh countywide plan uh called Nashville next to look at how we were going to develop as a city.

Um additionally, we had a walk and bike strategic plan, and those things kind of came together to give us the framework on which to base this bill.

And you're spending the year listening to your different constituents and their interests.

Uh what sort of concerns did you hear from people?

So I think we had the sidewalks to nowhere concern.

Umce you start uh requiring sidewalks for smaller size construction, single and two family construction, what will that mean?

Um Nashville and its suburban areas has a lot of uh uh ditch, you know, you've kind of got the road and then a ditch, and then you have the yard, and so um sidewalks are pretty costly in that they have to incorporate uh stormwater infrastructure in them, and it's even more challenging than to build them kind of incrementally when you're having to incorporate that stormwater infrastructure.

Um so what we did was we established this strategic framework and said, okay, these are the areas in which we want these sidewalks, it's not everywhere.

Um, it's on our major and collector streets within a quarter mile buffer of our uh centers, and um if in that area you don't already have as a builder an immediately adjacent or abutting sidewalk, then you can pay into a fund in lieu of construction.

Um and in that way, um, from a timeliness standpoint and just from a connectivity standpoint, um, you know, our city's established, we need sidewalks there, certainly, but if they're not otherwise connecting, you have the option as a builder to pay into that fund.

Um there's certain costs per linear foot.

And then uh how will that fund get used then once it's accumulated enough money to actually build some sidewalks?

So we have pedestrian benefit zones, um, and so Nashville has a capital improvements budget that's really our planning document.

Um so that's vetted through our planning department in a partnership with public works to see where are our priorities and where are the needs, and so as those funds build, um, then they will be applied to the most high priority projects of need in that same pedestrian benefit zone.

And when an issue like pedestrian sidewalks comes in front of the council, um what do you hear from your constituents and and what do the other council members hear from their constituents saying?

Are are pedestrians something that they're concerned about?

Absolutely.

I think uh we as a council recognize that um that that is a real priority um safety for folks walking, safety for folks biking, and so um from our general community, everyone was very much in support of this policy, and the most um uh questions and and rightly so came from that builder community.

What would this mean for them as they uh plan a building project?

And so you know that's to be expected.

Um in the end, this was a very popular bill.

I had 39 co-sponsors, and we have a 40 member council.

So in the end, just we kind of shared about it, talked about it, and interest in the bill grew with the advocacy community um participating.

Uh, in the end to have 39 uh co-sponsors on what most perceived to be as a pretty challenging and contentious bill to kind of rewrite your provision of sidewalk code top to bottom, um, I think was quite a statement for what our council and our city feels uh is the importance of pedestrian safety and connectivity, just getting people where they need to go in modes other than in the car.

The bill passed back in April.

When does it go into effect?

It is effective July 1st, so one uh about a week from today.

So we we are looking forward to that.

We are going to be tracking that implementation closely in our development services.

Um that's kind of a a place where if you're uh pulling a permit, getting ready to build, um, you come in and you interact with our codes department, our zoning administrator, um, we have GIS mapping for applicability for this.

Um, zoning examiners have been trained on the applicability map and what some of the you know exceptions are because you will have your home builders who are thinking, huh?

Should I build it?

Should I pay into the fund?

What should I do?

Um so just kind of giving some guidance around what that process would be.

And additionally, if folks want to appeal the requirement, they can go to our board of zoning appeals.

So we've been working hard to make sure that it's a good uh implementation.

Um, and we passed the bill in late April, and the intervening time has given us time to continue to educate about the bill and to get prepared for its implementation.

We're in Nashville, Tennessee, talking with Stacey Doris, who's a physician with the Vanderbilt Medical Center.

Hello.

Well, uh as a as a physician, what sort of problems do you see with your patients related to just not getting enough physical activity?

Yeah, um, well, here in Nashville and in the South in general, there is a pretty prominent obesity crisis.

That's probably one of the main things.

Um, and that it's it's actually kind of physically difficult for people to get out and walk in their communities, and that leads to to that issue to some degree.

Um, and then I think you know, in addition to that, we do have some air quality issues as well with the amount of traffic that we have.

We have air quality alert days that come early and often here in this hot climate.

And so one of the things I think a lot about is if we could get people to you know park their car and leave it, walk more, we could reduce that air pollution issue and also increase their physical activity.

What uh how does air pollution uh affect a person?

What uh what part of your body does it affect?

Good good question.

So I see it mostly in my patients who have asthma, so that's a chronic condition, a long-standing condition that leads to um bronchial issues, coughing, shortness of breath, chest constriction, those kind of things.

And the air pollution directly affects that sort of ability to breathe and breathe easily.

So if you're on a day where pollution's not bad, uh you you advise your your patients to get out and walk?

I do.

I I invite advise them often to get out, you know, get some fresh air, walk around your block, say hi to your neighbors, that kind of thing.

You mentioned some people find it difficult to do because of because of the environment.

What uh what obstacles are people running into?

Yeah, so what I hear from people in general is that they don't feel like there's a place for them to walk.

So they live in this great city, they live in Nashville, Tennessee, you know, an awesome music city, lots of cultural events, and yet they don't physically have a place for them to walk.

They don't feel invited to walk on their city streets.

It's a lot of traffic, there's frequently no infrastructure in place for them, there's no sidewalk for except for example, and they don't necessarily feel safe to get out there on foot, and they definitely don't feel safe to let their children get out there on foot.

What uh what's Nashville doing in the way of sidewalks?

Are you are you seeing more sidewalks than you used to?

What's what's happening there?

Yeah, I I think there's a there's been a long-standing buzz about sidewalks here in Nashville.

There's been a variety of mayors who've run on the platform that they're gonna bring sidewalks finally to Nashville.

Our statistics are currently that about a third of our roadways have sidewalks on just one side.

So if you can envision that, it's very few sidewalks and very few that actually link together.

Um and so there's a lot of talk about new sidewalk creation, building sidewalks, but it's frankly fairly hard to visualize.

We don't actually see the production, it's very slow going, very painstaking work.

Um, and so you know, for someone like me who's very interested in walking and having my patients get out and walk, I'd really like to see you know, big projects come through this town and and really make a difference.

What uh what can be done while you're waiting for the sidewalks to get built?

Uh is there anything uh any alternative?

Because it looks like it's gonna might be a while.

Yes.

Um well there is a bill that's in production right now, allowing pedestrians to sort of have a sort of designated space or a role in our roadways, um, and also asking cars to provide that three feet distance, such as they would for a bicycle.

And I think that's a really grand step in the sense that it it gives an actual legitimacy of a space for people to be.

Um in addition, I'm working on a project called walking districts, which would kind of change the nature of some of our more residential streets to really make them uh kind of a pedestrian-friendly zone, if you will, almost in the kind of vein of a greenway extender.

So it's a it's an open inviting place, it's an actual place for those neighborhood people to walk.

And people have been out walking, unfortunate enough to get hit by cars, um happens all too often.

Uh what do we know about who gets hit in Nashville?

Yeah, that's a good question too.

So I also run a project looking at those um horrible cases where people are actually struck and killed while walking.

And Nashville in general is rated very poorly in this regard compared to our population.

We have a very high pedestrian crash rate.

And it's probably, you know, in part the fact that our infrastructure is very haphazard.

Um and so what we seem to know at this moment is that people are hit often, and most drivers say they just didn't see the person, they weren't expecting them to be there.

And uh, you know, a big hope that I have is with these kind of legislative changes and with you know, um more focus on pedestrian issues that we actually as a culture start embracing our pedestrians and expecting them, giving them room, slowing down when we see them, and allowing them to walk in a safe fashion.

We're in Nashville talking with John Harkey.

What's your involvement with bicycle issues in the city?

Uh I'm involved in a couple of different ways.

One is I'm on the advisory committees to the mayor and at the health department.

And the other way is I'm a bike commuter.

I commute uh to all of my activities or most of them on a bike if they're within five to seven miles of my house.

So what's uh what's Nashville like for a bicyclist trying to get around?

If you ask somebody who's not a bicyclist, they'll say it's too dangerous to bike, but uh I think that you can work your way.

It's very important to choose your routes carefully, and when you do that, you can bike fairly easily.

The one thing Nashville has that say Memphis doesn't is hills.

That's of course can be a challenge, but uh I I think Nashville is very bikeable and it's becoming more so.

What uh what sort of issues have you been discussing on the committees you're on?

Well, uh I think the main uh the biggest issue we talk about is uh having a bikeways that are protected in order to bring people who are a little bit afraid to getting out on the road onto the road.

Uh so having a protected bike lanes in core down core corridors is very is what we're talking of a lot about.

The um another issue that has come up is when you put in a bike lane, um is that taking away a car lane or not?

What's it doing to the traffic patterns?

Are our cars getting backed up more?

And we uh so far we think that the designs have been such that even if we do a road diet and cut a lane out that the cars are still okay.

But uh making protecting the bikes is very important.

So what uh what sort of streets need a protected bike lane and and what sort of streets can get by without one?

The the streets that need them are the arterials and collectors, the the ones that have a uh fairly heavy have the flow of traffic or higher speed traffic.

The ones that can get by without them are residential streets and side streets that uh the traffic flow is light and slow.

So uh there are a lot of uh so the approach to getting people on a bike is to uh point out where the light flow streets are and to make the arterials more protected, the ones that we want uh bikes to be able to go down as well.

We're talking with Don Stasberg, who's president of Walkbike Frankfurt.

What is Walkbike Frankfurt?

Walkbike Frankfurt is a local advocacy organization founded about 13 years ago by a group of citizens.

Originally it was a group of people that just got together to talk about biking and walking issues.

Now we're a 501c3 Incorporated and have a small treasury and a board of about nine people.

And what what sort of issues have you been looking at?

Um of the important things that we did early on was develop a a master plan of possible areas of the city that could be improvement.

We had a place over here that wanted needed to be connected over here.

We would go look at it, see if we thought it was feasible.

So we'd have community hearings, input.

We through this whole public process, we would come up with uh 10 or 20 items and uh refine them.

And then we took it to the City County Planning Commission and it was adopted by the City County Planning Commission as part of their plan.

So many of those things were successful that they um we recently updated that plan with phase two, and it was recently adopted by the city county, and so now we have a whole bunch more projects to work on, and I took you to see some of those projects today.

Yeah, and uh so the one we saw looked like a new sidewalk, new bridge.

Right.

Why was that important?

That was important for safety reasons because there's a lot of people that live along that narrow street that uh may want to go walk downtown.

And as we saw in the picture before the new walking bridge was built, you had to walk in a narrow street that cars might be going rather fast to get across that bridge.

And uh it's a great safety improvement to have that footbridge that we took a picture of.

And we we commend the city for working with us.

I want to highly emphasize that the city listens well to us, and we tried to do our homework and not put them in a box by asking them to do things that are either outrageously expensive or not practical to do.

We try to find the low-hanging fruit is what I'm saying.

And the one spot we looked at that looks like it might be fairly easy to fix was uh bridge right next to the library that uh one side of it's closed.

Uh what's going on there?

Well, there's a landowner that has a building that the city is in deemed not in compliance with code, and apparently someone in the city, well, I don't agree with it, but thinks that it uh the facade of the building may be dangerous, so they blocked off walking in front of the building, and in a consequence they blocked off that side of the bridge because it leads right into the front of that building.

Why would it be important to have that side of the bridge open and and not just the other side?

The why that is important as you saw uh there is an elementary school just around the corner that the older kids may walk home from school, some of them by themselves, but even but sometimes it may be a parent and child walking from the school uh to home or uh it might be a teacher wanting to walk to school.

So what we are doing is forcing the kids and their parents to walk across a very dangerous set intersection in front of City Hall instead of walking in front of the the old run-down building, and I personally think it'd be safer to walk in front of the building than across that intersection.

So we think that will be fixed eventually.

They the land the that property is in litigation, and it's been in litigation for a long time, but eventually there's going to be something done with that property.

Is it going to be fixed up or torn down?

What uh what interested you in joining the organization?

Well, I'm an avid uh cyclist, and I usually ride three or four times a week in uh Frankfurt on my bicycle.

And I was interested in the programs they had to uh add bike pass, walking paths, and connect some of the cities, the uh areas of the city so that I could ride safely between the different areas.

And uh you've been seeing any progress on that front?

Yes, I have.

Uh, there has been some uh real uh interest in uh from both the city and maybe even from the state government in some areas to uh provide us a little better access.

Uh we have some areas that we're hoping in the future will be opened up to us to where we can stay off of some of the busy streets and still make it through the subdivisions in a safe manner.

Earlier this morning, we were looking at a shopping center in uh in your neighborhood, big uh Kroger grocery store.

Uh what's it like for the people in the surrounding neighborhoods to try to get there to buy their groceries on foot?

Well, if they want to walk right now, uh they have to kind of walk through areas of uh broken rock and uh kind of uh make believe pass to get between the different uh subdivisions to get into the parking lot of that uh grocery store.

Uh there is excess along a very high speed uh large highway, but I think most people rather than walking an extra ten blocks are probably gonna take and cut through the wooded areas and the impromptu walk path.

And I'd like to see them maybe uh continue on and make those an improved walk riding uh path that's a little safer between the different subdivisions and the uh supermarket.

Are those sort of local connections uh important uh for walkers or cyclists trying to get around?

I think they are, and I think they'll uh once they become a little bit more uh organized and maybe a little bit more legitimate that uh more people would start to use them.

What does that mean for the businesses in the shopping center?

Well, I think that it would improve the access of some of those people to use those shopping center uh stores uh rather than maybe uh if they have to get in a car, they're gonna go somewhere else.

So my name is Christopher Batten.

I graduated from Phoebus High School in 1995, and I'm currently a professor in electrical and computer engineering at Cornell University.

So after I graduated from Phoebus High School, I went to the University of Virginia and earned a bachelor's in electrical engineering.

After graduating from UVA, I went to the University of Cambridge to earn my master's in engineering.

And then I went to MIT, where I earned my doctorate in electrical engineering and computer science.

And then I started as a faculty here at Cornell University.

So I uh teach and do research in the area of computer architecture.

Computer architecture is really about computer system design.

So for example, we look at what type of computer systems should we be building in five or ten years and how should we build them.

So there were a couple really uh formative experiences during my time at at Phoebus, which really helped create a foundation for me to be successful in in science, engineering, and technology.

So one of them was the Center for High Technology, uh, so the robotics program specifically.

I was actually out of district, and and participating in the Center for High Technology was one of the reasons I was able to go to FEBIS.

And um, the robotics program was led by Mr.

May when I was there, and it was a fantastic experience.

Uh students uh were basically in in charge of the curriculum.

Mr.

May would pick out the textbook that we use during the year, but then students would take ownership of specific chapters and and teach the other students about the material, prepare problems.

It was a very hands-on, project-driven type uh course, and it really taught me a lot about what engineering actually was.

And so I really enjoyed that experience.

Uh, another good example would be uh the science fair.

So I was part of the science fair for two years.

Um, how Mrs.

Tucker taught the uh biology program there when I was at Phoebus, and she was a great mentor.

And I did a really interesting project, dealt with paramecium, small bacteria.

We looked at how bacteria responded to various different environmental conditions and what would happen when the paramecium were exposed to different contrasting conditions and how they would respond uh to those conditions at the same time, and I had an opportunity to go to various science fairs, and it really helped expose me to science, but also research, how to independently come up with uh interesting questions, how to design the experiments to answer those questions, and how to evaluate the results to figure out the next set of questions we should ask.

I think the third kind of formative experience I had while I was at FEBIS uh was really the New Horizons um governor school program where I was able to uh take uh physics, but also uh took advantage of the mentorship program.

And so I spent um uh many afternoons every week over at NASA Langley uh working with my mentor, Jeffrey Teneal, learning a lot about basically big supercomputers.

So they had an IBM SB2, an Intel Paragon.

And as a high school student, I had a chance to run some code on these these computers, which is pretty rare.

And that really taught me a lot about computing.

And so for my experiences in the rocks program, about engineering, science for research, and at the mentorship program terms of uh uh terms of computing really shaped what I do today ever since, actually.

Now that I've kind of seen what it's like to be a teacher on the other side, now that I'm a professor at a university, I kind of see what it's like to be a teacher.

Um and reflecting back on my time at Phoebus, uh I really would urge current students to take advantage of the the teachers, at least when I was there, and I'm sure it's still the case.

The teachers are more than willing to go above and beyond to help students that are excited about learning and want to get engaged.

And I saw that time and again, I'm not sure how to do it, and I'm gonna do it.

Currently, I work out of London, United Kingdom.

I'm a studio analyst covering the NFL for Sky Network.

Growing up in Hampton, uh, there was quite an emphasis put on team athletics.

And I think a lot of that's attributed to the military presence.

There was always different programs growing up, and that really helped out.

And it wasn't so much into building athletes.

That's not really what it was about.

It was about understanding what team sports represents.

And that includes learning teamwork and perseverance, uh, good attitude, responsibility.

These things came to the forefront.

And when you apply these things later on in life, it's always a positive reaction.

And when you look at it this way, a lot of military individuals and athletic individuals, they work on the foundation.

And that carries on the rest of your life.

Without question, Patricia Kovaz, Pat Kovas.

We just lost her.

She just passed away.

And in fact, that's the reason I'm back in town now.

But she meant a lot, not just to me, but to a lot of students.

And she did it in a way that was it started off here.

And it didn't end.

Her contact with the students continued through their life and through hers, and that was really special.

And to see the school, uh walk these hallways again, uh, see some of uh uh some of the the memories come back as to when I was here, it it is special, and I'm I'm glad I was able to be here.

My name is Jeremiah Wusu Kormore, Notre Dame alumnus and Bethel High School graduate of 2017.

He has room, he goes right up the middle, and he's gonna score for a touchdown Bethel.

Nothing but a great run by Jeremiah Wussu.

Just makes plays.

You know, it was good to play Minnesville, good to play Ward, uh, but it really what it really came down to were those Hampton versus Bethel games, uh, those kick and versus Bethel games, uh, you know, those Cheese versus Bethel games, those are the games that really stuck out to you, the games that you ultimately uh wait all week to play.

Caught great.

Number nine, Jeremiah Wussu.

It's my appreciation for the game is what motivates me.

Um, you know, growing up, I didn't have that kind of try-une head within the home, a mother, father, son.

I didn't have uh, you know, that that that that unity within the household.

Um so football was really motivating me in terms of teaching me lessons, um, in terms of uh teaching me the lessons of toughness and appreciation and you know, perseverance.

It taught me a lot of things and how to be adaptable to people.

Football was almost a father figure to me.

Uh so it was really my appreciation for the game uh and looking forward to you know what it can give me on the next level as well.

I think what struck me most is he took some good shots.

You know, he had to play received, played a lot of different positions for it, but I saw him get hit pretty good a couple times, and it took him a second to get up, but he never came out.

Um, his toughness was something to behold.

Just feeling the breeze, looking at the field, looking at the school again, looking at the tennis course.

Um, you know, everywhere we used to uh, you know, participating in a lot of activities, participating in a lot of events.

Uh, you know, it's just a good feeling to be back here at Bethel High School.

Jeremy Wusu come second grade.

That's when I first met.

Look at him now.

My experiences at Bethel High School uh really revolved around family and community.

Um, you know, we're there to focus on academics, but on top of academics, Bethel High School really allows you a platform to uh become relatable and adaptable to uh a lot of brothers and sisters and even the teachers uh evolve around that community aspect.

So um all my experiences uh really were was pinpointed to uh that word of family and unity.

Specifical high school, the home.

That's what I'm talking about.

The best memories or memory from basketball would be uh just the competitiveness in which we played on defense.

Uh Coach Brian is huge on defense, huge on help defense, huge on uh like I said before, becoming that that one brotherhood.

And I, you know, I remember all types of experiences where I used to uh interact with the crowd and get the crowd jumping, slap the floor, uh look at the crowd, talk to them, all these certain things that you know uh what happened specifically for basketball, um, you know, that that we loved uh doing, and that that's the most key thing that I always take with me is just uh that excitement in that area uh of basketball.

The advice that I would give uh to any up-and-coming student athletes is just uh kind of the art of separation.

Uh not separation in terms of uh solitude, uh, but separation in terms of finding something that separates you from your peers, finding something that separates you uh from the majority of the students that are there.

And when you find that thing, cling to it uh and evolve around it and make it a craft.

Um, if you do love well.

If you do love better than your peers, craft love.

If you play football well, uh, craft football.

So, you know, it's it's it's a certain thing in terms of each and every human that has something that separates them uh from the other, and I would ask or I would give the advice uh to any student athletes that's coming up and telling them just to find that one thing.

I wish him the best of luck.

Uh, we're so proud.

The opportunities to get drafted, you know, in a professional league do not come along very often.

Uh, it it's not easy.

If it was easy, it would happen to everybody.

So he's put the time in, he's put the work in.

Uh, he deserves this, and we're just, you know, super excited and proud of him.

In my future, uh, I plan to succeed.

First and foremost, I plan to uh strengthen my relationship with the people.

I plan to get drafted to a team that uh has a great organization, uh, has a plan for me.

Um, and also has a plan for those people that are around me as well.

Uh, you know, I expect to be a Hall of Famer, God willing.

I expect to be the rookie of the year, God willing.

Uh, I expect to be the best player at my position, God willing.

Uh, so all these things I I'm looking to achieve, but uh, as wise men would say, focus on today, uh, for tomorrow I have enough troubles of its own.

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Good evening and welcome to the Hampton City Council Legislative Session.

I'd like to ask the clerk to call the role, please.

Councilman Bowman.

Present.

Vice Mayor Brown.

Here.

Councilwoman Campbell.

Present.

Councilwoman Theraby.

Present.

Councilwoman Harper.

Present.

Councilwoman Muggler.

Present.

And Mayor Gray.

Present.

Invocation this evening will be given by Councilman Randy Bowman, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.

So please stand and join us for both.

Heavenly Father, I invite you to this moment.

I ask for your guidance as well as lift our hearts to you in prayer, knowing we need you more than ever before.

We pray our nation and its leaders during this difficult time for those who are seeking him, bring peace and justice to our dangerous and troubled world.

We pray for our first responders, our armed forces, and we thank them for their commitment to defend our freedom.

Bring our divided nation together and give us a greater vision of what you would have us to be.

And so, our father, we thank you for promise and hope of this new year, and we look forward to the expectation and faith.

Let us look back over the future and the past year, and thank you for your goodness to us far beyond what we deserve.

But may they instead lead us in the presence of new commitment to our foundation center of our lives.

As I take my seat, I encourage my constituents, family, friends, and community to study God's word.

Live by it, stick together, and don't give up.

It's with this prayer we pray in God's name we say Amen.

Thank you for your nation.

This evening I have one item on the mayor's comments.

Um you probably know by now that former Hampton City School Superintendent, Dr.

Jeffrey O.

Smith has been named as the Virginia Secretary of Education.

Uh certainly a proud moment for uh Hampton and Hampton City Schools that he will be at least representing Hampton at a at the next level.

Um I do want to read a statement that we uh have for Dr.

Smith and just for the record, Dr.

Jeffrey O.

Smith, former superintendent of Hampton City Schools, has been named Virginia Secretary of Education by Governor Elect Abigail Spamberger.

He brings more than 32 years of experience in public education to the role, along with a proven record of leadership in K-12 education, workforce development, and in community engagement.

Dr.

Smith served as superintendent of Hampton City Schools from 2015 to 2023, leading the division to its highest levels of academic achievement in decades.

During his tenure, the on-time graduation rate increased from 88% for the class of 2015 to 97.6% for the class of 2022, while the dropout rate decreased from 5.1% to.6% in 2022.

The division also expanded during its dual enrollment opportunities through a strengthened partnership with Virginia Peninsula Community College with students earning more than 25,000 college credits since 2015.

Under Dr.

Smith's leadership, Hampton City Schools transformed its four high schools through the through the academies of Hampton, expanding career pathways from 18 to 44, and moving from a school within a school academy model to one in which all high school students now participate in an academy that is aligned with the high-demand high-wage careers.

This work earned Hampton this the distinction of being the first and only four next generation learning community in the common with the Virginia, along with the state and national recognition as models for innovative future-focused learning.

Since 2023, Dr.

Smith has served as chief executive officer of the Virginia Air and Space Science Center in Hampton, where he has continued to advance the educational access, STEM engagement, and community partnerships.

Dr.

Smith's contributions to public education have been widely recognized.

He was named the 2020 Virginia Superintendent of the Year and was a finalist for the AASA, the second Superintendent's Association, the National Superintendent of the Year Award.

His additional honors include the Mary Peak Award for Excellence in Education Equity and the Peninsula Humanitarian Award.

Hampton City School Superintendent Dr.

Raymond Haynes praises appointment, stating that Dr.

Smith has been and continues to be a trusted mentor to me and to his leadership dedication to students and commitment to equity and excellence and have a lasting impact on Hampton City schools.

His depth of experience and student-centered approach will serve the Commonwealth well as Virginia's Secretary of Education.

As Secretary of Education, Dr.

Smith will continue his lifelong commitment to ensuring academic excellence and opportunity for every child every day across the Commonwealth of Virginia.

So congratulations to Dr.

Smith.

We're very proud of his accomplishments.

Okay, I'd like to ask the clerk to uh read the protocol for the consent agenda.

The consent agenda consists of routine non-controversial items requiring council's approval.

These items are typically adopted with one motion and without discussion.

Tonight, your consent agenda amends the fiscal year 2026 council approved budget to accept and appropriate capital project and VDOT funding regarding the redesign and reconstruction of River Street Park and from the Hazmat restrictive fund balance to the Fire and Rescue Division's general operating budget to find materials and equipment needed that aren't covered by the operating budget or other grant funding.

It requests that VOT add and delete certain streets to those classified as principal and minor arterial roads and collector roads and local streets, and also to program the curved delineation project into its six-year improvement plan and to authorize the transfer of funds and authorize the city manager to execute any necessary agreements, and it approves the minutes from two city council meetings.

Mr.

Mayor, uh move approval of tonight's consent agenda.

Second.

Councilman Bowman.

Aye.

Vice Mayor Brown.

Aye.

Councilwoman Campbell.

Aye.

Councilwoman Faraby.

Aye.

Councilwoman Harper.

Aye.

Councilwoman Muggler.

Aye.

Mayor Gray.

I have a few proclamations to read this evening as well as some other exciting news regarding our Hampton Heroes Awards program this year.

But first, uh I want to read a proclamation recognizing January 19, 2026 as Martin Luther King Jr.

Day in the City of Hampton.

Whereas Dr.

Martin Luther King Jr.

was born January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia.

And whereas he was a prominent civil and human rights leader, a Nobel winner for peace, and an agent of change who believed that every man should make the commitment to protect the privileges and rights of all individuals.

And whereas his leadership and activism played a key role in advancing the cause of racial equality and justice in the United States, and whereas 1960 in 1963, during his iconic I Have a Dream speech, Dr.

Martin Luther King Jr.

articulated his vision of a future where racial equality would prevail and individuals not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

And whereas Dr.

Martin Luther King Jr.

was instrumental in the passage of a significant civil rights legislation, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which aimed to end racial segregation in public facilities and prohibited discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, and the voting rights act of 1965, which aimed to overcome barriers that prevented African Americans from exercising their right to vote.

And whereas Dr.

Martin Luther King Jr.

advocated for economic justice and equality and believed that eliminating poverty and addressing economic disparities were essential for achieving true equality.

And whereas Martin Luther King Jr.

Day is observed as an observed federal holiday in the United States that is observed on the third Monday in January to honor the civil rights leaders' contributions to social justice and equality.

And whereas we celebrate his significant achievements in promoting peace and equality for all people.

Now, therefore, I, James A.

Gray Jr., mayor on behalf of the City Council of the City of Hampton, Virginia, do hereby recognize January 19, 2026 as Martin Luther King Jr.

Day in the City of Hampton in honor of his demonstrated ability to use nonviolent action to bring about the most far-reaching social change to 20th and 21st centuries.

A witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and cause the seal of the City of Hampton, Virginia to be affixed.

Signed James A.

Gray Jr.

And on that same day on uh January 19th, as we celebrate uh Dr.

King, we will also have our Hampton Heroes program in honor of Dr.

Martin Luther King Jr.

holiday.

So on Monday, January 19th at 1 p.m.

in the Grand Foyer of the Hampton Roads Convention Center in front of the staircase leading to the second level, we will recognize significant Hampton Trailblazers who acted in the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr.

Under the category of NACA and NASA, and NACA being the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics and the name that it carried before it was renamed in NASA, and then the National Aeronautics and Space Administration category, we will recognize Mr.

James Jim Williams Williams, a Tuskega Airman and NASA engineer, Clayton P.

Turner, a NASA engineer, Robert Bob Lee, a NASA scientist, Burnett Peters Jr., a lieutenant colonel, national executive and civil civic leader.

Dr.

Sam Masenberg, educator at NASA, Dennis Bushnell, NASA scientist and engineer and chief scientists at Langley, Mr.

Samuel Scott at NASA, one of the first black engineers at Langley.

And then under the category of modern era trailblazers in public service, we will recognize Judge Bonnie Jones, retired, first female and second black judge in the City of Hampton, and Dr.

Raymond Washington in the education category, the first black school superintendent.

And so please uh plan to come out and join us at the convention center at 1 o'clock on Monday, January 19th, and help us celebrate Dr.

Martin Luther King Day as well as to recognize some of these Hampton heroes whose names will be added to our plaques in front of the Convention Center.

All right, and so I also uh recently issued a proclamation recognizing January 9th, 2026 as National Law Enforcement Appreciation Day in the City of Hampton, Virginia.

And whereas a safe community is of the utmost importance for all well-being of our citizens, and whereas the City of Hampton is thankful for our law enforcement officers who's put their lives on the line to keep our communities safe, and whereas the law enforcement officers are essential to the overall function of a society and play a key role in maintaining public safety, enforcing laws, responding to emergencies, and fostering community trust through engagement and crime prevention efforts, and whereas their dedication to public service helps safeguard sustainable order and promote an environment that is harmonious, and whereas the National Law Enforcement Appreciation Day is an opportunity for us to show our support for our law enforcement officers and to thank them and their families for the sacrifice that they make in order to protect our neighborhoods, schools, workplaces, and roadways.

Now, therefore, I, James A.

Gray Jr., mayor on behalf of the City Council of the City of Hampton, Virginia, do hereby recognize January 9th, 2026 as Law Enforcement Appreciation Day in the City of Hampton, Virginia, and furthermore, call upon all residents of Hampton to join me in observing this day and recognizing our law enforcement office officers for their commitment to keeping our community safe.

And witness whereof, I've hereunto set my hand and cause the seal of the city of Hampton, Virginia, to be affixed this 14th day of January, 2026.

James A.

Gray Jr.

Mayor.

And we did have an opportunity to have a photo session with some of our police officers on this day, and we appreciate them coming out to do that.

But this evening, I'd like to ask Chief Jimmy Wideman to come up front and so that I can present the proclamation to him and his office, and I'd like to ask my city council's members to join us for a photo.

And I have another proclamation, and this is the last one proclaiming January 19th through the 25th, 2026 as community risk reduction week in the City of Hampton, Virginia.

And whereas every 23 seconds, a fire department in the United States responds to a fire somewhere in our nation, and whereas fires nationally were responsible for two thousand eight hundred and twenty-nine civilian deaths and seventy-five percent of these fatalities in 2024 occurred in homes.

And whereas fires nationally were responsible for eight thousand nine hundred and twenty civilian injury injuries and seventy-five percent of these injuries in 2024 were also related to fires in the home.

And whereas the wild land wild land urban interface related to fires remains a concern nationwide, while multibility multi-billion dollar losses continue to result.

And whereas the fire service response to a growing number of medical calls for service, surpassing ninety percent of the total call volume in some jurisdictions, and whereas community risk reduction is a data-informed process to identify and prioritize local risk followed by integrated and strategic investments of resources to reduce their occurrences and impact.

And whereas the value of community support from local, state, and national partners to address community community risk is recognized to meet the demands of a paid combination and volunteer members of the fire service.

And whereas the goal of community risk reduction is to reduce the occurrence and impact of emergency events for both community members and emergency responders through deliberate action in the areas of five E's, the education, engineering, enforcement, emergency response, and economic incentive.

And whereas most fire-related and many medical calls for service are preventable with the five E's performed as a part of the integrated community risk reduction program, and whereas Monday, January 19th, 2026 is Martin Luther King Day, and is nationally recognized as a National Day of Service and an opportunity for communities to reduce the risk in their community through a series of educational and other programs.

All right.

Okay, I'm gonna ask the clerk to read the protocol for public hearings.

The city council is committed to fair and respectful hearings.

The following guidelines help ensure an orderly process.

Individuals wishing to speak must sign up in the city hall lobby, starting one hour before the meeting and ending when the meeting begins.

Speakers will be called in the order they signed up.

Speakers shall address counsel from the center podium.

Each speaker is allowed three minutes.

The timer has a green light, which will turn yellow with one minute remaining, and then red when the time is up.

All comments must be directed to the council, and speakers may not yield their time to others.

After all the speakers are heard, the mayor will close the public hearing and invite council discussion and action.

Several items on the agenda this evening on the public hearing, so I'm gonna ask the city manager to introduce the person.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

The first item tonight is item 25-037 and ordinance to amend and reenact the zoning ordinance of the City of Hampton, Virginia by amending chapter 2 section 2.2 and title definitions to amend the definition for smoke or vape shop.

Chapter 3, Section 3 2 entitled Table of Uses Permitted to add smoke or vape shop to the use table.

Chapter 3, Section 33 entitled Additional Standards on Uses to add Additional Standards for Smoke or Vape Shop.

And Chapter 11, Section 112, entitled Parking Spaces Required to add smoke or vape shop to the parking table.

And clearly what this is about is us adopting codes to regulate the location of smoke and vape shops in our community.

The presentation tonight will be made by our zoning administrator, Melvin Folkham.

Good evening.

Welcome.

Good evening, thank you.

Good evening, honorable mayor, vice mayor, members of council.

My name is Melville Folgeum.

I am the zoning administrator for the City of Hampton Community Development Department.

Tonight I am presenting zoning ordinance amendment ZOA 25-0337, which proposes modifications to Chapter 2, 3, and 11 of the zoning ordinance related to smoke and vape shops.

Currently, smoke and vape shops are not defined as a standalone use within the zoning ordinance.

Instead, they are permitted under a broader retail sales general category, which encompasses a wide range of unrelated relay retail establishments.

As shown in this side, the retail sales general category includes such uses as clothing stores, bookstores, bakeries, hardware stores, and similar establishments.

Because smoke and vape shops fall within this broader category, the city has a limited ability to apply specific use standards or location controls.

By defining smoke and vape shops as a distinct use, it allows for the city to apply tailored regulations rather than relying on general commercial standards.

It also provides the tools to limit limit clustering, prevent oversaturation, and ensure compatibility in surrounding residential, excuse me, ensure compatibility with surrounding residential, commercial, and mixed use areas.

The Virginia Code Section 15.2-912.4 expressly authorizes localities to regulate location, the location of tobacco and hemp product retail sales and allows for local governments to prohibit the use within a thousand feet of schools or child daycare centers.

The proposed ordinance amendments are consistent with the state's enabling authority.

Second is to establish development and operational standards that address the ongoing concerns.

And third, to require a use permit for that particular use.

Staff reviewed regulations adopted by other Virginia localities, including Newport News, Norfolk, Richmond, Handover, and Henrica.

As shown here, approaches vary by locality.

Our research indicates that the jurisdictions that have adopted regulations for this use commonly require use permits and separation requirements from sensitive uses.

Additional comparisons were completed with Chesterfield, Petersburg, Chesapeake, and Harrisonburg, further demonstrating that many localities restrict these uses to specific zoning districts, applying separation requirements and often requiring formal approval processes.

Based on this review, staff is proposing to amend chapters two and three to define smoke and vape shop and to restrict the use to the general commercial or C three districts, subject to additional standards and approval and approved use permit from City Council.

Chapter 11 would also amend the address amendment will be amended to address parking requirements.

On this slide, it presents the proposed definition of smoke and or vape shops.

The definition includes the sale of retail tobacco products, hemp products intended for smoking, and related devices and accessories.

Importantly, establishments holding a Virginia ABC license are excluded from this definition.

The proposed language also addresses the potential future legalization of retail marijuana sales.

If such sales become a legal, a legal use statewide, a smoke or vape shop would be required to obtain a specific use or amend a use permit before selling marijuana products and all other applicable laws would still apply.

Chapter 3 would be amended to permit smoke or vape shops only within the general commercial or C3 districts.

And approval would be subject to an additional standards and the issuance of an approved use permit by the City of Hampton's City Council.

This slide illustrates how the proposed smoke or vape shops would be incorporated into the existing use table, showing its restrictions to the C3 zoning district and the requirements for a use permit.

This map identifies the areas of the city zone general commercial.

These areas typically are located along major corridors and are attended to accommodate more intensive commercial uses that may not be appropriate for neighborhood oriented districts.

Chapter three would also establish additional standards, including minimum separation districts, distances from schools and daycare facilities, separations between smoke or vape shops, limited hours of operations, and other operational requirements.

The proposed standards include permitted hours from 9 a.m.

to 8 p.m., a minimum separation of a thousand feet from schools and daycare uses, and a half-mile separation from other smoke or vape shops.

During the review, during its review, planning commission amended staff's recommendations to increase the separation distance between smoke or vape shops to one mile.

Additional standards would prohibit drive-through services, restrict certain lighting, and require clear visibility into the establishments.

This map illustrates staff's recommendation of a half-mile separation between smoke or vape shops.

The exhibit shows how its standards would limit clustering while still allowing reasonable opportunities within the C3 district.

This side reflects the commission's planning commission's action on the proposed standard with the increased separation of one mile.

All of the proposed standards were recommended for approval.

Chapter 11 would be amended to add specific parking requirements for smoke or vape shops, aligning them with the existing standards for general retail sales uses to ensure consistency and clarity.

And in summary, the proposed amendment would define smoke and vape shops, permit them in the C3 district with additional standards and a use permit, and establish parking requirements assisting with other retail uses.

In conclusion, following the public hearing, staff recommends approval of zoning ordinance amendment ZOA 25-0337 as amended by the planning commission.

I'm available for any questions or comment the board may have.

Thank you.

Any questions for Ms.

Fulgen?

Okay, there are none.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

All right.

This is a public hearing, and uh so we will open this item requires a public hearing, so we will open the public hearing.

Uh we have one person signed up to speak, uh, Mr.

Aaron Weaver.

Aaron Weaver, good evening, Mayor and Council.

I want to start clearly, I support the intent of ZOA uh 25-0337, protecting youth matters, smart zoning matters, getting the right matters, getting this right matters.

I also want to clarify the email that I sent recording the slides you see tonight.

These visuals are context to points that are already raised in this process, and they come from the planning commission meeting.

The first one, which we see right here.

This first slide shows a one-mile buffer in real terms.

This is not abstract, it reshapes entire corridors.

This may that may be appropriate, but only if it's intentional and equitable.

So my first question is straightforward.

How does the buffer interact with existing commercial districts?

And how do we ensure that the same neighborhoods are not absorbing disappropriate impact?

This second slide is the slide that uh puts worries me the most because the slide combines several critical issues.

The existing vape shops proposed buffers and how those buffers apply on the ground.

My next question is uh about these existing businesses.

What happens to that are shops that are already operating and become non-confirmed farming?

Are they grandfathered in?

For how long?

Under what conditions?

The clarity matters for fairness and legal certainty.

Now the map itself, at the planning commission meeting, the city employees stated that the map was not fully current, meaning that they did not know where every vape shop was.

Um you can see a missing locations, you can see gaps, you can see an old school that's not there.

Also, that bloody red area at the bottom.

That's my zone.

That's that's my neighborhood.

So I asked plainly, will this map be corrected before final action, or will there be complete verified accounting of all existing vape shops citywide?

Policy built on incomplete data creates risk later.

Will all we've all seen that in this chambers.

Then the third one, this is the last slide.

The final slide um brings to me the clarification I reinforced in my email before.

During the public process, the statement was made that the dealing rule suggesting the dealer rule limits Hampton to a thousand feet for the schools.

Um that framing matters if it was presented as a legal ceiling, not a policy choice.

My concern is narrow.

Pier Virginia localities operating under the same legal framework have adapted larger buffers so that the distinction is important.

If a thousand feet is a policy decision, it should be described as such.

If it's a legal maximum, the non-privileged basis of that conclusion should be stated clearly for the public record.

Policy should not be conflated with legal limitation.

Transparency here is protects the city and much as informs the residents.

I thank you all for taking the time to hear me.

I wish you all had questions when she was up here, but we'll see what that is.

But I thank you all for the time.

Okay, there are no other speakers signed up on the this public hearing for this item, so we'll close the public hearing.

And uh I need a motion and a second on this item.

Mr.

Mayor I move that city council approve item 25-0 through 37 smoke or vape shop ordinance as presented in the agenda package, including the planning commission version of section 3-3 additional standards on uses that requires a one-mile buffer between smoke or vape shops.

Second motion and second, is any any discussion?

Councilman Bowman.

Okay, and call for the vote.

Councilman Bowman.

Aye.

Vice Mayor Brown.

Aye.

Councilwoman Campbell.

Aye.

Councilwoman Fairby.

Aye.

Councilwoman Harper.

Aye.

Councilwoman Muggler.

Aye.

Mayor Gray.

Aye.

The motion passes.

Your next public hearing this evening is item number seven, 26-0008.

It's a resolution to authorize the acquisition by negotiation or condemnation of a portion of land and fee simple for property located at two little oak lane, LRSN 8004974, pursuant to sections 25.1-100 at sec and 15.2-1901 at sec of the Code of Virginia of 1950 is amended for purposes of a public street, road, and associated public right-of-way necessary for bike and pedestrian access, sidewalks slash paths.

Mr.

Mayor and Council members, as you know, but for the benefit of the public, the City of Hampton is proceeding with land acquisitions for the Little Back River Road Bike and Pedestrian Accommodation Project, Phase A, which will allow improvements to be made from approximately North King Street to Valerie Drive.

This project will construct sidewalks, shared use paths, and make associated improvements for pedestrian and bike access, including but not limited to crosswalks and ADA amenities.

In order to construct the improvements for this important project to best serve the citizens of the city, acquisition of a portion of that certain property commonly known as Two Little Oak Lane, Hampton, Virginia 23669 as previously identified with the property identification and LSRN numbers described by the clerk is required.

Based upon a title examination of the property, it is owned by the heirs at law, devisees or successors and title to Valerie J.

Hall, deceased and unknown owners, whether one or more.

The record owner of the property, Valerie J.

Hall, died on or about June 7th, 2025, and the successors entitled to the property are currently unknown.

A partial fee take of the required portion of the property using the city's imminent domain authority is thus necessary.

The proposed partial fee take area comprises approximately 985 square feet plus or minus or roughly 0.023 acres plus or minus in accordance with the title plat that is accompanied to this agenda item.

It is therefore recommended pursuant to section state code section 25.1-100, etc.

That and 15.2-1901 and the applicable portions of section 33.2-1000 of the code of Virginia of 1950 as amended that the city exercise its imminent domain authority to commence condemnation proceedings upon identified upon the identified required portion of the property since the acquisition cannot be obtained through proper negotiation.

Any questions for the city management?

All right, this item uh requires a public hearing, so we will open the public hearing.

There is no one signed up to speak on this item, so we will close the public hearing and uh call for a motion.

Ms.

Mayor.

I move that city council approve item 26-008 resolution authorizing acquisition by negotiation or condemnation of a portion of the property located at two little oak lane as presented in the agenda package.

Second we have a motion to second.

Is there any discussion?

There being none, I call for the vote.

Councilman Bowman.

Aye.

Vice Mayor Brown.

Aye.

Councilwoman Campbell.

Aye.

Councilwoman Faraby.

Aye.

Councilwoman Harper.

Aye.

Councilwoman Muggler.

Aye.

Mayor Gray.

Aye.

The motion passes.

Item number eight on your agendas 26-0006.

It's a resolution authorizing the execution of a lease agreement between the City of Hampton and Community Baseball LLC to use approximately 10.45 acres of real estate and premises located at city-owned property at 1889 West Pembroke Avenue, LRSN 1003153, and commonly known as War Memorial Stadium for use primarily for baseball-related activities of the Peninsula Pilots, as well as other athletic and non-athletic uses subject to city approval.

Community baseball has utilized the property described, commonly known as War Memorial Stadium, consisting of approximately 10.45 acres, primarily for baseball related activities of the peninsula pilots and other athletic and non-athletic uses subject to approval with lease agreements with the Peninsula Stadium Authority.

The most recent lease agreement was executed in 2019 and amended in 2024 with a one-year extension.

When the Peninsula Stadium Authority was dissolved in July 2025, the property was transferred to the city and the lease agreement was then assigned to the city.

That lease agreement expired in December 2025.

The city and community baseball have continued to operate under the terms and conditions of the expired agreement and desire to enter into a new lease agreement for the continued use of War Memorial Stadium.

While this lease agreement involves minimal rent, a dollar per year, community baseball as a tenant is solely responsible for all applicable taxes and fees, including but not limited to real property taxes, stormwater fees, and personal property taxes.

In addition, community baseball is required to maintain general liability insurance and is responsible for the day-to-day routine operation and maintenance of the property.

Accordingly, we recommend that you approve the lease agreement before you tonight for a term of five years, commencing upon the execution of the lease by myself after your approval.

In addition to the termination as a result of default, either party may terminate the lease agreement for any reason, giving at least 90 days written notice to the other party.

Any questions for the city manager?

Okay.

This item requires a public hearing, so we're going to open the public hearing.

Mr.

Mayor, I move that city council approve item 26-0006.

Lease agreement with community baseball LLC as presented in the agenda package.

Councilwoman Muggler.

I received.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Pursuant to section 2.2-3112A of the Virginia Conflict of Interest Act.

I will not participate in discussion or voting on item 26-0006 because my spouse is engaged as a paid consultant for community baseball LLC, which is a tenant under the proposed issue under the proposed lease for War Memorial Stadium, uh located at 1889 West Pembroke Avenue Hampton.

Okay.

Now I'll call for the motion from Councilwoman Muggler.

I'm Councilwoman Harper.

Thank you.

I move that City Council approve item 26006.

Lease agreement with community baseball LLC as presented in the agenda package.

Second.

All right, we have a motion and a second.

Is there any discussion?

There being none, I'll call for the vote.

Councilman Bowman.

All right.

Vice Mayor Brown.

Aye.

Councilwoman Campbell.

Aye.

Councilwoman Fairby.

Aye.

Councilwoman Harper.

Aye.

Councilwoman Muggler.

Abstain.

Mayor Gray.

Aye.

The motion passes.

All right.

Next we have uh public comment.

And I'm asked the uh clerk to uh read a protocol for public comment.

Council meetings are for conducting city business.

Public comment is allowed on matters within the council's authority and follows public hearing items.

Speakers must follow the citizen participation protocol.

Speakers must may sign up in the lobby one hour before the meeting and until it begins.

Speakers shall address counsel from the center podium.

Each speaker is allowed three minutes.

The timer has a green light, which will turn yellow with one minute repl remaining, and then red when the time is up.

Please speak respectfully and avoid personal attacks.

Focus on topics within council's jurisdiction.

Do not use the platform for political campaign speeches.

Comments must be directed to the council and yielding time is not allowed.

Audience must remain respectful and refrain from interruptions.

Council typically listens without engaging in discussion.

Responses may be provided by the city manager, city attorney, or council members after public comment.

Failure to follow the protocol may result in removal from the podium or meeting after a fair warning.

Thank you.

Okay.

And for those who signed up to speak, the timer is right here.

Uh when the yellow light comes on, you have one minute left on your three minutes.

And when the red light comes on, that's it.

That's your three end of your three minutes.

Uh if you wrote a five-minute speech uh for this evening, you still only have three minutes to say it.

And so the first speaker this evening is uh Mr.

Paul Hardin.

Good afternoon.

My name is Paul Martin.

Um you raise the mic a little bit so we can hear you a little better.

I'll go in the bus on the 14th of July.

Uh driver accused me of drinking on a bus.

Which I did not do.

Sure.

I would ban handcuff and all that.

Ban and then on the 24th, I mean 25th of December.

I thought you understand.

That's ridiculous.

I'm a veteran.

I don't pay my time and dues.

I'm just tired of it.

I want to be.

I'm not the body's kid.

I'm seven years old.

I did my I pay my time.

And this individual.

I'll try not using the full, I'm trying to do the whole other word, but you've done to her.

That's it.

Thank you, Mr.

Harman.

Um so your specific complaint is understood it was with uh HRG and you being removed from the bus.

Yes.

Okay.

All right.

Well, just if you will just wait until the end of the meeting, uh City Manager will have one of her staff members take your complaint and then share that with the judge.

Yes, sir.

I don't call them down block my number.

I'm tired of joking about my HIT.

Yes, sir.

Well, that's I mean, there's not a lot we can do about that this evening.

So we we're happy to share share your concern with HR.

I'm wasting my time.

Okay, so you still have time left.

I got more thing.

I'm done.

Okay.

You were here for me again.

All right.

Next speaker is Joan Weaver.

Good afternoon to our mayor, vice mayor, city council, city attorney, city manager, and last but not least, my favorite, Miss Glass.

I am here for a situation that causes me grave concern.

Let me sum it up as the retribution of Karen Joan Weaver by the city of Hampton, Virginia.

Everyone knows that I am eloquent, commanding and intimidating to those who try to dominate the voiceless, especially our community.

We were desecrated, we were robbed, that factory was put there, and we were given false promises.

We stand here now.

Where's the money?

What about the property?

And there are many needs that we have that still need to be addressed.

We brought concerns about construction and help with our housing to add to that too.

January, City Council.

There are a myriad of things that city council can do.

I am asking, don't just sit, don't not come to our community other than you want our vote.

Get out in with our area and see the injustices that are being done, especially by city departments that don't provide effective service delivery.

I am 68.

I have lived here all my life, undergrad, master educator, elementary, secondary, post-secondary.

I've done it all.

And the city of Hampton, nor the community development will desecrate my character or reputation.

No imminent domain or damage.

They give impartial information.

They are rude, crude, and abuse things.

And I am here to say you will not damage my character or reputation.

Hampton is my city.

And I will not let the city of Hampton destroy it, nor will you abuse or misuse our community.

You gave us promises, you come back and fulfill them.

But no, I am not a criminal as you were trying to put me under uh frivolous lawsuit.

I look forward to my day in court, but let the record know what the city of Hampton did to this advocate who stood up to her community and now not see retribution, Hampton City style.

Thank you.

Good evening.

My name is Teresa Roundy.

I'm a resident of Hampton.

And I wanted to thank Brian DeProfiel, the uh deputy city attorney and Kimberly Michael, the interim community development director, for meeting with me on Monday in reference to Barnes Cemetery.

And there I gave them a copy of the embalming surgeons book, which uh pertains to embalming from the civil war up until like 1910.

I also gave them a copy of the historic uh archaeological investigation that uh centera did on Barnes Cemetery at uh Suntera Hospital that's the same age as Barnes Cemetery.

I also have pictures here that I didn't give them.

Um I also went over the fact that cemeteries are not regulated by real estate law, which is what I keep getting my head bumped up against when I talk to uh officials in within the city of Hampton is real estate and this is that, but uh cemeteries are regulated under cemetery law.

And I gave them a copy of the legal definition of a former cemetery and an inactive cemetery.

A former cemetery is bear and a burial ground, is where every grave has been legally removed under court authority.

Human remains have been relocated to a new cemetery, the cemetery has been formally decommissioned, the land is no longer governed by cemetery protection laws.

Uh, unless all of these actions are documented, a site cannot be considered a former cemetery.

What is an inactive cemetery?

An inactive cemetery still contains human remains, no longer accepts new burials, remains a cemetery under Virginia Cemetery Law, requires strict protection and archaeological review before any disturbance.

I also gave them a um Mr.

DeProfilo said if I had other information, I can present it.

I do have a copy of this for everybody also.

This was written by a lawyer, and he happens to also be a current mayor about um the cemeteries in which it's it spells out that you cannot uh build on top of cemeteries.

Um the city attorney's office should have a copy of this.

This is the um depositions from the court uh hearing uh of Virginia Barnes in 1975, and it talks about the cemetery and about the people, how many bodies were there, the appraisal uh person that did the appraisal talked about.

Whoops.

Ms.

Round, any items you have you want to leave for us, you can hand them to the sheriff and he'll get those to the clerk.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, next speaker is Craig Knott.

Good afternoon.

How are you guys doing today?

Um appreciate your time.

Uh Mayor Gray, Vice Mayor Brown, City Council, appreciate you guys for having me.

Uh, my name's Craig Knopp.

Um, if you guys don't know, today the legislative session for uh 2026 started.

Um, and we've seen a lot of bills fly through today uh since the Democrats have a majority in both the delegate of the House of Delegates, the Senate, and um at our four major uh positions of the state.

Um I was watching some of the stuff flying through today, and there's a few concerns I have.

Um gun bills.

So some of those, what I've seen is that some of the bills, gun bills are going to restrict uh disabled Virginians and women in the future here.

And that's a concern I have.

So one of the things I'd like to do is sit down with Hampton City Council, have some discussions, maybe talk to our delegates and our senator about some of these bills and some of these ways that we could possibly uh propose optional things that we can change in there.

Uh one of the other things I am uh concerned about is the constitutional amendment for redistricting.

Now, what I'm worried about is that every four years we can see a change in district and redistricting, being that Republicans get a control of everything, Democrats can control everything.

Keep going flip-flop.

Um we had this back in 2020.

We have uh I think it was six Democrats and five uh Republicans, and it pretty much fits the 6040 bill that we have here with 60 percent uh Democrats and 40 percent Republicans and like to see it stay that way.

I don't really like that, but uh that's another one too.

I'd like to sit down and see what we can try to do to maybe amend that.

Um, another bill that's out there that I'm concerned about is one of the first things that we talked about tonight about the legalization of um shops that could sell marijuana.

Now, it's awesome.

I love that.

It's another opportunity for us to bring in tax revenue.

But one of the things I'm concerned about is how they have prioritized who can actually open and own this business.

That should be a priority.

And the reason I say that is it kind of puts some people to the back of the line.

Now, they have an explanation of why.

I don't agree with it, but that's me.

But I think that's one of the areas that city council, if anything else, should really sit down and talk about.

We should not be prioritizing people.

It should be an equal opportunity for anybody to get in there and have ownership of one of these shops.

Um other things too is that this is the election year for city council school board members, and what I'd like to do is if I get anybody that's uh running right now.

If you guys want to come out and meet constituents on Saturday, the 24th at 09 uh 9 a.m.

in the morning, we'll be having our uh adopt spot for Peninsula Project.

I'd love for you guys to come out and meet some of your constituents.

Also, one of the items for the city council on the website.

Um, Ms.

Um Farabee's date, expiration date.

Currently says 2028.

Mr.

Nottingham.

It should be 2026.

All right, next speaker is Darren Williams.

Uh good evening, uh Mayor and Distinguished Council.

Uh my name is Darren Williams.

I'm here, me and myself, Mr.

Miller.

We came here before now, but we're talking about the Bradfield tennis courts.

Um first I want to say I'm a lifelong resident of Hampton.

Um public school teacher, uh, teacher at Phoebe's high school right now.

And sometimes me and Mr.

Miller, we invite us uh tennis play the kids, we coach to come out there and play.

This is the problem.

Oh, and also we want to thank you all.

First, I want to start thank you for repaving the courts.

Y'all repeat repave the courts of beautiful and all that good stuff.

Um me and Mr.

Miller, we both um maintain the courts.

We don't have to blow the leaves anymore, but we were blowing the leaves, fixing the gates, we fix the nets when they're broken.

Um, so we you know, because we play there, we've we take them as our courts as well.

But um, we still haven't a problem with the lights, the lights are not really fixed.

Um, Mr.

Miller did do something with the wires that so they come on, but when they cut off, they don't they usually warn us when they're about to come out, cut off.

They used to, but they don't do that anymore.

So when they cut off, they don't really come back on.

So we still have a problem with the lights.

Another issue we have is with people coming out there to skate.

Um we're gonna have the same problem with the courts.

They're putting divots in the court, they're scuffing up the court.

Um we've had we have addressed today, uh, we are talking, we'll say, you know, you're not supposed to skate out here.

And they also come out and play loud music with a lot of profanity.

We've asked them in the past to turn the music down and they call us everything but a child of God.

They call us everything cussed out and physically threatened us and everything.

I've called the police.

The police never showed up, and they called me like two days later, and uh and they left a message and I call them back and I got no answer.

But the point is we're being threatened by and and this it's an issue too because since COVID, everything was shut down, but people were still coming to it to the tennis courts.

So we have people coming from all over the peninsula, coming from across the water from Williamsburg to play tennis.

Um we have a lot of people we didn't see previously because we Mr.

Miller's been playing tennis there for at least 30 years.

I've been playing for um at least 15 years at uh Brownfield tennis courts, and they bring their children and to be playing a loud profanity.

Um, and when you ask them to turn it down, we get met with hostility, get um um call every name in a book.

But like I said, of a child of God, this is the issue.

And we don't want to be back at the same point where y'all have to repay the court again because they're putting divots scuffing the court up.

So we we would like to know what could be done.

The park ranger could come out at pre periodically and you know, tell people they're not supposed to be skating on the courts.

Um we've uh we've done what we we don't want to keep addressing and getting a hostile reaction.

I don't want to address these people and they want to threaten us, and a lot of a lot of times it's teenagers.

Um sometimes the older people we say you're not supposed to skate here or there, they'll leave.

Oh, I didn't know it because the sign is right there on the gate and they ignore it.

Um but the teenagers, they they're gonna do whatever they want to do.

They you know, like I said, they're the loud profanity.

I was just out there last week, it was a warm, warm, and they um I couldn't even think we we got the point, Mr.

Williams and City Manager addressed that uh when we're done with the public comment period.

Okay, thank you.

Uh and next speaker is Mr.

Travis Adams.

Good evening, Mayor, Council, staff.

Uh got a leg turn since last time, mayor.

That's pretty nice.

I don't feel so naked standing up here.

Uh back for my annual biannual uh uh discussion uh presentation for uh property tax reform.

So this uh this session in that the House of Delegates, there is uh HB10, which modifies an existing state um statute, which allows a few localities in Virginia to set the property tax rate separately from land and improvements, and that's what I've been pitching to this council various times over the past five years or so.

Um so I'm pretty excited about that HP 10.

Um I'm I'm recommending that you all reach out to our uh local delegates and um members of the Senate and uh support HB 10.

So really HB 10 is a tool for you guys.

It's it doesn't dictate that we set property taxes anyway, it doesn't mandate that they're different, it doesn't mandate that land is higher or that improvements are higher.

It's just a tool.

I know that property tax has been something that's you know it's on every homeowner's mind, it's on every resident's mind.

Uh it impacts all of us.

And you guys have, you know, since I've lived here in 21, you guys have consistently lowered the rate, which is you know great for individual homeowners, but we have to raise revenue, we have to fund schools, we have to fund infrastructure, and I know that's you know, it can be a challenge.

Uh so this this HP 10 will give you an additional tool to make sure that you can target property tax in a way that's you know equitable.

The the issue with lowering the property tax rate is it's great for me, sure.

I get a I get a property tax cut, but it also means that our vacant land is getting a property tax cut, right?

Our our unused land, they're getting a property tax cut.

But that's the opposite of what we want, right?

We we want to encourage the use of land, we want to encourage the efficient use of land, we want to encourage uh development of homes, businesses, and when you lower property taxes, the uh the people who are benefiting the most are land speculators, people who are leaving their properties vacant, blighted.

Uh what the abil this HP 10 will give you the the ability to do is modify your rates on land and improvements at different levels to achieve different objectives, which could uh put the burden of our property tax on the those landowners who are leaving land uh idle, vacant, and reduce the the burden on you know homeowners and uh those who are being productive in the community.

Uh so I hope you support HP 10.

Hope you reach out to uh Mr.

Thornton and our senator.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you, Mr.

Adams.

Uh next speaker is Dennis Green.

Good evening.

In October, I presented a proposal for a partnership with the Big Brother Blue Way, and I have an update on the last page here.

I actually had the area survey.

So I think that will help delineate you know my property from the city's property.

So just want to keep that door open and just let you know that I'm looking forward to hearing from the city to move forward with some ideas.

That's all I have.

Thank you.

All right, did you have something you need to leave for city mail?

You already have it, okay.

All right, thank you.

All right, next speaker is Chris Bowman.

Good evening, I'm Chris Bowman.

Mayor, council members, city manager, city attorney, city clerk.

The fireplace shop building, which is located next to the senior center, is for sale.

I'm recommending that council purchase that building in an effort to expand senior services and also gain much valued parking.

As most of you know, the senior center is undergone a recent renovation.

The flooring, the ceilings, the lighting, the painting, the cabinet, the asphalt, and the striping out front are all excellent.

And um this has been a long time coming, but uh I want to commend city council and the staff for for bringing this to provision.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you, Chris.

Uh next speaker is Tanawa Downey.

Good evening, Council.

Council.

My name is Tanwood, and I'm a civil rights advocate and litigator out of Washington, D.C.

Provide a public notice to all of you.

This is in accordance with the USCS rules of civil procedure as well as Rule 17 and Rule 20 of the United States Supreme Court.

Ladies and gentlemen, there's nothing more destructive to our union than paying people to abridge the constitutional obligations.

Constitution, United States of America's the overarching requirement that everything must follow.

I think that we all can agree with that.

States cannot enact their own alternative legislation, substitute that for the guarantees of the Constitution and go out and enforce that as though that's constitutional.

Clause one of Amendment 5 to the United States Constitution says no persons shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime unless on presentment or indictment of grand jury.

However, the state of Virginia has enacted its own alternative legislation that permits prosecuting attorneys, law enforcement, to charge by information and not by indictment.

That is unconstitutional.

Now an emolument violations when you pay someone to violate the law.

You can't do that.

Certainly not when you receive federal funding.

If you receive federal funding, you cannot pay someone to abridge federal law.

There's two areas of the Constitution that reinforces this.

The first is Article 1, Section 10.

That's where it says that no states shall create any law that shall uh impair the obligation of contracts.

So police officers, prosecutors, law enforcement.

They're all under contract.

It's a contract to perform based upon the oath or affirmation that they took to support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America.

So when the state of Virginia creates a law that directs them to disobey the Constitution of the United States, and obviously that would be a violation of Article 1, Section 10.

Now a second place to reinforce this is the 14th Amendment.

That's where it says that no states shall create or enforce any law, which shall abridge the privileges and immunities of United States citizens.

The privileges and immunities of United States citizens are at a minimum, those enumerated within the Bill of Rights, First Ten Amendments, they cannot be impaired.

This was affirmed by the United States Supreme Court 2019, unanimous decision, James versus Indiana.

And as a result, State of Virginia has enact law and is directing their agents, whom unfortunately you all pay to violate the Constitution of the United States.

As a result, there is currently an inordinate amount of people currently in prison here in the state of uh Virginia illegally and unconstitutionally.

So I'm preparing to litigate this United States Supreme Court on behalf of more than 700,000 people who are currently in prison here in America illegally and unconstitutionally.

We're here today to let you guys know that if you continue to pay these public officials to abridge their constitutional obligations, that criminal sanctions can come from that.

That's not the direction we want to go.

We want to work together to fix this problem.

But I must make sure that you're aware that paying people to by leave the constitution is a crime.

Uh so I'm asking you honorable individuals here, please let's take a look at clause one amendment by let's confirm what I'm saying to be true and then direct those agents to act in lawful constitutional manner that is consistent with the obligations they have codified in the Constitution for the United States of America.

I have a notice that I need to put on the record.

I would recommend that you guys review this.

Fatal uh failure to review it does not mitigate your culpability when this particular issue once made aware and provided notice of this.

I want to leave you with this, though.

Uh I know that you're gonna go to the attorney as soon as we're done.

You're gonna ask that attorney whether or not what I'm saying is true, and that attorney is gonna point you to a case from 1884 called Hertado versus California.

And before you choose to rely upon that as a foundation, I must remind you that the Constitution of the United States of America is a foundation, not a judge-made ruling.

Supreme Court of the United States has no constituted authority to alter minute or destroy any of the provisions or guarantees of the Constitution because that must be done by an authentic and explicit acts of the people in accordance with the special amending procedure of Article 5.

Furthermore, judges cannot legislate.

We know that because clause one, article one says all legislative power is vested in Congress of the United States.

So I pray that you guys make the right decision here.

Who should I give this to, sir?

Give it to the uh sheriff, Mr.

God bless you guys.

Thank you so much.

And that is the uh last speaker, so we're gonna close public comment period.

Mr.

Mayor, would you like me to address those items?

Uh yes.

Um, I just want to note for the record, you you you did address Mr.

Hardin about trying to get the information and give to HRT for the benefit of the public watching.

The city does not run Hampton Roads transit.

And I think the mayor was trying to get the information so that we could get with Hampton Roads Transit and try to understand what happened and see if we could resolve the situation.

That's what we do when citizens bring concerns to us.

Uh obviously we're the closest to the public.

They want to come to us, we understand that, but we don't oversee the operations of HRT.

I did ask the assistants to try to catch them outside, and he they were not able to get his information.

So um I will see if we can you know research it with what we do have presented tonight and update counsel if we're able to do so.

Um but we did make every effort to try to get his information.

Um I don't want to address Ms.

Weaver's uh court case because that wouldn't be appropriate for me to talk about, but I do want to uh give her and the public an update about the other things relative to what we promised the neighborhood because she did make reference to that, and I want to assure her we have not forgotten those things.

Um you may recollect, I don't know if you do, because it was some time ago.

Uh the city put up 250,000.

That was not part of the 1.5 we set aside for the neighborhood, but to get updated infrastructure assessment so that we with the neighborhood can make the best decisions collectively on how to use that 1.5 million dollars that was set aside for the neighborhood.

You could have updated accurate assessment of infrastructure information.

I am told by Jason Mitchell that they rec that they believe that they'll be getting the consultants' report back on all of that on January 26th.

As soon as we do get it back, we will have a meeting with the neighborhood to share the results of that study and to proceed in and talking with them about how they would like to see the 1.5 million dollars spent.

Um we also still do have the 10 acres available to plan with the neighborhood.

Um again, we were waiting for that assessment condition study that was looking not just at the infrastructure, but at whether or not there were any environmental conditions with the 10 acres, we needed to be sensitive to as we look at designing um a park and trail system that I think the neighborhood was most interested in, particularly an accessible playground area.

I remember being one of the high priorities.

So I really just wanted to let you know, Miss Weaver, we're we're not gonna walk away from that commitment.

We just had to wait for the consultant report so that we can best inform you all and you then can inform us how you would like to see us proceed.

Um I want to thank Ms.

Roundy for her continued advocacy and sharing information.

Uh she she devotes a lot of time to cemetery issues, as all of you know, and regrettably I was not able to meet with her myself this week because of a medical appointment, but I'm glad that you had a productive meeting with Mr.

DeProfio, who f who filled me in and will be following up with you and the information you left with us tonight.

Um, in terms of uh Mr.

Knopp and Mr.

Adams, um, I generally, as a practice, the city manager don't comment on legislation before the General Assembly unless it's specifically in our adopted legislative package, but I'm I'm sure the council members have taken note of what you have shared.

Um I I will say uh with Mr.

Adams, um our current um authority, not not prejudging how any bill before the General Assembly um will go will allow us to set a different tax rate for blighted property.

I know this isn't what you were specifically talking about with vacant property, but I suspect given what you've said you would agree that blighted property is also a concern.

And last year um in our budget hearing process, our IBI value conversations with the public.

We asked the public would they be willing to support a higher tax rate for blighted property, and there was overwhelming support for that.

And council directed that in this year's budget process, I include a particular proposal around that, and I intend to do that uh when my recommended budget comes out April 15th this year.

Um, of course, if the General Assembly takes other action, we can look at what they they do.

My understanding broadly though is is that um it wouldn't allow us to address vacant land separately, but but I'll leave it at that because again, I haven't seen the bill and I generally don't talk about whether we should or shouldn't support things that aren't already in the council's legislative priority package.

Um I didn't mean to skip over Barfield Tennis Court.

Thank you, Mr.

Williams, for all you and your peers continue to do being such good stewards and users of Barfield Park.

I do happen to know, and I want to thank Councilwoman um Harper because she was already on this issue of the lighting, and she shared with me our parks and rec director's response to her earlier this week that they've had ongoing issues with the lighting, they're not intentionally cutting off, but the the lighting wiring is been challenging.

So they actually have a contractor who's responsible for the lighting scheduled to be out next Tuesday, January 20th, to fix that, and hopefully that will resolve it once and for all.

I we we can't go back and forth here, but I'll be glad to talk with you after the meeting, or you can see Mr.

Mitchell, he's right behind you, he'll wave his hand.

He oversees parks and recreation and our capital projects, so he'll be glad to talk with you, or I can talk with you afterwards.

Um, in terms of some of the other things that you mentioned, I do think a park ranger um presence um to deal with the the loud music and the scuffing up of the courts is very very appropriate.

And I've already texted Mr.

Mitchell and asked him to get with our parks and rec director, Mr.

Crendedon, and um get with you all to find out the times where that's occurring because we can't keep a park ranger out there full time, but if we know the times of day um that that's tending to happen, we can make sure a park ranger comes out to enforce that.

Um, and then um I I appreciate the suggestion about the senior center and the recognition for the improvements that we're making, and I will leave um the last speaker's comments to our city attorney.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

City attorney.

Um if Mr.

Downing had a whatever the paper is that he left, and I'll be happy to review it.

I I found it a little hard to follow exactly the legal theories that he was talking about, but I'm happy to review and then of course, if there's something that I need to advise council about, I will do so.

Okay, so are there any other reports from the city managers, city council, staff, or committees?

On any items of new business.

All right, there being none, and we are adjourned.

Hi, and thank you for tuning in to another episode of Fusion Fitness.

I'm your host, Alexis Perkins, and today I have with me the lovely Candace and TJ.

Today we're gonna do a lower impact workout because we know that we have to accommodate to all fitness levels.

So we're gonna start you out here today, and then next week, of course, we'll take it back up again.

So let's go ahead and get started.

So get your water, get your towel, and we're about to go ahead and shake it down.

Out down to that.

Two steps.

One second two heel up the heel.

Heel heel one with this two heel.

Good.

We're gonna have a small change.

One leg back, take the leg back.

Rasta man dema jumin ready.

Smoking sense of it, when you're ready to walk it up.

Mommy I won't exhale.

Exhale.

Why you my shot?

Why you must back on the top, sales aside.

Good.

Be sure to have that hip in it.

There we go.

Two steps.

One of you tap, tap.

If you notice we're going ahead and add in the arms, push, cause this could be wish.

Next in the open.

All over down to Fedrick's dead.

Nice.

Dominica was the reporter.

Walk it forward.

Mammy I won't tap back.

Why you must shop it?

Why you man shot it?

So make you push really push, push, and push.

Push it out.

Rasta man de my walking sense in your Italian.

Walk it up.

Deep inhale.

Nice roll.

Good good.

Right now we have a salsa, my role Raul, very talented artist.

Happy to have him as part of the show.

Back.

So get with the win away forward.

Back.

Good.

We should maintain nice power.

We're gonna have a cross step.

Um this turn take it on the back to scatter No looking but it says you're gonna take it you maybe up to the mundo Disney traits you can have a cha cha de lobby though many lack convertible skin or get some parades get for the tea cross it on taste much sauce and step out e they got one enemy try it's gonna let us go time and this became your memory today today.

Or higher than your good Alright here we go This is by far one of my absolute favorite songs right now by John Bibbs Let's go ahead and rock it out Nice march I really do love this song a lot Step Keep it small right for now Falling in love all over Said I would never fall for her but my heart leads working and all I can do is follow So here I swore I'd never find myself back here Up But my heart made itself crack it won't be forced to move And when your heart's made up it's mine Ain't no use it's trying to take her Both hands That's just to waste the time You might as well go face Step Turn Step Turn Side Good Heart's got a mind of its own One two and it's not always easy but I know my heart leaves me Good job two steps I go where my heart my heart say not always easy but I know my heart leads me top tap out familiar feeling Step Flip Tack comes back at a new beginning I can't help you on the mid the thought Great shuffle I am back in the back put someone that I'm chilling and I'm moving closer to my heart step for back time both hands

I can't help you on the middle here.

Free to shuffle it up at the ball.

So here I am again.

Back back.

Said I wouldn't look in the back.

Put someone that children and I'm moving closer to my eye.

Push that footback.

Both hands.

That's just the way to fly.

You might as well go and back.

Over here.

One, two.

Step turn.

Satisfied.

Hearts got a mind.

Two steps.

So turn but leave me.

I don't care.

Good.

Hearts got a mind.

Two steps.

You ready for a quick change?

We're gonna have four heels.

And then a turn.

Here we go.

Step step four.

Step step four.

Good.

And when your heart's made up is mine.

Pull it down, pull it down.

Both hands.

That's just a waste of time.

You might as well pull face.

Nice and small.

I go where my heart leads.

Do what my heart's nice and smooth.

Heart's got a mind of its own.

Step turn easy, but I know my heart leaves me.

Keep it up.

Good job.

Let's keep going.

Here we go.

Tap it out.

Nice and easy.

Here we go.

Four.

Three.

Two.

One.

Pause it.

And hit and back.

Back back.

Back.

Up.

Up.

Up.

Up.

Hit hit.

Bam.

Bam.

One step.

One.

One.

Two steps.

Good.

One.

I wanna sky and make a way for me.

So that I understand.

It's like you in my week.

Don't have to look too far.

Let's get ready to take it forward.

Back it up.

Good, good.

Up.

Up, back, up.

Four steps.

Go to be a free hit.

Hit hit.

And back, back, back, back, up.

Do this one hit.

Hit hit.

One step.

Here we go.

Two steps.

One.

One.

And you can do it.

Good good.

All you need is patience.

Be sure to come to my own.

And take it up.

I love the joy.

There's no complaining from me.

Back it up.

Good.

Once I make up my mind, maybe we should mount into my dreams will come.

Hold here.

Pause, pause, pause, pause.

And push, push, push, push, up.

Do the sponsors out.

Take it back.

Back.

Back.

Back.

Back.

Up.

Be afraid to step out and reach out for the sky.

Here we go.

Hit hit.

Hit hit.

And back.

Back.

Back.

Back.

Up.

Whoops.

Hit hit.

Hit hit.

See, I messed up too.

That's okay though.

Hit.

Hit.

Hit.

Hit.

Pause.

Pause.

Pause.

Pause.

Take it up.

And back.

And back.

Take it up.

Don't be afraid to step out and reach out for the sky.

Good.

All right.

Beautiful, beautiful sauce again by Raoul Raoul.

This is gonna have a cross step over.

Cross.

Back.

Cross.

Heel okay.

Cross.

Back.

Cross.

Cross.

Back.

Cross.

Yes, my heel.

Back.

Cross.

Heel makes it a little bit.

Cross.

Back.

Cross.

Heel the bigger.

Cross.

Back.

Cross.

Heel.

Good.

Cross.

You got it.

Cross.

Me hace the pick it up.

Cross.

Cross.

Heel.

No one.

Rengo celos get tu vida.

Hey.

Good.

Hold it here.

We're gonna have a turn.

Sauce it back.

Press down.

Muchos.

Turn.

Good.

Muchos.

Turn it.

Last one.

Up.

Turn it.

Hey.

Cross.

Back.

Cross.

Heel.

Cross.

Back.

Cross.

Heel.

Siendo hello.

Cross.

Back.

Cross.

Heel.

Pick it up.

Siempre los anelos.

Te quiero, te quiero, te quiero, te quiero, te quiero.

Yo te li.

Ay, Dios.

Push.

Hold here.

Really lunge it down.

Yes.

Hold here.

Other side.

Down.

Good.

Good, good.

All right.

We have good things.

Body united souls.

We really want to focus on our hips.

Okay.

It's always good to keep them in motion.

Here we go.

Music and herb.

When we go saw wood things.

Nice hip swings.

Four steps.

Two other two feet.

Four.

Rock steps.

We did this in a previous song, so it should be easy to catch.

Rock step.

Rock step your one.

Two three four.

Hard step.

Rock step.

Good.

One three.

Four.

Rock step.

Rock step.

Single.

Single double.

Nice and easy.

Positively I will use it.

Some history kid man don't confuse it.

I have the choice to strike it on an eye with little birds.

Nice it.

So we lost the fight.

Hold here.

Good thing.

Sway.

Music and ear.

When we go sops, our holy palan to survive shot.

Pops.

Music and good.

Make sure you're swaying them.

Four steps.

If my own pop up, oh my mama did me.

Mighty will take me.

Good.

Side.

So we like great tops and have occupants.

Plant my from your fruit trees.

See, clicking numbers, and as I just and you'll be blessed with how life single double.

Realize the full tongue on your body.

Music and herb.

Pop pop our holy pile.

Good.

Four heels.

Four, three, two, one.

Rock it.

Rocket.

Four, three, two, one.

Rocket.

Four.

Rock.

Rock.

Four.

Father got given the good things.

Music and eat here shot.

When we go sound good things, our holy palan to survive shot.

Music and good.

All right.

All right.

It is now time to cool down.

We've all worked hard for it.

Nice easy two step.

We have another wonderful song by John Bibb.

Nice and easy.

Put you right at ease.

Just two step.

We're taking the heart rate down right now.

What's happening?

Down.

Inhale.

Good.

One side and up.

Good.

Other side.

We're gonna cross over.

Over.

And drop.

Hold it right here.

Breathe in.

And out.

Good.

Take it back up.

Cross over.

And hit.

And down.

Hold it here.

Good.

Just fine.

Yes.

Here we go.

Extend one foot.

Stretch it down and hold.

Toe down.

And up.

Toe down.

And up.

Down.

And up.

Down.

Let's pull it right back in.

Other side.

Hold it.

Bend.

And up till you can dress.

Good.

Hold it right here.

Take it down.

And up.

Down.

And up.

Down.

And up.

Down.

Pull it in.

And hold your inhale.

Exhale.

Good job.

Just cross one arm over.

Cross.

And other side, cross it over.

Take it out.

Big inhale.

So another place.

Good.

Raise it up.

Crossover.

Good, good.

Step and cross, other side.

You should be stretching out your obliques.

Drink some water, stretch some more, and hope to see you again soon.