Manager in place.

Let's get it going.

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.

Citizens of Portsmouth are called order at a meeting of a public work session for today.

I want to take a moment to uh acknowledge everyone that's here and attunance our city staff that's here and also our visitors in the room who are here to listen to the work session.

Our city attorney, Mr.

Derek Challenger.

Also want to acknowledge our city assessor, Mr.

Stephen Edwards, and our city clerk, Miss Deborah White.

Swite, would you please call the role?

Yes, sir, Miss Bryant.

Present, Dr.

Dotson.

Here.

Mr.

Moody.

Here.

I just saw Mayor Clever.

Here is in the building.

Yeah.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

And Mr.

Carter, sure, you have the floor.

Thank you, Mayor.

Good evening, everyone.

Hope everybody had a pleasant uh Memorial Day weekend.

There was a lot of things happening right now, City.

Hope you had an opportunity to participate in all of them.

But they had some scheduling conflicts and had to back out, so we have to reschedule that presentation, but we will get that before you.

This is County Street lot.

It used to be a garage.

Then the red shows some other surface lots.

You have the old town south uh parking district to the uh the south here of County Street, and then you have some time restricted parking areas and areas of parking meters shown in that map as well.

So this map sort of breaks everything up.

The two residential parking districts on either side of high street, the uh city-owned lots, parking authority owned lots, and parking garages.

Time restricted parking.

This is specifically for the two-hour time restricted parking.

So downtown visitor parking availability.

Um Middle Street and Ward Street garages, you have 279 spaces, uh, 120 uh spaces in Water Street, um, the other are in Middle Street, middle asterisk area because middle streets parked by float, surface lots, 234 spaces, then high street, um includes handicap uh parking and 30-minute parking zones, 165 spaces, 678 spaces, just NDs looking at these specific areas here.

Does not include the lots from Queen Street or any other available uh on-street parking.

So parking on Washington Street, parking on court, any of those other streets where there's on-street parking, not included in this number.

So your May 12th budget budget ordinance two things right now uh parking ordinance reference meter meter parking, so it removes that reference to meter meter parking.

So any reference to the to the form of payment for parking is removed from the ordinance.

Um it also increased the on-street parking fees from 125 to $2 per hour.

So in your parking ordinance, um, it specifies where the city imposes parking, pay for parking, um, and the applicable rates.

Those rates are in appendix A.

Um, the time frames and any operational details are set by the city manager.

So future parking ordinance, uh modifications are needed to the May 12th ordinance.

Um at the uh PPA meeting.

Um certain parts of the ordinance still weren't clear, so some clarifications that's needed in the existing ordinance as it relates to residential parking districts, and then there's discussion that we're gonna come back to council for for um whether you're gonna change high street parking from time restricted to paid visitor parking.

Um, with that, that is just the the quick and dirty update of the um parking availability downtown and um the actual ordinance that was presented and then any changes to future ordinance as it pertains to high street.

Can I add something before we please start the discussion?

By all means, Mr.

Carter.

Um go back, I think it's slide two.

Well, two is overall.

Two is the overall uh go three.

No, this one's fine.

Go back to that one.

One of the issues that we that came up at the parking authority meeting was residents not understanding where parking was going to be charged or where it was going to be charged.

Uh don't mind, I'm gonna stand here just for a moment.

These areas that were previously uh parking meters, those will be uh converted to uh paid parking by T2 surface lots will be converted to paid parking by T2 on-street parking.

Um we're including high street this time.

We didn't last time we brought because we're gonna do that separately, but we're bundling that together because we couldn't separate it.

All right, high street parking, but along these other routes where there were time parking will be controlled by T2 Garages, just these three.

This one is uh the renaissance with the parking agreement with them, and they'll they're really kind of handling that.

You know, we're and then the parking garage at the harbor towers will be outside of this limit, also.

Now I will say uh probably when we rebuild that as we redo quarterback, that may get folded, or some of those spaces may get folded into what we charge, but right now we're not charging per space.

We do have a lease agreement with the towers for their residential parking.

So the main thing we want to talk about is the residential districts, both the north and the south, uh will not be affected by what we're trying to do right now.

There is something different that they want to do because they want some more enforcement in their areas, but that's not what we're talking about tonight.

Only thing we're talking about tonight are the metered areas, the surface lots, the timed areas in red, and the parking garages.

That is the extent of the areas that will be affected by what we're trying to uh explorers here this evening.

Okay.

So with that, we'll open it up and we can start the discussion if you don't mind.

So Mr.

Manager at the parking authority meeting after the public comment period, we spent some time going through the language of the ordinance that was presented at uh the last uh council meeting that we elected to defer voting on uh and we spent a fair amount of time clearing up confusion in the language.

So so I agree with you that there was concern expressed that the ordinance was gonna start charging in the old town residential parking lots because there was confusing language in the ordinance that suggested we weren't gonna charge in one place, but then those lots were listed in appendix A list of lots that was referred to in another part of the ordinance.

So I know you were taking notes through all of that.

Yes, we don't have an ordinance here to look at, so can you describe what we fixed?

I can the way we're approaching this is we're gonna get some decisions made tonight before we present the language to you again.

Okay, we've got to take two bites of this apple.

One is tonight, and then one again.

Um, it's in June.

I think it's a second meeting in no no, it's the first meeting in June.

And we'll take a bite at this again.

What we're trying to do tonight is is figure out where we're going with this.

Then we're clean up all the language and present the language to you at one time.

Okay, okay.

All right, so then so then going back to the public comment period at the parking authority.

Yes, sir.

I think what the three of us heard loud and clear from the folks that were there, uh they want us to reserve free parking along the high street corridor for some period of time.

Yes, sir.

Uh and then we pointed out to them the challenge that we currently have with high street parking.

The fact that we have this competition for high street parking between business customers who we want to park along high street, yes, residents who live along high street and park on high street, and we don't want them to park on high street because they're taking parking spaces that could be available for customers and are not.

We want them parking someplace else so that the parking spaces that are along high street are available for high street customers.

So in order to make all of that work, um we talked about adjusting rates across you know, kind of a holistic look of uh at parking rates across the city, right?

And so um unfortunately, none of that discussion is in here except on street parking, we're gonna increase to two bucks an hour.

So if we're gonna be successful in solving the high street parking problem, I think philosophically, maybe the note that you sent to us even suggested.

So we're gonna have some we we should should at least consider having some period of free parking along high street.

That's what I heard at the meeting, yes.

And then when that period ends, then the rates for parking along high street need to ramp up more quickly than the rates to park at other places away from high street because the high street customers most of them park two hours or less, some three hours.

philosophically maybe the note that you sent to us even suggested so we're gonna have some we we should should at least consider having some period of free parking along high street that's what I heard at the meeting yes and and then when that period ends then the rates for parking along high street need to ramp up more quickly than the rates to park at other places away from high street because the high street customers most of them park two hours or less some three hours the movie customers the hairdresser customers and and so we're giving them if we implement T2 we're giving them the opportunity to not have to move their car or get a parking ticket if we allow them to park a third hour and pay for it.

Correct but what we don't want are the folks that park there six seven eight ten twelve hours because they're residents or six seven eight ten twelve hours because they're employees we want to incentivize those long parkers to park off a high street giving offering them lower rates at these other places the surface slots the parking garages the the off high street parking but we don't have a picture of what the what those rates should be compared to if we're going to do uh paid parking on high street how quickly the ramp up should be when we finally start charging for parking right mayor you have the floor sir those are some of the things that we wanted to discuss this evening one is uh remember this council had proposed there's free parking for the first two hours in the garages well I think it's kind of productive we have free free parking on the street for the first two hours also I got to figure out what's the appetite for this council to you know to shift that or how we're going to shift it if we're going to shift it if it's gonna be one hour free on high street two hours free three hours free what what's trying to get a sense of what's the appetite for this council before we can kind of really put some meat to the bone you know I mean so that's why I'd say we're gonna take two bites of this apple the first bite is just kind of set the plate and you tell me what you like and don't like and then we come back with something that we can propose to you.

Okay.

All right so then I I guess to offer my sense of what we heard at parking authority I think what I heard was we want two hours of free parking along high street which is what they have now the question then becomes right now at the end of two hours they got no option they got to move their car there's no option to pay for anything they just got to move or they get a parking ticket and and the people that park along high street play that game well it's time to stop playing parking games and and put pay for parking with T2 after that free period is over but to do it in a way that incentivizes the people that park there for a long period of time to not park on high street because it's too darned expensive after that first two free hours and and and so figuring out how do we ramp that up so that it the the third hour is at least I mean if we're gonna charge two dollars an hour every place else then that third hour better be at least two dollars an hour and the well and and and maybe may maybe we do need more but but we need to to kind of synthesize the rate structure so that we're getting the benefit that we're trying for which is we want to let the customers park for free for a little while but we want everybody else that is clobbering park high street parking to to park in other places and and so kind of back to what do we need to do in the garages and all the other places where we're implementing T2 the those parking rates need to be attractive compared to whatever it is that we're gonna impose on high street and I don't know what that means I'm not a parking expert but but what whatever we do needs to kind of trigger the behavior that we're looking for which is to get other than customers parking off of high street.

I concur so you got the the the real issue is what does the council have an appetite for we can suggest some things and we have I don't think we really had an appetite for what we suggested.

So what we want to do before we make future suggestions on the same subject, kind of get a feel for where you want to go.

And we can adjust accordingly.

That's fair.

Okay, so that's so you said you've made suggestions and we and we've uh rejected those suggestions.

I think the suggesti that pri primarily the suggestion that's been made, and now I'm at least suggesting that we reject based on the feedback is that we start charging for parking on high street the minute somebody the minute somebody pulls into a parking space.

Correct.

So if we don't do that, and if we preserve, say two hours of free parking, uh then the recommend my at least my recommendation would be you if it's two bucks an hour every place else, it ought to be four bucks an hour on high street or or and and it and it needs to scale up from so it's not just four bucks for twelve hours, it's four bucks or two three bucks or something for the for the third hour and more for the graduate four to six and more for six to you know you know what I'm saying, so it's a graduated rate to disincentivize to disincentivize people from parking for long periods of time along high street.

Councilman Tillon.

Thank you.

Um I'm gonna push back on that push back away.

So I've got to really push back.

Um so I understand the objective here is to kind of take people off of high street, put them in other places.

So not really.

That's a crucial way.

We still want to come to High Street.

Exactly.

Okay.

So my thing is if we're looking at the turnover for High Street, how about we just make high street the paid parking?

And then your surface lots, you offer them the free two hour parking for an incentive to want to go to those parking spots, and then also being able to utilize that was our original King Street and Queen Street.

Thank you.

I think I think that to me, I think that makes that makes the most sense.

And then for like with your employees or your residents, if they're able to utilize King and Queen as being their places of parking, um that clears up high street.

It allows that turnover to to happen.

And but then also incentivizes.

I mean, because I think a lot of people, if they realize okay, I'm gonna get free two hour parking by parking in a parking lot, they might be more likely to walk that extra block or two.

That ain't what I heard at the meeting.

But I don't know how many people in the meeting, I was not there.

Uh but I think the incentive we still have healing scars.

Yeah.

Okay.

But I think but we have to do something.

I think having having different tiers of parking prices, I think it just gets too out of control.

But in charge of the high street and in the service lots, and push you gotta push people to these garages and these service lots.

And because ultimately I think high street, if we're gonna use it, I don't see what's wrong with paying over it.

Um, but it also comes back to the making sure that we enforce because if we're gonna allow two hour parking, and that two hours and one minute, somebody needs to be there.

We will enforce, and that's a promise that we've made.

But again, what you're talking about was the original proposal.

Well, I'm I'm here for it.

Yeah, what we've heard is no, that ain't gonna work for us.

So again, that's why we're here to try to get the appetite of this council because you you're gonna have to live through the meeting that we just lived through.

You know what I mean?

And if you're willing to live through that, hey, I got no problem, we'll press on.

Okay.

And it wasn't like there were some voices that said, yeah, we could make that work.

There were no voices that said we could make that work.

It was unanimous uh in the public comment that they expect us to preserve some amount of free parking along high street so that we don't chase their customers away.

Well, but to my point, um but could we utilize these side streets as the free parking and you still charge for high street, but then you have your king, your queen, your court, your dinwitties.

I see some of these streets which are marked as pink are like your dinwitties and your your courts.

Just that first block off of yeah, but having those to be free, and then but high street itself is still the paid, which is hoping to to cause the turnover to move.

I mean that way you're still giving you satisfying the free parking, some of the free parking, but at the same time you're still utilizing the the method that we're trying to get across, which is we need to uh regulate this in a better way.

So would you can I ask a question on this one?

Yeah, but would you time have time limits on that park?

Yes.

Everything needs to have time limits.

You've got to have time limits.

I think maybe for the first two hours, I think you did the free parking.

But that's the on they don't, but on high street itself, you charge for the moment they park.

But on those side streets, like the Denwid's and the north, whatever those streets are denwitty's in court in green, you free two hour parking.

And then to Calcman Hugo's point, once you get to that third hour, a person doesn't they don't they probably won't mind paying for that one hour, they've been there for three.

Um but that way you're still you're still giving people that that free parking that they're looking for.

So we got two options on the paper.

Councilwoman Thomas, yeah.

Yes, but before I go, can you say what those two options are I'm trying to make sure I'm keeping track before I make a question?

Uh the first option is uh correct me if I'm mistaken this counselor huge.

It's the first two hours of free parking on high street okay with escalating charges thereafter.

Uh-huh.

And then the second option is the opposite of that, where it's two parking of the surface lots.

Free parking on the side street.

Okay.

But charge from the very beginning on high street.

That's the second.

Those are the two options on the table right now.

Right.

Okay.

Um, I wasn't at the meeting.

Um that we kind of had that the parking meeting that you all attended.

However, I did have a chance to also talk to some business owners uh within the old town district.

They echoed what I'm hearing, similar.

They were concerned about the paid parking on high street discouraging businesses, business customers um of visiting.

Um they suggested I sent this in the email, but they also suggested the same thing I'm I'm hearing from Councilman Hugo of offering some type of free first two hours free and then charging after that.

Um they also talked about just looking at other cities, how they have a mix of decal for residential longer term parking because they knew that was a concern on high street and pushing them to other areas off of high street using some type of like decal system.

Um that already exists, right?

I know, but they they said that that was something that they wanted to see if we could implement for residents that live on high street to prevent them from parking on high street, taking up possible customer parking as well.

Um I don't know if that exists.

Do they have because if you have a decal, you should they don't want you to be able to park on high street.

Yeah, but decal that doesn't give you permission to park on high street.

Decals give you permission to park on high.

Okay.

Okay.

But if you're still taking it on high street if you have a decal and you're passing two hours, okay.

Um the other question, I think uh my first question, but I think you just answered answered it for me was okay.

What is the goal here?

And you just said to create turnover on high street.

So if that is the goal, um I would be for the free first two hours on high street, free just for convenience of the customers, but then making the charge where you the increment to your point is quite steep where you almost either need to pay for a full day.

I've seen some districts where it's almost better where few to pay like 20 something for a full day versus that hourly.

So I want to throw that out there if that's a possibility to encourage no more than two-hour parking, and if you are gonna be longer than two hour parking, your cheaper option is gonna be to move to the garages or the surface lots.

So that's my suggestion.

Vice Mayor, I know you next, but uh, but I know uh councilman Hugo he let him let him respond.

Yeah, I just wanted to respond to the question of of uh decals because that came up during the meeting.

The high street residents suggested we have d a decal program for old town folks, but there is no decal program for for high street residents, but they asked us to consider creating a decal program for high street residents, not to allow them to park on high street, but for us to work with them in the other areas off of high street to create decal parking so that they could move by a decal and park in those places just like the the old town residents can and so I I think that's what you know it's kind of an equity uh question.

They were looking for well, why why aren't we treated the same way as the rest of the downtown or the the yeah the downtown area residents?

Yeah, because how many people actually live there, right?

So they don't I was okay.

Yes, that is exactly what I felt the business owners were saying, but you said just a second ago that the high street residents have are part of the decal program.

No, no, no.

Okay, I must have misunderstood.

Okay.

Okay.

So that's if you live on high street, there is no decal, but you will get a ticket.

Okay.

Okay.

That is exactly what the business owners were saying that they felt like residents on high street should have had a decal program so that they won't park on high street.

Okay.

Vice Mayor.

Is it accurate to say that we're having this discussion because of uh limited availability of parking?

No.

Okay.

Plenty of parking, there's limited availability of premium parking.

Specifically high street.

We have places to put your car, it's just not on high street.

And the reason I uh say this the general public when when they hear this discussion on parking, is a couple things.

One, they think we're doing it as a revenue generator.

No, well, you say no, I say no.

Okay.

Perception is different.

Uh it's a revenue generator.

Okay.

And doing the parade uh yesterday and doing the weekend, which I think everybody would agree there was a lot of activity going on.

One of our large surface parking areas, uh basically had no automobiles in it whatsoever, and that's the King's Square parking.

King Square is which one?

Off Family Street.

Can you oh right?

Yeah.

Okay.

I just wanted to reference which was covered with it uh no cars.

So that tells me the the public probably isn't aware uh of that parking option.

So I think one of the problems is uh with people coming into high street.

Now I'm not talking about the residents or the business owners.

I'm talking about people coming to the children's museum to parades, what whatever is going on.

They is it's not enough uh signage to direct them on where to park.

Yeah, way so I yeah, wait, yeah, wait wayfinding signage.

Yeah, and so we we need to address that.

And also once you get to the King Square parking area, the signage is you almost need an attorney to figure out what what your options are.

So that needs to be corrected.

So we we we need to get proper signage and and and we need and we need to have the instructions so simplified so people know what to do.

Right.

And and neither of those things have been worked out yet.

Yet we're we're talking about charging.

We we put in the charging as the highest priority instead of identifying where people can park that those need to be synchronized and come together at the same time.

Okay, other than that, uh if I had to support one, it would be the two-hour uh parking uh limit that uh Councilman Hugo proposed.

Okay, but uh we got a ways to go on on cut coming up with the the signage and and the instructions on on what you do uh to pay for parking.

Can I ask a question there?

Absolutely, sir.

And this is gonna be the uh Mr.

Wright.

Is that a lot reserved?

A lot a lot of those spots are I think most of them is reserved.

That's gonna be a reasonable way you see.

They may be reserved, but but they're not being utilized.

The the reservation part, I think just has been carried over.

I think if we look into it, you'll find out that uh uh they they shouldn't be reserved because nobody's utilizing them.

I'll take a look at that, you know, because utilization and paying for is two different things.

You can pay for it and not park your car there, and I'm perfectly fine with that, but but it's still your thought spot.

We probably need to check into whether people actually paying for.

Yeah, we're validate which ones are paid for, which was not okay.

Because if if we're paying 247, but they're really parking Monday through Friday nine to five, then maybe we need to adjust our reservation plan so that it's accommodating their parking needs and also accommodating our parking needs.

So that's a good point as well.

Councilman Brian, ma'am, you have a floor.

Thanks, Mayor.

I can speak directly to that lot as an employee of Trinity Church.

So the church does have owner not ownership, but leases, spaces from the city, and just increase the number leasing in the last couple of weeks.

So have several of those spots, and then I believe there's a bunch that belong to the apartment.

Malvern Square, the apartments that are right there on the corner, and then in the on the side that goes toward County Street, there are a number of T two signs marking off where there used to be metered spots.

So it's it's I would estimate half and half, somewhere around there, maybe two-thirds, one third.

Um but that kind of speaks to some of the confusion.

It's it's a little because the Malvern Hill ones have numbers for the residents, and they and they are often not used.

Um, and then the T2 ones have the signage, and so it's a hodgepodge.

I would describe it as a hodgepodge.

Um definitely the feedback that I have received that we have all received is that two-hour parking on high street would be very, very harmful to business.

Um was suggested to councilwoman Thomas and I actually to maybe consider three-hour parking free on high street because you may attract more people from the Norfolk side going through the tunnel.

The appeal would be that you could do business in Portsmouth, pay for the toll, and it would still be cheaper for you than parking all day in Norfolk.

Something to consider in this conversation is of course the toll and the impact on people visiting or working here and coming through and paying the toll and how parking plays into that.

Um, there's definitely an opportunity cost here where if we charge for parking, what are we giving up in terms of tax revenue, but also having businesses that are here and stable and comfortable and thriving and people are coming from surrounding localities to support those businesses.

Um and so again, I think it's important that we listen very closely to the business community on this because they are the experts of what they're seeing downtown.

And while I feel we might eventually hopefully we plan to we will we will grow to a point where there will be a significant need for turnover on high street, a big part of the feeling is that we're just not there yet, and we don't want to hurt ourselves before we reach that point.

Um in addition to that, have we talked at all about time of day and weekends and how this plays into it?

Um what we're doing now and what we would consider.

I I'm not sure what we have now in terms of Monday through Friday versus weekends, Mr.

Ray.

Can you we don't do anything um on the ground as far as um weekends, weeknights for special events, but there is um adopted, I think five years ago in the code appendices have if you were to ramp up and want to charge, you can charge for um weeknights, weekends, and events.

There's a rate already in the case.

Okay.

I believe if you're going to a movie in the evening, there's no it's open-ended, there's no enforcement.

There's no enforce there's no okay.

If no enforcement and the time stops, and I think six right, okay.

Okay, we will see starting stops.

Yeah, most yeah.

Um it's really clear from this map that all of our parking is just dominating the east, especially the garages and that pocket, especially behind King Street South Southwest of everything.

The King Street, um I can't read the map from here.

Is that King and King and High, King Um County?

That's a spot where we have very limited parking, and I would imagine that a lot of the high street parking is uh uh the conversation is really coming from that where Bloom is, and there's a lot of people that are coming to work at Bloom, and there's people that need parking for hours at a time because they're coming to work in that co-working space.

So I would love for us to come back to our kind of tabled conversation about where are we going with parking, maybe toward that western end of the district, and especially as we cross into the link.

I don't know that there's any solution tied to this right now, but I think that's important for us to consider.

Yes.

Um I think that's an important consideration when we're looking at the high street free option, is you can park behind the children's museum and buy quads, and it's it's it's a nice walk, it's a comfortable walk, it's it feels like it's populated with pedestrians, it feels safe.

That other end where it's a little bit more offices and um some empty lots and some buildings that are potentially blighted.

Um it's it's not as comfortable as a of a walk.

Um so to that point.

We had talked in our retreat about approaching a time this time of year, June with uniformed patrols on high street.

Mr.

Carter, are we on track for that schedule?

They were meant to be sort of ambassador sort of parking sort of horsemen.

Uh our police department is working through an ambassador program right now.

We'll deal with the insurance piece of it.

Okay.

But we are working toward an ambassador program.

Uh that will be a volunteer force that's augmented by our park enforcement attendants are moving over from the parking authority to the police department, and and they're gonna become uniformed and and more of a presence downtown also.

So those two things are gonna give us a little bit more visibility as far as presence is concerned.

That's really important, not just for safety, but for our conversation about wayfinding, because those people can be there communicating.

Uh, you can't find a spot, let me help you get in the right direction.

Or this parking happens to cause this, but this part costs that.

So uh that's I think helpful to implementation and enforcement.

Um last question as we still kick around ideas.

The infrastructure that's in place now and that we'll be putting in place.

Do we have any kiosks, Mr.

Wright, or is it just strictly QR code?

Yes for the T.

Two, yeah.

It's just QR code or text.

Okay.

Is there is it worth having a kiosk for what function would a kiosk serve that a QR code couldn't?

Because the examples I'm thinking of other cities where I've done this, there's always a kiosk option, and I it it was it was it not included for a reason, or are people moving away from that?

Is that um this was strictly meaning like if you had cash and wanted to pay a cash?

And this was strictly for um rolling out this new system, getting rid of the meters.

We will come back and we will support um in certain locations T2 with um pay stations.

Okay, um that but they won't be on say on every block may have to go.

One covers two blocks, one like one station's gonna cover civic center and city hall.

It was brought to me as a senior citizen concern, but as I approach having a teen driver, I was also wondering if you had a teen employee at a restaurant who's coming down to work a shift, would they have to have I mean they of course all have cell phones and and pay, but I mean if you had a kid that didn't have a court card or something, would they be able to pay with cash?

There's a server at the beer garden that doesn't own a smartphone.

See, you know, they're there's a cultural pushback there, maybe that we're seeing, and maybe they want to pay cash.

Anyway, that that's just a ancillary question.

I appreciate that.

So we're throwing in the mix.

Um, so I guess I'll see.

Um and support the businesses that are there until we reach a point that maybe paid parking does make more sense on high street.

So is that a third option there?

I don't know.

Do you guys think that was a third option?

Did I create a third?

Oh, three hours.

That was um well, I I'll throw that out there for discussion.

I'd be happy to modify my thing to three hours because uh whether it's two hours or three hours, the important thing from my perspective is you got short-term parker, and then you got everybody else, and we want the everybody else's to see the the bill escalate quickly, which hopefully will create the behavior that we want, which is moving them off of high street.

All right, councilman umson, so you have the floor.

Then councilman Hugo and then councilwoman promise.

So um, what about the people that are working or owning and look out to find Carl who walks down the street and time him and say, Oh, now I gotta go move my car.

And I think a major part of the problem is those people who are playing the system, and I think that giving the two hour free is just playing right into their hands for the people that want to play the system, they will just go move their car.

And I think that giving the two hour free is just playing right into their hands for the people that want to play the system.

They will just go move their car.

They get two hours and that's it.

You have no way to track that.

Yeah, you're gonna just walk in on T2 because you got a car.

Okay.

I think there's a misconception there.

You're free, you got two hours is because you registered your car.

Yeah.

If you don't register your car, you're gonna get a you'll get a ticket immediately.

That's right.

So in order for you to get two hours free, you gotta register your car.

So I know when you got there, and I know when that two hours is up.

If you don't register, you just gotta get a ticket.

Yeah, but if they move to a new location, then uh working by plate.

I can move up with space.

No, you're registered by a plate, not by space.

Okay, that makes more sense.

Because I was seeing a lot of people play it, and I was looking at well, I don't know I like um Councilman Tillage's idea of us moving the free around the block into King and Queen Street a lot.

Um moving the long terms off of High Street.

Yeah, so it's is registered by plate, not by space.

So you can't just move up to space and you can get another two hours that it doesn't work that way.

Okay, thank you for the clear.

That's what the one thing I was looking for.

Carification.

I'm sorry, that is just a great plate.

That's that's that's quite all right.

That's why we haven't a discussion.

Councilman Hugo, then so I'm gonna come back to what Vice Mayor was talking about around what what what's this all about we heard some of the same.

Well, this is just another money grab during during the meeting.

Uh and and I I bring this up because we we tried to point out to the folks that were kind of reaching that conclusion.

Uh so so we know we have a safety problem.

We worked on lighting along high street, and in fact, today when I met with our new Dominion Energy rep, I told him my perspective, the next priority we need Dominion Energy help is all of the side streets off of High Street to get them lit up so that people do feel safe after dark going to those places, especially the the young employees that don't have the cell phones, but but we want them to park someplace else.

Um so so we're we're trying to address lighting.

We're trying to address safety with the ambassador program.

Um we we do need to address signage.

I I I guess so.

My point is um I I think we need you know, we we kind of got in a hurry to to push this parking ordinance through as part of the budget.

I I think we need to really get our arms holistically around this problem before we pass any kind of uh changes so that we absolutely we we we think our way through the unintended consequences of the changes that we're talking about making.

Uh it's the goal is not to study it to death, but the goal is to study it enough so that that we're doing this thoughtfully and not to try to get it done as in time for the budget.

Correct.

Okay, councilwoman Thomas.

Well, thank you.

Um one of my questions has already been answered about the you know, you will get a ticket immediately if you don't register.

That was one of my questions.

Um next, I want to just echo what councilwoman Bryant said concerning the parking or lack thereof for uh the areas near Bloom.

Um I would even say even consider we're high street and Washington Street.

Uh we don't have a lot of parking in that in that area, and so while we're doing this whole parking discussion, um considering what our park parking options are for those business owners as well.

I see right now it looks like it's time restricted parking.

Uh so will that will the free or whatever we're proposing for high street, will that extend to that small little red area off of high street as well?

Because where we have like um angled parking um on some of those areas, will that extend there?

Side street, street, yeah.

Not for I think that's court.

Yeah.

In Whitty?

Yep.

In a way, he's she's talking about Washington.

Yeah, but really have businesses on the on those streets on those side streets.

So are we talking about giving bats those blocks free thir two three-hour parking, whatever we decide on as well?

Currently, we're only talking about places where there's already time parking or metered parking, converting that to T2.

So if you could park there extended periods previously, you skip can't.

Okay.

So those are still the limited free.

Right.

Okay.

All right.

Councilman Hewlett, did you want the floor to be going to come back to a comment on parking on the west end?

So just across Effingham on High Street, EDA has acquired property.

9 34 that they're getting ready to demo once we get the permits to demo.

So we've been talking about what one of the messages I think we need to communicate to EDA is whatever we put there needs to have some parking baked into the solution.

If we're gonna try to put a hotel there, it better be a hotel that's got uh its own parking, but more than just its own parking, it needs to have parking to create some some parking for that that west end of of downtown.

Uh otherwise uh we're just perpetuating the parking problem on that on that end, and it's gonna be even more uh of a problem with uh with the link district coming online and the limited parking that we're gonna be able to create when we have our second discussion around uh you know settling with uh parallel parking uh and the implications that that we're simply taking the current downtown high street parking problem and moving it up the street.

Vice Mayor follow up on uh councilman um uh woman uh Bryant mentioned uh QR codes.

Is that gonna be so then I heard uh uh engineer Mr.

Wright say the kiosk would be only what every two blocks it's not gonna be on every block, so the pay station is not going to be on every block, so what particular one station may cover two blocks.

And I don't know how many people and I work with a lot of seniors every day, and most of them have no idea on what a Q QR code is.

Uh and if the if you explain to them what it is, then they have difficulty utilizing it.

Um and that's that's no knock against them, it's just the the you know the the way it is uh with with the technology.

So I think we need to keep that in mind.

Uh either either make sure there's a kiosk uh on every block instead of every two blocks.

Uh uh or I think we're gonna uh be putting a lot of seniors uh at a disadvantage uh if if we do that.

I think we need to keep that in mind not everybody just just like the example of the the bartender didn't have a smartphone.

I'm not sure sure how many seniors have a smartphone.

So uh I would I would I would make sure that we got kiosk more more often than every two blocks.

So not that may become cost prohibitive.

You know, you don't really want to cost more to put this out than money you're gonna collect from it, you know.

So uh I understand what you're saying, but we we we may need to have some education or some something else to augment that.

I wouldn't try to put a kiosk everywhere.

That's well not talking everywhere, just uh each of the blocks, and I think we need to keep in mind seniors a lot of times they're the ones that spend the money because they got money.

So I don't think we need to be putting them at a disadvantage uh by doing that.

And and also the visitor from Richmond that I forwarded uh his comments was uh signage going back to signage that not only instructs parking, but uh uh you know it paints a picture, you're here, yeah, and and this is this is what's nearby.

Yeah, uh absolutely I like that.

Yeah, I think we need to follow up on that idea as well.

So this is gonna be the last question on this one because I think we need to move on because we have a couple more items.

Councilman Tilling, so you have the floor.

I was just gonna say I think uh to the mayor's point.

I think um and to Vice Mayor Moody's point, I think the signage piece it it makes sense to address that part first.

Um, but then also the the whole parking authority and the enforcement structure of that.

I think um should kind of be fleshed out before we talk about any paid parking.

Um I go back to I think some comments that were brought up a few months ago with the South Side parking.

Uh that was a recommendation that was bought up by uh our crime commission.

Uh and so in that neighborhood they're having a lot of issues with people parking that work in the shipyard that are parking in their front yards out in uh Southside.

And um in that area, that's one of those areas that have the permit parking.

And due to lack of enforcement, your homeowners can't even get out the driveways.

Um I spoke to a couple of those people, and all these parking authorities kind of go together.

So just to so to speak to Councilman Moody's point, I think we should there's a lot of things we should flesh out first uh before we tackle this issue.

Um so I would just hopefully we can defer or find other solutions that we can do before we start doing this paid stuff and also address the Southside situation.

Well, you realize paid parking is already today.

It is the T2.

The conversation today that we're talking about, it needs to we have other things I think we need to flesh out first before this whole thing gets implemented.

Okay.

So so, in summary, you know, listening to everybody comment, uh a couple of observations.

Um so I was at the meeting, and and and I'll speak to a couple of things.

First, um we've got to have a parking strategy in place.

Uh parking, parking goes to quality of life and it goes to certainly having opportunity to bring people to our city.

Um I heard the business owners mostly in the room saying that they didn't want paid parking.

But to councilman Tillage's point, I think when people come to a town, they come to shop or come to patronize.

There's not an expectation that they're gonna get free parking.

I just gotta say that.

I've been to a lot of cities around the country, every city I go to, I expect that I'm gonna pay for some parking.

It's not gonna be free.

So I think that being the understanding, I heard the business owners.

I don't think, and and I say this in the meeting, you know, some folks were emotional, it's gonna kill my business.

Well, your business hasn't been killed thus far, and there's gonna be people that come here to do business.

We've got to make it easier, and I think making it easier, I don't think one is more important than the other when I think about wayfinding.

I was up in Suffolk the last week, downtown Suffolk, downtown Suffolk, and their wayfinding is superior.

And what that does is it lets people know where to go.

It says we're parking.

I think I sent a lot of you to the wayfinding signs that I got out of Suffolk.

It tells you when you come into town where to park, where the parking garages are, the locations.

I think wayfinding goes simultaneously with the parking strategy, particularly in our business district.

I agree with Mr.

Tillage in these off areas where you know it's residential, we definitely need to deal with that.

But what I heard the other night was the parking in the business district and access to opportunity.

I think that's where we need to play our hand.

Get wayfinding down there simultaneously, put a policy in place, whether it's gonna be paid soon as you park or two hours.

I don't necessarily think three hours is is gonna be a deal breaker for anybody.

I think two hours is fair.

Um at the end of the day, no one's trying to run our businesses out of business.

But we've got to understand, folks, we parking is not a money-making for our city.

It really goes to the quality of life, and we want the experience to be a good experience.

But just as you know, uh, because we didn't feel like we had a policy that was in place, we underwrote a lot of cost, and we we we wrote off a lot of costs for our businesses and our citizens.

And I think some in the room didn't really acknowledge that, and they forget this stuff still has to be paid for.

If if we want to do, for example, you talk about the link district.

Well, in our 2009 comprehensive plan, it talks about all these things.

Parking in our business district, it talks about wayfinding.

I think I sent you all some information about it.

The reality is that we're gonna have to make some financial uh decisions on that.

Um, that is gonna cost money, and and that's a reality.

No, we're not making a ton of money off parking.

That's uh and and we we were very clear on that.

But what it's about is about creating an environment where everybody can coexist in a way that we're all comfortable with paying our fair share.

There were people in the room, business owners that said, Well, I'm willing to pay for my people to park there if they come patronize my business.

There were other people in the room said, Well, I didn't know I was breaking the rules.

I'm sorry, I'm part of the problem.

So you had a mix of people giving perspectives, so it wasn't all really one-sided.

And I have people in the room saying, Well, for I've been in Atlanta, I've been in New York, and if you go to Atlanta and New York downtown, you're gonna pay for parking.

Yeah, you're gonna pay a whole lot.

So I think we're all on the same page.

I agree with Mr.

Carter.

Uh I've heard a lot of comments.

I I'm for whatever the team is for, but I think some free parking on high street does make sense.

It does show that we're we're helping.

But I think at the end of the day, it can't be open-ended.

Um we want to attract people here, but we want people uh, you know, we want people to come here.

We think we got something really special and find your way here, right?

And so that's what we want to promote, but we want to be be open when you get here, and we don't want to be punitive.

So in my mind, I think the best part of this conversation, wayfinding, absolutely, because uh sometimes I don't know where to park and and I've been here quite a while.

And so, and by the way, the mayor's got in a couple tickets too.

So Deborah can attest to that.

She says, Mayor, you shouldn't park when you get a ticket.

I'm well I have a sticker, Deborah.

Okay, so here's the bottom line.

We're gonna work on it.

Um Mr.

Carter and his team are gonna bring back some solutions to it.

And so let's continue the dialogue, but but I think we're headed in a good direction.

But we don't need to carry this out in a long way.

We need to make a decision and we need to let people know that we heard them and we responded.

Does that sound fair?

Okay.

So you'll bring something up next.

Yes, sir.

Uh the the direction I need though is two hours free, no free.

That that's really a thing.

Way finding is absolutely baked into this process.

We'll do a lot with worry break wayfinding.

Uh real quick, because we we'll make a proposal that we accept uh the two-hour solution that um Mr.

Hugo proposed.

And if the everybody's fine, yeah.

Motion on the vote that's got to be.

Uh all in favor of the two-hour um can we reiterate first before we so so the uh that was kind of like the the um first first option, right?

Or the second option.

That was the first option.

That was the first option, the two hours for the book.

Yes, sir.

So why don't you well we'll we'll recommend that you move forward with that, bringing that option back with some other wayfinding strategies to put in place as it relates to that.

Does that sound acceptable to everyone?

They don't necessarily need a consensus you can do for it.

We're good.

Very well.

Thank you very much.

Appreciate the dialogue, appreciate the discussion.

Um that kind of moves us in the right direction, because we just we just needed some way to kind of see where your uh appetite was for that.

Um so thank you.

That helps us quite a bit.

Uh turn a page.

Uh we'll talk uh briefly about uh the wage grant and the streetscape.

I'll let you introduce it, but really it's uh for the liaisons to provide some information to it.

So we've uh we along with VHB has given you two presentations to sort of drill down what the typical section is gonna look like for the race grant.

Um at the last meeting, uh we selected two liaisons to meet with VHB and to go over some of the concerns that council had.

Um they had that meeting.

Um they discussed uh a number of issues.

Um I'll get a different meeting.

I wasn't there, but um with the he I'll turn it over to Councilwoman Brian so she can sort of go over what was discussed at that meeting.

You have the floor, ma'am.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Mr.

Right.

Um so councilman Tillage and I had a successful meeting with the engineering staff and the VHB team.

Um and emailed you all with our reasons for recommending alternative one, which if you remember was the parallel parking on both sides of the street.

By way of summary, that was for several reasons.

Um it does provide a few more parking spaces.

The angled parking on one side of the street would provide fewer.

I did talk to the mayor and town manager of Cape Charles.

They both generously called back to discuss how much they very much dislike back in angled parking, and that was something that the VHB team told us to investigate.

Um the landscaping on the parallel park alternative um the alternative provides more opportunity for landscaping and the sidewalk structure and the um the median.

So if anybody had any further questions about that, but I think we were pretty detailed in that email that we sent out.

Um we left it there, and Councilman Hugo brought forward the suggestion of eliminating the median in place of miniature roundabouts.

And so Mr.

Wright provided that information today, and Mr.

I have not had time to review it since it was end of the day.

Would you are were you able to work through the pros and cons of many roundabouts?

There were some pros and cons.

Um provided an email from VHB when they looked at it.

Um the long and short, not to sort of go into my phone and read the entire email.

Yeah, it's it's uh it's a viable option.

Um, but it needs more work.

So um don't take it off the table, but look at it as you get more into the design is basically what they said.

So if you'll remember the median was deemed necessary to allow for left hand turning traffic.

Um two intersections Elm and Godwin.

Where the traffic lights are today.

That's correct.

No, I uh that's on the east side of the district.

I don't have the map in front of me.

The left turn numbers, correct me if I'm wrong, Councilman Trolledge were heavier on the west side of the district.

Yeah, there was actually more than just those two.

Um when you get around Norcom uh there was some located there.

Um then also you have when you get to the MLK expressway.

Um trying to get onto the MLK expressway using one lane each way is gonna be virtually impossible.

Um so that's needed there.

Um but I believe just around that was it the western part of the district.

Yeah, uh, there was at least four or five in addition to what you were just mentioning um due to those high traffic area areas.

So it wasn't just the two stop lights.

And the projected future growth in that in that whole corridor indicated that we were approaching a higher volume in the western end of the district, and that would continue to grow with development.

So bottom line was we would obviously need some kind of method for left turns, whether that's mini roundabouts or the median.

Um and it sounds like I'm I've just only had minutes to sort of scan this and kind of goes to what we were emailing a little bit back and forth, which was um the opportunity it it may work there.

There's some options for uh roundabout that's traversable because it's flat, but then that of course eliminates the opportunity for landscaping or public art.

Um there's some discussion about volume and whether the traffic on all four sides of the intersection is balanced.

That's when roundabouts work best.

That's correct, Mr.

Wright.

That is correct.

So again, it's it's not a no, but it's it's a needs more needs more inspection, I believe, at this point.

Um it does say in the notes here that you know the goal of this district is placemaking and streetscape and character.

And in the email that I forwarded you all right before we arrived, I mean that's kind of the look, which a little concrete in my opinion.

Um but I don't disagree with you, Councilman Hugo, that I think they're innovative and I think they're unusual, and I think they add character, which is the goal of this district.

So I would love to hear from you all.

I I do think we want to create something interesting and unique in a space that's different and exciting and not historic like Old Town is historic right up against it.

Um this would be unique and interesting.

Certainly.

I agree with you on that for sure.

So so I have one what one thing I want to say about the roundabouts.

So I I did speak to the engineer this evening uh before we had the meeting.

One of the ideas that we talked about in this linked district, walkability, accessibility, and and traffic slowing, right?

I'm not I'm not convinced that just having the traffic just open is not going is gonna slow the traffic down.

Well, I envision and what Mark and I and many other physics talked about is these roundabouts will create a traffic slowing mechanism, which they will.

Um, and as you come into them, um they've got great new um ways of doing them that that are pretty interchangeable, pretty flexible to use, that are not really expensive.

You can still have the raised bike lanes with these roundabouts, and part of what we want to create is a walkable slow down, enjoy the view type of environment.

I think the roundabout is something to be considered for that, particularly at Elm and Godwin.

Because you got big big trucks and things entering the high the uh the corridor and all of that, so that might be more of a problem.

But I think up front, it it does present a calming and a slowing down effect.

And we want that, I think, in that area of of the district.

Certainly we want that near the high school as well, but I think coming down, it creates a sense of after they hit those two spots, it will create a sense of hey, I need to slow down a little bit.

Because I watched some video of roundabouts, and I watched how people came into the roundabouts, and they do slow people down because you have to pause, you have to pay attention to what's happening in that whole process.

Now, for the trucks that are making that left-hand turn in the roundabout, certainly they're not gonna be able to go through the whole roundabout.

Perhaps the fire truck, they'll have to kind of cut a little bit over the the middle area of the roundabout.

But I guess for me, it's not unreasonable to have the expectation.

Um and one of the things I learned about the roundabouts today, particularly the materials that they have, um, they have new materials that are made out of recycled material.

And so it doesn't have to be concrete, it can be a number of different types of material, but the good news is we talk about this being a green area and using all this other innovative stuff.

How innovative would that be to use some different type of materials that we could speak to that you know no other community has here in the region?

I think that's pretty neat.

So that's just my two cents.

Councilman Dotson.

Um the one thing that I uh learned about this was that HRT needs to have some involvement.

No, they do not.

No, they do not.

Okay, and what way do you mean?

HRT is our transportation company, they handle the bus routes in terms of where the buses go.

They have nothing to do with the streetscape.

They have no input in this process.

I talked to the executive director today, okay, William Harrell, and we are very clear on that understanding.

Councilman Hugo, you have the floor here.

Yeah, thanks, ma'am.

So I concede on option one, with the exception of I'm not ready to give in on medians because I think medians are wasted space for all the reasons that we've already talked about.

So is roundabouts the only solution?

Heck, I don't know.

How did the roundabout thing come up?

Well, because we talked and and you said uh so if you can give examples of how we solve the turn lane problem, then maybe we can get to uh no median solution with uh uh alternate solution to turn lanes.

And so in a half hour on Google, I found the V dot road design handbook, and there was a chapter in there about innovative solutions.

And so I thought, well, let's go see what's innovative.

And the mini roundabout thing just kind of leap leaped out of me because uh we don't want a median, we don't want a roundabout that interrupts a parade.

Well, so the mini roundabout solves that problem.

Anyway, so so it jumped out now.

Were there other innovative things that are in the road design manual?

Yes.

Do I know how to employ them?

No, because I'm not a road design guy.

I'm just a guy that spent a half hour on Google.

So I I say I still think we should push to get rid of the medians.

I still think we should ask the experts, help us figure out how to get rid of the medians instead of giving us a solution that looks like the HOV lane in the interstate highway, which is what we've gotten so far.

And so I don't want HOV lanes in the interstate highway.

I want something that that's uh charming and cool, and uh roundabouts work swell, and if there's something else innovative out there instead of roundabouts that solves the problem, bring it on.

But just giving us what you've already given us ain't scratching my itch.

Councilman Tillage, you have the floor, sir.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um I know when we were when we were given this task about three and a half weeks ago, um I knew that this conversation people still had their feelings about what they want.

Sure.

Um, and so um when we had the meeting with um the team uh three weeks ago to discuss all these uh the different layouts, possibilities, and things of that nature.

Um the option one uh was recommended um by the team who does the traffic designs and with the the team, the engineering team.

And so um when speaking about the different options that we could do uh to do away with um as you call it the HOA HOV lay, um other things were were provided, uh whether it was a raised median, whether it was more of a physical barrier, whatever that looked like.

Um when speaking with the team, that option one creates that flexibility piece.

It creates the flexibility for if there needs to be additional room, if there needs to be the movable plants to be able to use as physical barriers um to block off streets.

Uh we talked about the angle versus the parallel parking um and all the different things around that.

And so uh when speaking to the team that that does do the traffic, that that was their um their recommendation.

And so um I do know that when we spoke with them three and a half weeks ago, they wanted a response then.

Uh we didn't do that um because they you know uh Councilman Brian wanted to make sure that everybody had the ability to be able to chime into it after she had spoken with those people.

But uh when I spoke to the manager, it's kind of one of things of we gotta get an answer, right?

Yeah, I gotta get an answer, we gotta get it soon.

Um, and so I think like I said, I think the option one gives us that flexibility.

Um it may be something down the road that we see that there's a possibility to add um a roundabout due to some study, but this this layout here would give you that flexible flexibility to do so than the option two when that we had.

And so I think um for the sake of the project, I do think that we should move forward with option one.

And and to your point, so when I spoke about the roundabout, the roundabout that we can put in today, we can put a roundabout in today.

To your point, like you said, it can be an option that we can see how it works.

If it doesn't work, we can remove the roundabout.

So it does give you that.

That's why I was saying when I looked into it, it gives you that flexibility.

It's not a hard piece of cement or something that's put there.

These new component products that they have, they have these roundabouts in other localities where you can actually put them in place.

If they don't work, some localities have done that, and if they didn't work, they remove them.

But many of them, one example was in Annandale, Virginia, they put the roundabout in with the idea it was a temporary to see how it would work.

It ended up working so well ten years later, it's still there.

What I'm saying is let's not you know discount what it could be if we have a potential to put something there to temporarily see what it could be.

To me, that's that's a good approach because we will know what it can't be.

And so I I don't have a problem with moving forward, but I think that if it's something that sets the things in motion, the safety, the slowing down of the traffic, and it still gives us what we want down the whole corridor, perhaps is something that we can install and less meet us all halfway.

If it doesn't work, we can take it up.

It's not a it's not an exorbitant cost.

I it's gonna be a cost involved, but the engineer told me today that's not an exorbitant cost, and other localities have done it.

What I'm saying is let's look at this.

This is our first bite at the Apple.

We're not going to get a hundred different times to do it, but we will have an opportunity if it doesn't work, we can remove it.

That's just an option.

Well, to that point, if we could, um if we could have the agreement to be able to give to the team the option one, and then to have them be able to, so that they can move forward with that, but then have them to be able to provide to us what the traffic effects would be or would not be with or without the media.

I mean, not the medium, the uh the roundabout.

So that way they're still able to proceed, but at the same time they're able to give us the information that we need to because one thing I I I noticed when we had the meeting that I was actually surprised with was I was thinking at the corner of High Street in Elm was a much more busier intersection than it really was.

And so when he provided the numbers, I was actually shocked to see that based on their study, it's not as busy as I thought it was.

And so to that point, having them to be able to study that roundabout while still being able to give them the green light to move, it doesn't slow down a project, but it still allows us that flexibility to determine if that's something that can or cannot be done.

And I like that idea, but I guess the the the point I'm trying to make to your point is we can do both.

We can move forward.

Yeah, we can have the roundabout installed.

It doesn't have to be an all-line.

We can have it installed to see if it works, get the feedback.

That's real time.

And what'll happen is if it doesn't work, we can remove it.

Um it's it's it's I think it meets everybody's standard.

And by the way, um that's what we're part of this is what we're trying to get done.

We're trying to put in the best practice.

So that could be one of the best practices.

And if we do it simultaneously, it could perhaps work.

If it doesn't, we just we just take it out.

And and and and I'm assuring you all that we'll look at it, we'll have the engineer the the look at it, but they can put this thing in place, um, and you can pick it just up just like it's a puzzle, and it's very aesthetically pleasing.

It it looks really good.

So I'm just saying consider it.

It it I'm I'm with whatever the group says we want to do, but I think to not do the roundabout to even see what it could be.

I think we're we're we're missing an opportunity, perhaps.

That's all.

What's my speech?

What's the cost to do that?

Well, today he he said to me typically it could be a hundred thousand dollars or so.

Um, but if we're doing it in conjunction with what we're doing right now, um that's that's what the cost was.

It wasn't like it was a million dollars to do it.

And if if we're doing the project, um it's a consideration.

So if it works, it stays there, you don't have to redo it.

Right.

And here's the other thing, because of the way it's components set, you don't have to have our own public works people could put it in place.

We don't have to go out and hire another organization to do it.

This is what he told me.

These new components that they have in place, your public works people can install it.

All it is is it it's a mold and and you get the parts and you put it in place.

It's it's put into the concrete, but other than that, it's pretty simple to do.

Yes, ma'am.

Yes, sir.

Thank you.

It's been uh very interesting dialogue, I think, with a lot of information.

Um we we selected the committee members for committee liaisons to take if it's you know, decide between alternative one, uh option two, and then we added our own additional feedback.

Sounds like councilman McBryant, Councilman Tillage with their back, you know, the background and the meetings with engineering, traffic studies, Cape Charles, all the conversations they've had, they decided that the best recommendation to move forward with was alternative one.

Um I think at this time we are getting into the details about uh you know the actual future design and whether you know temporary roundabout, permanent roundabout.

I think at this point we should provide a decision to uh Mr.

Carter on the recommendation from our two council liaisons on if we want to move forward with their recommendation um that they sent us via email on alternative one, and go from there.

Um and if the discussion about the roundabout comes with the future design as the team moves forward, we can you know tackle that at that time, but I think right now we should probably you need us to make a decision tonight, right?

Yes.

Okay.

I my recommendation is that we call for consensus to take the recommendation from our two committee members at this time to move forward with alternative one based on their recommendation.

Um so that's my recommendation to call for the consensus for that.

Okay.

Councilman Hugo, so yeah, absolutely.

So a question to the two of you.

So option one includes the median as part of the design, right?

Yes.

Yes.

So the whole point of doing the homework on roundabouts was to get rid of the median.

So if we approve option one, have we committed to have a median?

Unless you make a modification to it.

Okay.

Council Councilman uh, I mean Vice Mayor Moody.

And then well, okay, the manager just answered that question.

Okay.

So I would have to modify that to include no mediums and also the roundabouts.

So I'm sorry, can I can I no one?

Well, I want to come back to clarify a question.

Go ahead.

Okay, thanks, Mayor.

Um, are you Councilman Hugo envisioning a series of roundabouts?

One at every intersect.

Um or two signature ones, one signature one are you what are you envisioning?

Yeah, so so based on the briefing that he gave us in our last work session, he described that we would need turn lanes at two intersections.

And the two intersections that he mentioned were the two that have traffic lights today.

That's Godwin and Elm.

And so my thinking in doing the homework was we get rid of the median, and we only have to accommodate left turns at two places along the uh the link district from the MLK expressway all the way to Effingham.

Now I got it that at the MLK Expressway, we're gonna have to do something different.

I don't see that as in the link.

The the thing that we're trying to preserve, the charm isn't the MLK expressway, it's the rest.

And so my point in trying to get rid of the median was to get rid of the median and put roundabouts in two locations only, the two uh uh cross intersections where we currently have traffic lights.

And it made sense to me when he was briefing that those were the intersections of concern because that's how we ended up with traffic lights in those two locations.

Sorry, I don't want to cut you off.

Is it okay, Mayor?

Absolutely.

That's as of today, not ten years from now or as the district grows.

So you had the benefit of that, and I didn't.

All I had was the briefing that he gave us at the work session that said two intersections is where we have to accommodate left turn length.

So that western end of the district where they're anticipating growth is where he communicated to us that there would be future need for more left turns.

I'm Mr.

Ray, are you familiar with that information?

That that was the gist of basically the the breaking I got before he met with y'all that um looking at the future towards the west, it's school social services, it's heavier in there, and then if you add additional traffic in there, I need more room for left turns, so yeah.

Which just may indicate that we couldn't do away with a median in that section, it would it would cause future problems, is what I see.

And and I will edge that to that piece um based on his prediction of what the future would bring.

That based on the current zoning and density requirements, if properties were on that land today, you would need those additional things.

That has nothing to do with if we increase density.

And so, of course, as a downtown grows, you're looking at possible, not saying today, but in the near few in the future, the possible need for increased density, which means that you're gonna need even more in the future.

And so that this plan is not just a his recommendation wasn't just based on 2026, it was literally based on 2036 and beyond.

And so that's you know that that's kind of where my comfort piece comes into it, is knowing that this is a flexible space that allows for high street to grow and hopefully bring the downtown further west.

It'll this the option one allows for that.

Okay.

Ma'am, you have the floor.

I think I'm good.

I've I've heard the the discussion and to their point, you know, we don't have all the information because they had the additional meetings that we asked them to carry for about the current design, current traffic flow, future traffic flow.

So that's why I was calling for I think I my based on my knowledge and based on us trusting these two to do the additional homework, meet with the engineering traffic studies, and so forth.

That's my recommendation that uh we go with their recommendation of the two council members that we assigned to to make that decision for us.

I don't have anything additional to add conversation.

Thank you.

Mr.

Carter.

Yes, sir.

So I'm gonna call for consensus that we proceed with option one at this time, and that's what it sounds like we're gonna do.

However, I will leave a caveat open to say that I think we should look at the roundabout option as we go through the development.

I understand density and all that, but once again, I think the idea is to slow traffic down even with density.

It's okay to slow the traffic down.

And I think with the new information that they gave us, we need to look at that information more intently so that we all have an have a better informed situation.

That's all I recommend.

So all in favor of proceeding with option one, um please uh note by saying or raise your hand.

We'll be proceeding, sir, with option one and um following up with the other information.

Okay.

Thank you very much, Mayor.

That was exactly what we needed.

Just some direction of how to move this forward.

That is thank you.

That's some pending things that really require decision.

So that concludes everything that I had to present to see that again.

We did have uh the support site schedule, but um the presenter had some conflicts, we're not able to make it today.

We're not able to make it today.

Uh however, I will do a summary of the items that we do have on the agenda.

We do um the council agenda is primarily administrative in nature for tonight.

We've I'm focused on accepting and appropriating now side funding.

We did the agenda includes 14 ordinances and one resolution with approximately 14.76 million dollars and accepted or reappropriated grant funding out uh our allocations, the biggest of which is a reallocation of 13.6 million dollars for our public schools in their grant fund.

We also have uh outside of that a four million dollar federal port industrial infrastructure or the grant application that requires no city match, but it does require uh us to approve uh that process moving forward.

Uh that is through our PPIC uh and that is a grant uh that is for uh one point four million, not one point four four million dollars that can be appropriated through uh crafting incorporated.

Uh overall the uh agenda uh largest federal state settlement and state settlement and private resources to support public schools, public utilities, social services, be healthcare services, and economic development.

We also have uh cell two Virginia 2026 environment uh event readiness that we're trying to make sure that we have ready.

Uh but other than that, uh that includes what we will be considering this evening.

There will be a public hearing on potential moving a uh election site uh temporarily, but what that public hearing is over that is also included in the agenda.

That's it for this evening, thank you guys for your time.

Thank you for the conversation.

Thank you for your direction.

Thank you.

And guys, thank you guys for your work on that committee.

So just a quick uh commission report.

So we attended PPIC this morning.

The item that the manager briefed for Crofton to work with the PPIC to get the federal grant was one PPI C item.

There's another in the consent agenda for Radiant Forge.

Yes.

So that is 265,000 dollars of somebody else's money to be matched by 265,000 that PPIC had committed.

Uh it's like the third or fourth item in the city manager report items.

And anyway, I wanted to share with everybody that PPIC supported both of those, and so they're uh they're they're looking for us to uh include the include those in our consent agenda to vote tonight.

Thank you.

Okay dokie.

Thank you, sir.

Yes, I give Alies on report also.

Absolutely.

Um just wanted to make you all aware that the behavior health care services advisory board is looking at doing some restructuring.

Um their board members to examine different ways that they could work to support programming better.

So nothing pressing as of yet, but they're looking to become a little bit more active in in working with um Ms.

Bradstock, the director, on how they can support and grow as as she implements a lot of changes within that department.

So if um I don't know, Miss Waite, if there's any seats on that advisory board that are coming up, but if there's a consumer um position on the board, and we've been waiting to get a recommendation from the director.

Okay, um, for that, but I would have to check the other appointments just for awareness that that's something that they're looking to be more proactive and engaged with the programming.

Okay, coming from the director.

Thank you.

Great, great work over there.

Any other questions in the layers reports?

Okay, that concludes our public work session.

We do have a need to go into a closed session.

So Ice Mayor, would you please read the call session motion?

I move to go into a closed meeting pursuing the Virginia Code subsection 2.2-3711A8 for the purpose of consultation with legal counsel employed by the public body regarding specific matters requiring the provision of legal advice by such counsel specifically regarding the rehabilitation real estate uh program under divisions five and six of Article 3, Chapter 35 of the City Code.

Second.

Motion second, madam clerk.

Would you please call the role?

Yes, sir, Miss Bryant, yes, Dr.

Dotson, yes, Mr.

Hugo.

Mr.

Moody, yes, Ms.

Thomas, yes, Mr.

Tillett, yes, Mayor Glover.

Yes.

Thank you.

information public emotion by which meeting just by the way.

Good evening, citizens of Portsmouth, and welcome to our city council meeting.

And I just want to acknowledge all of the citizens that are in the audience, also our city staff who is with us here today.

Thank you all for coming and listening to this very important business.

Also, I want to acknowledge um our city manager, Mr.

Stephen Carter, our city attorney, Mr.

Derek Challenger, and our city clerk, Miss Deborah White.

Thank you all for being here.

And now I will ask that my colleagues on council please note your attendance electronically.

I Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you all.

And so we did the electronic roll call already.

So we'll now move to minutes.

And we have a call meeting on May 11, 2026, a called meeting on May 12, 2026, and a regular meeting on May 12, 2026.

Do we have a motion and a second to approve the minutes?

Second.

Please vote electronically.

The minutes are adopted 60.

Thank you, ma'am.

And Madam Clerk, would you please read the council rules?

Yes, sir.

Ladies and gentlemen, City Council rules require a limit of up to five minutes to speak.

As you approach the speaker's podium, you will notice a timer.

At the beginning of your five minutes, you will see a green light.

Four minutes into your remarks, you will notice a yellow light.

At the end of five minutes, you will see a red light.

Hear a beep, and we ask that you conclude your comments at that time.

While speakers have an opportunity to address counsel on matters of public concern, all comments should be made in a manner that respects the seriousness of the forum and should not be made in a belligerent, sarcastic or demeaning fashion.

Our remarks shall be directed to the city council as a body rather than any particular member of City Council staff or the audience and should be limited to matters that only the Portsmouth City Council can influence.

A speaker who fails to observe this basic rule of the quorum will be deemed out of order and not allowed to conclude his or her comments.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

We're now move to the next agenda item public hearing.

Item 26-131.

And Madam Hurt, Madam Clerk, would you please read the public hearing item?

Yes, sir.

Public hearing with respect to the proposed temporary leak relocation of the polling place for precinct 11 from Joseph E.

Parker Recreation Center to the Stephen H.

Clark Academy.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Yes, sir.

Do we have a speaker for this public hearing item?

No.

Okay.

No speaker.

Then, ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing.

If you wish to come forward and speak on this public hearing item, you're not required to have signed up.

However, if you do come forward, state your name and address, you will have five minutes.

Anyone would like to come up and speak on this public hearing item.

Item 26-131.

Seeing none, this public hearing is closed.

We will now move to agenda item 26-132, city manager's report and consent agenda.

And madam clerk, would you please read the consent agenda?

Yes, sir.

And just to be noted, we have no registered speakers on the consent agenda.

Yes, ma'am.

Item A, adoption of an ordinance to amend and reordain Section 10-97, precinct number 11 of Division 3 of Chapter 10 of the Code of the City of Portsmouth, Virginia to temporarily change the voting place for precinct 11 from the Joseph E.

Parker Recreation Center to the Stephen H.

Clark Academy, located at 2801 Turnpike Road for the August 4th, 2026 primary election only.

Item B, adoption of an ordinance accepting with appreciation, the donation by the Friends of the Porcens Mounted Patrol of a new 2026 Gore Horse Trailer for use by the police department's mounted patrol unit.

Item C adoption of an ordinance to reappropriate carry over federal grant funds in the amount of 13 million six hundred ninety-six thousand five hundred-nine dollars from the FY 2025 Portsmouth Public Schools Grant Fund Budget to the FY 2026 Portson Public Schools Grant Fund Budget.

Item D, adoption of an ordinance, accepting a dam safety and floodplain management program grant in the amount of $31,789 from the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation and appropriating said amount in the dam upgrades project in the water category of the FY 2026 Capital Improvement Fund Budget for the preparation of a preliminary engineering report for the Lake Cahun Dam.

Item E, adoption of an ordinance accepting settlement funds in the amount of $84,282 and 48 cents from the PFAS settlement with TICO Fire Products LP and appropriating set amount in the FY 2026 Public Utility Fund for use by the Department of Public Utilities for Water Supply Testing and Treatment and other authorized uses under the terms of the settlement.

Item F, adoption of an ordinance accepting funding in the amount of $1,200 from the Virginia Department of Social Services and appropriating set amount in the FY 2026 Social Services Fund for the Family Partnership Meeting Incentive Program.

Item G, adoption of an ordinance to accept local staff and operations passed through funding in the amount of $76,957 from the Virginia Department of Social Services and appropriating set amount in the FY 2026 Social Services Fund.

Item H, adoption of an ordinance accepting Commonwealth Development Opportunity Fund grant funds in the amount of 265,000 dollars from the Virginia Economic Development Partnership Authority and appropriating said funds in the FY 2026 grants fund for distribution to Portsmouth Port and Industrial Commission and Radian Forge Inc.

upon receipt of the funds and satisfaction of the grant requirements.

Item I adoption of an ordinance closing certain city-owned or controlled docking areas to public use for the sale Virginia 2026 event.

Item J, adoption of an ordinance accepting settlement funds in the amount of $41,327 and 40 cents from Opiort Settlements and appropriating set amount in the FY 2026 Behavioral Health Care Service Fund for use by BHS for approved abatement purposes as defined by the Virginia Opiot Fund and Settlement Allocation MOU.

Item K, adoption of an ordinance accepting one-time step Virginia enhancement grant funds in the amount of $323,482 and 60 cents from the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services and appropriating set amount in the FY 2026 Behavioral Health Care Service Fund for use by BHS to enhance Step Virginia Services.

Item L adoption of an ordinance accepting one-time federal substance abuse prevention and treatment block grant funds in the amount of $5,250 through the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services and appropriating said funds in the FY 2026 Behavioral Health Care Service Fund for use by BHS.

Item M, adoption of an ordinance accepting $30,248 from the Virginia Crisis Intervention Team Coalition, an appropriating set amount in the FY 2026 Behavioral Health Care Service Fund for use by BHS for training professional development and stakeholder recognition activities.

Item N adoption of an ordinance accepting $59,498 and 61 cents from the Weston Tide Water Community Services Board and appropriating set amount in the FY 2026 Behavioral Health Care Service Fund for Use by BHS for data system modernization.

And finally, item O, adoption of a resolution certifying the city support of an application for the U.S.

Department of Transportation's Port Infrastructure Development Program in furtherance of the development of 16 Harper Avenue for port-related uses and the purchase of Crane Components to replace an aging heavy lift asset.

Madam Clerk, thank you for going through two-thirds of the alphabet.

Council members, we are in need of a motion in a second to approve the consent agenda.

Second councilman Dotson, sir, you have the floor.

Thank you.

Um sometimes hidden in an agenda is some major accomplishments that aren't visible to the public.

I wanted to point out one item O.

I believe that Crofton Enterprises is not mentioned by name here, but they're doing an innovation, innovative project here that um furthers our ability to deliver services uh to the whole Chesapeake Bay right here from Portsmouth.

If you haven't had a chance to understand some of this, there was a PPIC meeting this morning, and I thoroughly encourage you to go review the minutes from that from how they're upgrading uh equipment upgrading the crane, the crane and everything.

It's just as innovative as some of the other big projects that we have around here.

And I wanted to highlight it.

Thank you, sir.

We have a motion and a second.

Any additional discussion on this item?

Seeing none, please vote electronically.

The consent agenda is adopted.

Seven fear.

Thank you, madam clerk.

Yes, sir.

We have now moved to the item of new business, item 26-133 boards and commissions.

Councilman Hugo, do we have any boards of commit boards or commissions this evening?

And thanks, Mr.

Mayor.

We have no board and commission business this evening.

Thank you, sir.

Next item, item 26-134.

Items submitted by council members.

Councilman Tillage, sir, you have the floor.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, I just wanted to highlight a couple of events that uh were happening in the last couple of weeks.

Um I had an opportunity to attend an event called Stop Human Trafficking Community Day at Third Baptist Church.

Um, it was organized by an organization uh called Lot Carrie and helped to bring awareness um to human trafficking that happens not only here uh in Hampton Roads but across the Commonwealth of Virginia, and it was greatly attended uh by a large number of people and to be able to see people come out to be able to identify signs of human trafficking and to be able to share some of the stories that they experience in their life to help other people from having to become victims of such a uh horrific uh crime.

Um and they also had an organization called Jumping for Justice, which consisted of uh adults over the age of 40 uh doing double Dutch.

And so those this group travels all across the Commonwealth to help to bring awareness to human trafficking uh by hosting double Dutch events.

And so um I'm not 40, but I take my head off to those individuals who are doing it because I'm not doing it.

And so it was it was good to see uh those individuals uh with that much energy and helping to bring awareness.

Uh also that same day I attended the 107th anniversary of Truxton.

And so for many of you all out here, you all know that Cuxton is one of our historic neighborhoods uh here in the city of Portsmouth.

Um it was founded 107 years ago.

Um and it's been a predominantly black neighborhood uh for all these 107 years.

Um, and to see the the neighborhood still standing strong um and still being the the vibrant neighborhood that is is it was it has been for so long is is is great.

And so um it was great to be able to uh converse and get to network and meet a lot of those uh citizens who live in that that area and who also take pride um in their community.

And then finally, uh I just want to thank our parks and recreation staff.

Uh they had a very busy weekend this weekend with the Yemoja Festival, um, and then also the Memorial Day parade on yesterday.

And so I just want to take this opportunity to recognize those women and men for their hard work and long hours that they provided uh this weekend to the citizens of Portsmouth to ensure that we had a fun, eventful weekend uh despite the uh the weather that we had.

So thank you all to the staff.

Councilman Hugo, sir, you have the floor.

Yeah, thanks, Mayor.

So just to pile on to uh Councilman Tillage's attaboy.

Uh I was at the reviewing stand for the Memorial Day parade yesterday, about an hour before the parade started, and watched our parks and recs folks finish setting everything up in the middle of a pouring rainstorm.

Those folks were soaking wet by the time they got done.

Uh so kudos to uh as councilman Tillage said, kudos to our parks and recs folks for really a very busy, another very busy weekend, uh, but also to the rest of the city team that supported yesterday's parade.

So we had police, fire and emt, we had uh uh folks cleaning, we had uh just a lot of city staff folks that were working uh while while uh the while the rest of us were uh off for Memorial Day and uh and working behind the scenes to make sure that our 142nd consecutive Memorial Day parade uh came off without a hit.

So, city manager uh please convey to your team uh our uh collective thanks for their hard work behind the scenes to make all this come out right.

Councilwoman Thomas, ma'am.

You have the floor.

Okay, thank you.

Um thank you, Mayor.

I will also like to say I had a great time attending the two events that Councilman Tillage uh mentioned, uh Truckston's Community Day, it was excellent, as well as the jumping for justice at Third Baptist Church with the Lot Carey uh organization providing some of those resources about sex trafficking, domestic um abuse, and resources available to citizens in our community.

I want to say survivors, so those it was great to listen to those stories of resiliency, survivorship, and understanding some of the state resources and local resources available for victims.

Um I also want to mention uh and also say kudos and thank you to uh I don't know who did the planning, sir, but for our city of Portsmouth employee family and friends day.

Um it was an excellent event, one of the best I've ever attended, just to recognize our city employees and how much we value them and appreciate them and their families just for the work that they do to make the city operate in such a high level.

So uh kudos to your team as well, uh Mr.

Carter, on that into Parks and Rec.

Whoever did the all the planning staff that were involved in that.

Also want to mention, you know, a proud moment for our city and the students in our city graduation is coming up this week.

And so just to say congratulations in advance to all of our Portsmouth Public Schools graduates as they move forward to the next chapter in their school career, whether it's jobs, military, uh certification through workforce development, college.

Just want to say congratulations in advance and kudos to making it this far.

I continue to keep going.

And then for our younger students that are that we know as a city, we support families as well.

Um there's still I believe there's still spaces available for our summer raise program.

Mr.

Carter, let me know if there's if that program still has space or not.

Um but okay, and then there's also still space um in Starbase, I believe, as well.

So I want to highlight Starbase as well.

Um it's a possible summer camp.

Our Portsmouth Public Schools has lots of summer camp options as well with uh music, art, STEM camp, and then another camp I wanted to highlight, which I'm still just learning more and more about the organization through our Virginia Cooperative Extension is the 4 H camp.

And they have a week camp in Wakefield, Virginia, I believe.

And it's kind of like an outdoors cabin getaway, and they do offer scholarship opportunities.

It's $350 for the week, but our students or um sorry, community kids can participate in archery, all types of kayaking, all type of outdoor activities for a week.

Um, and they provide transportation as well.

If you are interested in that um that camp, I will I have information.

You can reach out to me on via email, but I'll also see if I can get with Peter to provide some type of link on our social media as well about that campus, a great opportunity, and they offer scholarships to pay for kids that are interested.

And they have, I believe, 20 22 more spots, I believe, if that's correct.

But just wanted to give that information for parents, families that are looking for something for their children to do to do as we enter the the end of the school year.

Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am.

Councilwoman Bryant, ma'am.

You have the floor.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, want to give a thanks to our Parks and Rec team for all that they've done in the last several weeks.

Um, but in particular, I was able to join them for the lunchtime bike ride.

I believe it's been 10 years that we've been doing this, Officer Henderson was there along with several other Portsmouth police uh bike riders to keep us safe.

It's a really nice way to spend an afternoon, and as we talk more and more about bicycling across across the um the city, it's it's a nice highlight.

So if you have a biker, a cyclist and get an opportunity, please join us next year.

Um also want to thank our rock the block crew that came out and poured a lot of time and energy into getting us ready for our Juneteenth and Sale 250 events coming up.

We um focused on the downtown high street area old town neighborhood because we're expecting lots of visitors, and that's just about less than actually a month away.

So please keep that on your calendars, June 19th to 20, uh, excuse me, June 19th to June 22nd.

Um and if you're able to come down to High Street, please make note of a lot of the work that's been done to keep it looking nice for our um tourists that are coming and for all of you that will hopefully be joining us for a celebration that week.

Um so again, thank you to all of our staff that was participated in the rock the block.

And Mr.

Carter for always organizing those event.

Vice Mayor Moody, sir, you have the floor.

Thank you, Mayor.

Before May get gets away, uh May is older Americans month.

Many of us uh probably didn't know that actually.

Uh it was established in 1963 by President John F.

Kennedy, and it was a way to recognize the vitality and the dedication of uh older Americans.

Uh and uh we we need to um uh thank them.

Uh we you know Portsmouth uh really is uh has more senior citizens, older Americans than most of the communities around here.

So uh thank them for their contributions for the vitality, and also recognize the fact that many of them have needs that we need to recognize as well.

And uh my colleague uh councilwoman Thomas mentioned the 4H Club.

That is a wonderful place.

Uh in fact, uh City Council for I think about two years, we had our council retreats at the 4-H Club.

Um it's uh it's definitely uh out in the country and a place where uh uh kids can uh learn to ride and do all kinds of things, uh fish, archery, uh a lot of animals out there, and uh perhaps we need to look at that as a potential retreat location uh again sometime.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, sir.

I'm not sure I want to go archery and the city council.

Well, uh I actually do have a couple items once again celebrated the 34th annual Yumja Festival here in the city of Portsmouth.

A lot of folks came out, it was a great day.

Everyone was already thanked for their amazing work.

But I want to just say this on behalf of our city.

I believe that we have the best parks and recreation city employees on the planet.

These folks get the work done and they do it with a smile on their face, and they make it better for everyone here.

So thank you guys, and thank you, Mr.

Carter, for your leadership on that front.

The other disclaimer I need to point out is that during the bike ride, the police officers um get to use their electric bikes.

So I don't know that they're really working hard uh during the bike ride, but but we'll acknowledge that they're saving their energy for more important things.

Um last week we dedicated the wonderful piece of art jubilation.

Many of you remember jubilation statue outside of Willard Hall, where now it sits at our roundabout for all to see and view, and we're proud of the fact that we were able to restore it and retain it so that the community could have an appreciation.

These are the things that we're doing on behalf of the citizens of Portsmouth, and you should be proud of that because it's a very proud moment for the city of Portsmouth.

Lastly, I want to just acknowledge that we lost the a good citizens here in the city of Portsmouth, who is a guy that I listened to a lot during my journey uh to this office.

His name was Reggie Allen, and Reggie had a good friend called Joe Wright, and those two guys were inseparable.

If you knew if you knew Joe Wright, Reggie won't far behind.

But at the end of the day, um, we're grateful for Reggie's service to the community.

So I just want to take a moment and I ask that you take a moment of silence in remembrance of our friend, our neighbor, and our family member, Reggie Allen.

Thank you.

Next, we have item 26-135 report on pending items.

Mr.

Carter, sir, you have the floor.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you to all the counsel for the accolades given to our team that's been working over the last well forever to actually get these things done.

Um you have your uh report back for uh the last couple of meetings, so you should have that information in front of you.

I had a couple things that I wanted to mention.

Uh, we've already talked about uh all the events of this weekend and and our family and friends day.

I want to point out this important distinction.

You there's a lot of work that goes on in the background to make all of those events happen.

One of the things that we do for our family and friends day is the requirement is that no city employee works.

So that is a day where even though all those things are happening, uh we've coordinated somebody else get it done because it's important to me that on that day all city employees get to be celebrated and not work.

So just realize that on that family and friends day, no city the requirement is that no city employee can work that day, even to support what the event is.

Yeah, so I think that's really important, and and it's really special that we get to do that for our employees.

So thank you again, Team Poorsmith, for all that you do and for the work that you do just to make poor smooth great.

So thank you.

Item 26-136, non-agenda speakers.

And madam clerk, would you please read the speaker's statement?

Yes, sir.

Ladies and gentlemen, city council rules require a limit of up to five minutes to speak.

As you approach the speaker's podium, you will notice a timer at the beginning of your five minutes, you will see a green light.

Four minutes into your remarks, you will notice a yellow light.

At the end of five minutes, you will see a red light, hear a beat, and we ask that you conclude your comments at that time.

While speakers have an opportunity to address counsel on matters of public concern, all comments should be made in a manner that respects the seriousness of the forum and should not be made in a belligerent, sarcastic or remaining fashion.

All remarks shall be directed to the city council as a body rather than to any particular member of City Council, staff, or the audience, and should be limited to matters to only the Portsmouth City Council can influence.

A speaker who fails to observe this basic rule of decorum will be deemed out of order and not allowed to conclude his or her comments.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Our first speaker tonight is Miss Alexandra Westfall.

Miss Westfall, if you would come forward, state your name and address.

You will have five minutes.

Hello, good evening.

Alexandra Westfall, uh, 4102 Scott Street.

Um hello again.

Um it's great to be here.

Thank you for being here.

Um I'm here on behalf of the West Haven Civic League.

Um I don't have quite the posse of support back here due to the Board of Zoning Appeals meeting tomorrow that most of our neighborhood is um focused on attending.

Um so I'm here tonight to follow up on the remarks I made at the April 14th meeting um regarding the special acception process and the zoning ordinance that was adopted in November 2023.

Uh I followed up a couple days later with my full remarks to city council, and I've had a couple of conversations since.

Um, but there have been no meetings.

Uh I recently learned that planning was waiting to meet with us.

Um, so I have emailed the planning department.

Um looking forward to scheduling a meeting and hearing back from them.

Um what I also want to emphasize tonight, and uh more than just hey, I'm still here, and this is still a frustration.

Um, is following up on one of our frustrations and concerns with the process, and that's the city records.

The FOIA request that we submitted a few weeks ago is still pending and has not been returned to us.

Um, but I wanted to share that in early April when I first called on behalf of the league to verify ownership of the property.

The city records stated that it was owned by the private individual as of the end of March of this year.

In early April, the developer was already in the neighborhood telling neighbors he owned the property and started demolition of trees and a fence.

I confirmed with the city records and the assessor's office.

This person does not own the property, but yet we were unable to do anything.

Um as of today, the city records show that that developer owns the property as of the end of April this year.

I understand there can be delays and and updating information, but this is a real gray area for ownership and accountability with the city, and I would really hope you guys look into the process here.

Um it's something that has caused deep frustration as we watched uh large trees get demolished, and being told we can't do anything.

Um, the city records showed a vast difference in property values and selling prices for a couple of the properties in the neighborhood.

You guys were copied on the email to the Board of Zoning Appeals.

Um, those example properties are what I'm speaking to from the city records.

So that's the 4108 Scott Street, 4109 Scott Street, 3920 Griffin Street, and 3516 Bart Street.

Speaking of 3516 Bart Street, the City Records has no record of that property.

People have been living in a home built there for over a year.

I don't know why she doesn't have a record of that, or the City Records doesn't have a record of that, but that's another interesting gray area of what is going on here with ownership and development of these non-conforming lots in the neighborhood.

I don't have much more to speak on this right now, but just know that we are watching and we care deeply about our neighborhood of West Haven and the character and natural beauty that we do still have and are trying to harness.

Many people who have bought in that neighborhood bought for what they see, not for all of these larger uh tall two-story homes, most often a four-bedroom, three bath on a very narrow lot.

Um, that's all I have.

I really appreciate you listening.

Um, and I look forward to hearing from you all.

Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am.

Our next speaker is Dr.

Rhonda Alexander.

Dr.

Alexander, if you would come forward, state your name and address.

You will have five minutes.

Good evening, Rhonda Alexander, uh 1200 Potomac Avenue, Portsmouth.

Good evening, Mayor, City Manager, and uh members of City Council.

My name is Dr.

Rhonda Alexander.

I am the founder and CEO of Chainbreakers, and tonight I'm standing before you on behalf of myself, our board chair Ronald Thompson, our executive director Francis Knight Thompson, and our entire board of directors.

First, I want to personally thank each of you for your enthusiastic support at the launch of Dolly Parton's Imagination Library of Portsmouth.

Your presence meant a great deal to our organization, and it sent a clear message to everyone that Portsmouth leaders indeed believe that literacy matters.

I'm proud to share that as of today, 579 children from birth to age five have been enrolled in the program.

We are also deeply grateful that Chainbreakers was included among the organizations selected for support in this budget cycle.

It is much needed as we continue to build a legacy and family support ecosystem for Portsmouth's children.

While we are honored to serve as the local program partner for Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, the heart of Chainbreakers early literacy work is our reading enrichment program, which allows us to help students who need direct, targeted reading support once they are in school.

The REP is a four-day after-school program held in participating elementary schools.

While we work with uh we work with striving readers in kindergarten through sixth grade who need support building foundational skills, our approach is phonics-based and science-backed, and uses curricula and materials endorsed by the Virginia Department of Education.

This school year, we partnered with Portsmouth Public Schools Office of Student Support Services and Communities and Schools of Hampton Roads to serve 127 students across four schools: Craddock, Douglas Park, Waterview, and West Haven.

And we're excited to report that nearly every student who participated or uh showed improvement in their reading skills, specifically in their ability to decode and read words they didn't know before.

At the conclusion of each program, we host a parent workshop that celebrates students' accomplishments and equips their parents to support them with reading at home.

Thanks to our partnership with REACH, every child receives five free books along with flashcards and other practical tools that parents can use.

In addition to the dedicated efforts of our executive director, a lifelong award-winning educator, our work has been powered by more than 550 volunteer hours donated by people who believe Portsmouth's children deserve every chance to excel.

What makes this work so special is that it brings the community around to the child.

Chainbreakers, Portsmouth Public Schools, communities and schools, REACH, our volunteers, our families, and our extended educ our esteemed educators are all working together to make sure children receive the reading support they need.

Because when children learn to read with confidence, the doors of opportunity open wide.

Along with our reading programs, Chainbreakers also operates the Nursed Neighbors Neighborhood Program.

It's our food access program.

Through our partnership with Mercy Chefs, we provide hot meals to our neighbors twice each month.

And in partnership with the Food Bank of Southeastern Virginia and the Eastern Shore, we provide groceries monthly to families who need them.

Since the program started in September 2025, we have provided more than 1,200 meals.

And by the end of 2026, we expect to provide a thousand more at least.

And to expand our reading program from four to eight of Portsmouth's elementary schools in the next school year, with the ultimate goal of serving all 13 elementary schools.

We know our goals are ambitious.

We also know that our children cannot afford small dreams from adults who have the power to open doors for them.

So we thank you for believing in our work.

We thank you for standing with us.

And most of all, we thank you for continuing to invest in the children and the families of Portsmouth.

Thank you.

Thank you, Dr.

Alexander.

Our next speaker is Ms.

Pamela Anstead.

Andstead, if you would come forward, state your name and address.

You will have five minutes.

I got two items.

Can I get 10?

You only have five minutes, ma'am.

Okay.

Um first I wanted to say thank you for the things that you're I'm Pamela Anstead.

I live in the Prentice Park section of Portsmouth.

First, I wanna say thank you for all the good things that you guys are doing.

I have no problem with that.

Sometimes I go on Facebook and tell people pay attention to the good things and stop trying to find so much much negative.

But unfortunately, I come with negative today.

Um the first item is the paving, not the paving itself, but the painting of the uh sign the lines on Airline Boulevard from Victory Boulevard to Miss Elliott Boulevard on that side.

If you wanted to, if you had a GPS and it told you to make a right on Miss Elliot Boulevard Boulevard, there's no arrows that even cars can pop next to each other, and they wouldn't even know who's in this lane, who's in this lane.

If you go by and look at it, you'll see exactly what I'm talking about.

But that's not that's just a small thing I want to talk about.

This is a big thing I wanna talk about, and these are some pictures.

Can you pass these around for me, please?

So you can be looking at these.

This is a church in the Prentice Park neighborhood that I have been complaining about for about two years.

And they had a side building next to it, which was their dining room and their daycare.

They told it they they demolished that.

But the church, they said they was gonna fix the church up.

That church was organized in 1966.

And thank God, I hope the Lord done moved out of there too, because I would not be caught in that church.

And I'm gonna tell you an incident that happened two weeks ago.

Me and my girlfriend, she was walking her dog, and we heard a young lady in that church screaming and hollering, and glass was breaking.

And the guy said, shut the F up.

So she called 911.

And my neighbor don't like calling 911.

She did not like, but she called 911.

So the police came in.

They went into one of the doors because they have practically knocked all the doors down off this church.

And they said, whoever, if it's anybody in there, this is the Portsmouth police department come out.

So nobody came out.

And they around one side of the church, two officers.

So I heard somebody talking.

And I said, that sounds like some voices.

So I walked to the corner of Lincoln Street to see if I could see somebody.

I saw seven kids running through the backyard of that church.

They came out the back door of the church when the police was going into the side door.

They heard them saying if it's anybody in there.

So this lady was coming down Lincoln Street.

She said, ma'am, she said they all just ran out the back of that church.

We the police rode around, rode around, they could not catch one of them.

All of them ran down uh Parker Avenue, the other side of the church towards Portsmouth Boulevard.

By that time, it was about 20 cops around here.

And they couldn't catch because they ran through people's backyard, they, but we still right to the day, don't know why that young lady was screaming in that church.

So after the police left, all these fire trucks came.

I said, What is the fire trucks doing down here?

So they had the big ones with the ladders.

So a couple of firefighters went inside the church and they came back out, and I said, it's a fire in there.

He said, Yeah, but it's just a small one, thank God.

So I said, they put a fire, he said, yeah, but we got to it before it got too big.

So I say, he said, do you know who owned this church?

I said, you know what?

It's been so many people that talked about they own that church.

But this man right here, and I know y'all seen him before.

I seen him over there one day, and he gave me his card.

He told me he bought that church.

I couldn't remember his name when the fire department asked me.

So I found the card.

I give it to you if you want it.

Mr.

Carter.

I found the card and I said I was gonna bring it down here.

And he can be questioned about who he sold it to or what he's gonna do with it.

But that is very dangerous.

The firefighter told me when he came out of there, he said, I'm gonna tell you now.

I do not want to have to go in that church at the catch on fire.

That church is too dangerous for us to even be in it.

And that's what the fireman said.

So can you imagine kids in there?

So they came around there and uh put another board on the door that the kids had knocked down.

That they my neighbor said last night her dog started barking, and when she looked out the window, a man was out there breaking out some of the windows.

Thank you, ma'am.

We will we'll have it looked into.

Thank you.

Y'all can keep those pictures, but they seven dollars.

Thank you, Miss Anston.

Our next speaker is Mr.

Christopher Hines.

Mr.

Hines, you would come forward, state your name and address, sir.

You will have five minutes.

Good evening, Council.

Um mayor, city manager, Christopher Hines.

Um live at uh 119 Kingsgate Drive.

Um I actually signed up tonight because I wasn't sure if Sergio was gonna be able to make it.

He's my spokesperson.

Y'all know him very well.

Um I really just wanted to speak on behalf of a new generation.

We all saw yesterday what we put out there on the street.

Um we are growing significantly, and we're kind of at the point where Parks and Rec cannot support us, and we are leaning heavily on Portsmouth United.

Uh Mr.

Carter, we talked back in August about the stipulations that were placed on transportation.

Um that still, of course, has not been lifted.

Um I saw um Miss Thomas and Miss Bryan post pictures and videos of new generation.

We had like 125 members yesterday.

We were the biggest band in Portsmouth.

We were probably the biggest organization in the event.

Well, I gotta tell you, we left probably 25 or 30 people home because we just don't have the capacity anymore to get these people around.

And a time my father was able to put a bunch of people in his car.

We're just not in that state, that space anymore.

Um, so I know you mentioned there were some ways that possibly leasing vehicles, but we gotta do something.

Um every every rehearsal, if there's 50 or 75 kids at rehearsal, those are 50 or 75 kids that were not harmed that evening.

Uh we served the one 1%.

We also have high-risk and actress youth in our program.

If you know, you know.

Um, so if we move, for example, from neighborhood facility, those kids that live in those high-risk neighborhoods, their parents will not be able to accommodate them, uh, you know, getting back and forth to rehearsal, and we don't have the means to do that.

And again, with the stipulations on vehicles, travel, transportation cannot be uh dispersed from the budget from Portsmouth United, it's put a real strain on us.

And I just want you to consider that even going into the next fiscal year, but it's a pretty urgent matter.

I mean you all saw how we look yesterday, man.

We put in a lot of work with these kids, and we just cannot seem to get them around.

Um, we lean heavily on parks and wrecks, but there's some was pretty much taken up by events that they have.

We have an event on June 20th, and I don't know how I'm gonna get 150 kids from downtown to Churchland Middle School.

And that's just one example.

Uh, and they don't get me wrong, Portsmouth uh Parks and Russia, they do what they can with what they have, but there's been times where we have to leave kids home because one uh one bus is just not working or not running at the time.

So uh I just asked that you consider either finding a way to put us in the budget.

I know we were waiting on a meeting with um Mayor Glover uh last August and September.

But if whatever you can do, if you can revisit the stipulations put on Portsmouth United, uh I would greatly appreciate that too.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Hines.

Our next speaker is Mr.

Sergi O'Neal.

Sir, if you would come forward, state your name and address, you will have five minutes.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of the council.

I'm Sergi O'Neill.

I apologize for the mask.

Um Councilman Dotson, as a dentist, as an endodonist should know what dentist work can do.

So I apologize in advance.

Um on behalf of new generation, like Mr.

Hines said, you know, again, we as an organization, um, we understand the stipulations surrounding what Parts and Rec can do, and you know, with what they're what they've been limited to do as far as transportation is concerned.

I I definitely understand the logistics piece of it.

Um I understand when staffing becomes an issue, trust me, I deal with it on a daily basis.

I definitely I get it.

Um however, when you look at the impact that this organization has had, um you saw it in real time yesterday with 125 kids.

I can tell you that you know what I've done, and this is just for me, this is not for the city.

For what I've done, when Chris came to me and said, hey, you know, we need to be able to get these kids around.

I took it upon myself, not only for my family, but to use for the band.

I went and got a seven-passenger SUV so we can not have try to eliminate some of that because I get it.

I understand the frustration.

I know what it's like to have to find supplemental transportation for for a lot of kids.

Like I get it.

And I say, you know, we're going to take on this cost of myself because I said, you know, I don't want to have to keep going down this road, but we're looking to have to leave kids.

We understand that parents have challenges or whatever.

And we don't want to turn kids away.

We can't, we I I said we, and we really cannot leave these kids' lives at stake.

You heard what my neighbor, Miss Ann Stay said, and I know exactly what shirt she's talking about.

Those same kids, when I lived at 1420 M Avenue around there, terrorized around there then.

And it's that honestly, because I've talked to a lot of them.

They need some real direction.

I've told her, I said, hey, y'all come to the band, I will take y'all to band practice myself.

To get y'all out of these situations, so somebody's not coming to pick your body up off the ground and take you to a funeral home.

Because I can guarantee you, most of their parents don't have the money for the funeral.

The GoFundMe isn't the insurance.

New generation is trying to bridge that gap so they don't have to worry about the GoFundMe because their kids' lives have been taken.

Just how important it is to invest in our youth.

And I've had conversations with Chantal regarding Portsmouth United.

I can tell you right now, some again, some of the misnomer people don't understand is that that money does not come just will and nilly, you can do whatever you want to with it.

I've been on the email chain, 15 emails back and forth, trying to get one trailer situated.

We get it.

It all has to line up.

And guess what we did?

We said, hey, what can we do to help to make sure so when our organization is supported, we can make the process go as smoothly as possible.

That's what we've taken on.

But I encourage you all, you know, especially as the you know, again, the budget.

Once the budget for this fiscal year was approved, here comes day one after that.

You already talking about the next fiscal year.

We get it, you know, the state has a component in Portsmouth United's budget.

However, we all know in the political climate that we are in, governor change, some, you know, state representative change, that funding could go bye-bye.

Then what happens to Portsmouth United?

Is the city prepared to be set, say, hey, we have a safe space for that just in case that funding was to ever fall through from the state side of it.

Because that's a real conversation that has to be had.

Because it's organizations not, and I'm not only not gonna stand here and just take up from the generation.

That's my main that that was my main goal.

But there's other organizations in Portsmouth United that really benefit from that funding.

And we can't allow it to just go away.

And we have to really look at some of those constraints.

So I I really hope that that's a real conversation.

We're looking forward to having that meeting again to make sure that you know we really understand what the challenges are.

And last but not least, I would like to take the last 30 seconds to say this.

I went to the uh Emoji Festival.

Proud of Parks and Rat for Parks and Rat has been doing that for a while.

They've been keeping it together.

But one thing I would suggest for our good and faithful director, Mr.

Mark, over at Parks and Rec to try the food before he approves any vendor applications for next year.

I made that post.

7,000 plus people saw it.

And a lot of people agreed that we need to really look at the food that was served at the emoji festival this year.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Councilwoman Thomas, ma'am, you have the floor.

Thank you, Mayor.

I just wanted to address the uh comments from Mr.

Hines and Mr.

Neal regarding um new generation.

First, uh, I was thoroughly impressed to see so many young people playing musical instruments.

Some don't have experience, but you were able to teach them and guide them.

And they sounded wonderful.

Like people thought they were a high school band before you know they got to see oh, these are young kids.

So first of all, kudos to the organization, new generation, um, and just the joy in the sound in the kids expressing themselves through dance, marching, and musical uh instruments.

It's it's truly a gift to even to be able to to provide that type of instruction to kids so young.

So kudos to you for that first.

And then I failed to mention in my recap about you know the end of school that I know New Generations also offers a summer program for students as well as well as several other Portsmouth United um organizations, and I'm gonna I'm gonna get to my point.

Also, new generation.

I saw your flyer that you're you know, calling out for people to bring their kids tomorrow night.

Is that correct, Mr.

Hines?

Tomorrow night to 900 Elm Avenue if they are interested in signing their kids up to participate.

And I think it's a wonderful program to learn how to play an instrument, it can set you up for future band scholarships to allow your student to go to college or your child to go to college on a band scholarship, which we know is needed.

Um so that's gonna bring me to my question for Mr.

Carter.

I know we have a bunch of summer programs through Portsmouth United.

Are we hearing transportation concerns um from other organizations?

And it seems like there might be a cap or limit based on capacity for our parks and rec to provide that transportation.

Is that something we're addressing if it's a problem?

Or is that more of a and you can let me know if that's your question or Portsmouth United question?

Okay, thank you.

Scarter should you have the floor.

I think what's being um talked about the CME is that for short-term grants, you can't buy capital purchases.

You can't go by van with one year grant.

You can lease uh because you what what you have to do is do something that's that's available for the span of that for that grant.

You can't you can't buy something, you can't buy a long-term asset on a short-term grant is what that turns out to be.

So I think that's the thing that they're talking about this evening.

Not that well, there's probably some transportation issues also based on you know, comments is even they got more people than they can support, which is a good thing uh because you got more people, but a bad thing because you can't move them all around.

But I think the real thing that, if I'm not mistaken, what they're trying to address this evening, is making capital purchases on a short-term grant.

Okay, and that might be a longer term discussion that for follow-up.

Um is if we're trying to maximize participation to ensure all of our youth have some type of opportunity in the summer.

We have our parks and rec program summaries where we do provide transportation for right for anyone that uh requires that necessary transportation, but for the other Portsmouth United camps, is each organization responsible then to find transportation for students that want to participate in those camps.

How does that partnership work?

Go ahead, Ms.

Carter.

Yes, if your organization in the city of Portsmouth, you're running some program, it is your responsibility to get your your patrons to wherever it is your program is.

That don't become a city responsibility to make sure you the clients that you're trying to service get to your service.

All right.

Well, in that case, then uh and Mr.

Hines, I know that doesn't answer your question I mean, not answer, it answers your question, but doesn't provide the need request.

Um I would say, you know, uh outside of other additional private partnerships.

Um I'm gonna put the call out publicly as well, like if there's a you know, a church or someone that's willing to offer transportation for these students uh or these children that want to participate, uh you know, maybe they can reach out to you, Mr.

Hines, to offer their services and and see if that would be a solution for for this coming you know your program expansion as it continues to grow.

So thank you for explaining that, Mr.

Carter.

Sorry.

Councilman Dodson, so you have the floor.

Uh yes, Ms.

Thomas.

I'd like to respond to that request immediately if I could.

Um I have a uh Mr.

Hines.

Uh if you could stay after, I have a friend that has just uh acquired a school bus and he's fully insured and might be available for this uh for your January for your June 20th event.

If you could stay after and see me, I'd appreciate it.

See if you guys are a match.

Vice Mayor Moody, so you have the floor.

Mr.

Neal, uh the kids yesterday were uh super uh extremely impressive.

Uh I know you get funding through Portsmouth United, but are you aware the city has a grants program for organizations like yourself?

I see you're shaking your head, but you you need uh course you know it's set for this coming year, but next year you need to participate it through an application uh to uh see if you can't uh uh get awarded a grant through the city.

You could you can have both.

And and uh uh Mr.

Carter just uh uh told me that he'll make sure you get an application when that time comes.

But that's uh that's really uh another potential funding source for you.

Uh you know, I agree with you.

The kids that participate in that aren't out in the community doing bad things, and they were extremely impressive yesterday.

And uh I was really impressed by someone that long ago used to march in uh that parade uh playing the Alto Sachs that they they were performing without uh the music, so they they they they know the stuff, so uh keep up the good work with that organization.

Thank you all.

Our next speaker is Miss Donna Biggs.

Ms.

Biggs, if you would come forward, state your name and address.

You will have five minutes.

Good evening.

My name is Donna Biggs.

I live in the Woodvine Farms neighborhood in Churchland annexed to Portsmouth in 1968.

I will speak on an article that was in the newspaper regarding the request for public comments on the draft permit from the Department of Environmental Quality that would allow impacts to the wetlands and open water for the newport phase two project at 3714 Ellen Elliott Avenue.

Well, it ain't 3714, it's 3741.

Okay.

So the city needs to have a commission established where any developer wanting to build homes, condos, apartments, or boarding houses, or any type of shelter.

And this way there is information regarding the number of vacancies in any home or housing complexes, any condominium complex or apartment complexes.

Everyone will know what is available to have a place to live.

The plan is put forward in this commission.

The notice in the newspaper for this construction was done inappropriately.

All of this is needed.

If there was a commission in place, the statistics would already be available to say yes or no.7 acres were located.

So I'll just um I contacted the lady sent me pictures on the property.

So it was four pictures, and then she sent me a map.

Okay.

So the four pictures she sent was email, and then she sent me a map.

I couldn't translate where it was.

So I did the uh recopied the uh announcement, so I understand.

Then I went to look the problem is about mitigation.

So communication is absent enforcement from the top down.

Does anybody respond to my emails?

Why?

You're under me, but you don't talk to me.

There was a citywide housing plan in February.

Uh did some research, uh, just copies of stuff and in here so you can get your education.

There was a poverty study, create a task force.

That won't done.

I've enclosed information that you can put together to understand about the homeless commission.

Needs to be the foundation.

They got everything organized, all the agencies and everything.

So this project is being planned is for 3741, not 37.

And I went to the courthouse to get the uh land.

So all this information is in the file that you got.

And I would like for communication to be better in this city because you're not representing me.

Thank you, ma'am.

And you agree to that, don't you?

Thank you, ma'am.

Our next speaker is Mr.

Gray Smith.

Mr.

Smith, if you it said gray, Ray Smith, okay.

Hey, councilman.

I know here, but I'm low gray.

Hey, hey, I don't know.

I don't know if Ray.

I uh I apologize.

That was just spelling Mr.

Ray Smith.

That's a former councilman.

Good to see you, sir.

I forgive you.

Good evening.

Um to um let me say this first, uh, then I'll say congratulations, um, Mr.

Challenger on your appointment as um city attorney.

I don't think I've seen you since you've got that appointment.

So uh to our honorable mayor, to uh city staff, city manager, council members.

Um I want to talk about another community subject and that that concerns street lighting.

Um I want to first commend the city for you know taking um the initiative to transition to LED lights.

Um that's gonna save millions of dollars over the years having worked for Dominion Energy.

Uh part of my responsibility when I was in operations was street lighting, and I know the cost of changing light bulbs, and that's what it amounts to uh either sodium or mercury vape paper light bulbs and LED lights will last you 15 years before it may go out now.

You'll have to replace the whole light, but at least it'll last you 15 years versus changing bulbs, you know, uh every number of hours.

Um but I also want to caution and you about the process and the method at which the lights are being uh changed.

Um if all of you know you if you've been in a street with LED lights, it is bright.

Yes, it is super bright, yes.

It is brighter than anything else in here, and I I question you know the city engineer and uh even the folks in Dominion about you know who made the decision.

And I I question you know the city engineer and uh even the folks in Dominion about you know who made the decision I understand the need for bright bright lights on thoroughfares and high crime areas but as it appears as if and I don't know maybe y'all can correct me that the plan is to put those lights in the if you if you know the difference between Watts and Lumens um Watts is electric and lumens is electronic and that's why it lasts for years and years before need replacing but um at 2600 lumens and you think about a 400 watt bug versus a 10 watt bulb um that can light up not only the front of your house but smaller houses like West Haven and other places it can light up the backyard as well not only uh in and even inside your house.

So I'm just cautioning that and and we've heard this in the news or seen it in the paper about Norfolk had to rethink the placement of those lights and we don't need those super lights in every community across the city I'm not sure if that's if that's the plan but I I hope it's not um we'll do for them you know in in Cavalier Manor.

I'm I'm representing not only myself but um the Portsmouth uh council of civic organizations that's about 15 Civic Leagues and Cavalier Manor Civic League and we all have concerns about the placements of those lights across the city and I hope um I haven't heard back from the city uh attorney yet but I mean the city engineer yet but I hope y'all will reconsider placing you know a 26,000 lumens light on a street streets like an old town or like in in West Haven where the houses are small and closer to the street that's gonna light up they won't even need lights in a house.

So just keep that in mind thank you.

Thank you sir.

Councilwoman Bryant ma'am you have the floor thank you mayor and thank you Mr.

Smith for bringing that to our attention Mr.

Carter will you report back to us on this because this this actually came um to me I think Miss Westball brought this to me actually within the last week um and I happened to meet with our Dominion new Dominion rep and the way he described it to me was that we're sort of giving a selection a catalog if you will of what lights to choose and um then put those into our neighborhoods and into the city.

So could you follow up with us on what that process is and whether we maybe need to revisit it.

Thank you.

Thank you our next speaker is Ms.

Sheila Joseph Ms.

Joseph if you will come forward state your name and address you will have five minutes 139 street Portsmouth Virginia Sheila Joseph I just wanted to speak a little bit about the trees on um small trees at that on Portsmouth Boulevard right away close to Manley and close to the church area.

We are trying to remove those trees because we put in the neighborhood signs up eventually you know and we want to also acknowledge those trees are not in a good viewing area as I was watching and the ones that was marking the areas for the sign we could see the people driving out to the street on Portsmouth Boulevard and they have to come close to the edge of Portsmouth Boulevard to see um also I wanted to talk about I had spoke about the transformer on the corner of my neighborhood where I live and I talked about um Dominion Energy had told me they ordered a new transformer back on March the 7th and not this year but last year and somehow a lot of people communicate with me tell me different things but I was told that Mr.

And I noticed other people in the community getting new Transformer.

And it turned off my lights and start dimming.

But when you turn the top for the click click for the turn the uh file on, and the recyclables had stopped working.

So that's why I told them that 30 seven years maybe.

From 89, I do know since I've been back home.

And I've seen lightning burn churches down in this city.

I won't name them, but some people are familiar with the church that burned down.

And we actually saw the lightning strike that church from the Transformer.

A lot of people are not aware that Transformer can surge into your homes.

It did TV damage.

And we replaced it.

Because I told them I do a lot of pictures.

But they wanted me to go and get an estimate, and I'm only about to pay for an estimate for them that could have replaced it.

So I just went on and replaced it.

But I wanted to share back and like I said, in January, we didn't never uh get anybody to respond back concerning about the new meters that Dominion Energy was given.

And they told me I didn't need a new one, but it's on my answer machine.

I keep it all the way up to now, saying that she don't need a new one.

But this year I had one of my meters, old meters stolen from me.

And I just wanted to say I saw where I was telling them the old meters was running my bill up, and I know it is because I have proof of how I utilize in my home.

And I wanted to say about replacing the uh meters.

They eventually, you know, came and gave me the smart meter first on one side, and then the other side, they bought another one to me.

The last bill was $70.

That's a low price to somebody, but to me, I know how I use my service.

And I just wanted to say $21 for the other one.

So I'm just saying that Smart Meter did me some good.

Thank you, Miss Joseph.

Our last speaker for the evening, Mr.

Dominic Edgerton.

Mr.

Edgerton, if you would come forward, state your name and address.

You have five minutes, sir.

Good evening, Dominic Egerton, 2234 Reservoir Avenue.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council members, Sergeant at Arms, so you can get no love today.

My name is Dominic Egerton, known to the band world as Rocky.

I am the founder of Ban Royal LLC.

Behind me is my team, or portion of my team.

I have probably served as president since 2019 of Banroy.

Thank you for allowing me these few moments to speak.

I'm here today because we believe Portsmouth has an incredible opportunity to continue investing in something that already lives deep within your city.

And the power of music.

This is much more than music.

This is about investing in our youth.

This is about creating a positive structured environment where students can showcase their talent, build confidence, strengthen discipline and experience healthy competition while being surrounded by their families, schools, and communities.

Portsmouth already understands band culture.

Shout out to my brother Chris Hines on a great uh outing yesterday at the at the at the parade.

Uh, we are simply seeking to create a structured regional opportunity that celebrates the culture while bringing schools and communities together in a safe and meaningful way.

A comparable margin of marching band event, the 2025 Trucker Classic, hosted by the leadership of Churchill High School band director, um, Ron Nash reportedly welcome approximately 4,000 attendees and generated an estimated estimated ten thousand dollars in profit.

And that number did not include additional revenue generated through uh registration fees, concessions, etc.

This tells us something.

This tells us something important.

The audience is already here.

The community interests already exists.

Portsmouth already has the culture talent and support needed for events like this to succeed.

We're not asking the city to invest in an experiment.

We are asking the city to partner with us in expanding something that has already been proven meaningful and valuable to the community.

Our projected participation for this event includes approximately 700 to 800 student musicians representing eight schools with an attendance that arrivals the 2025 trucker classic at Churchill and High School.

And we all know when people when young people are positively engaged, communities do a lot better.

We are committed to making this event safe, professional, organized, and reflective of the pride that the citizens of citizens of Portsmouth embody.

Our partnership says Portn excuse me.

Our partnership says Portsmouth believes in our youth.

Our partnership says arts, music, and school culture matter.

And it says our young people deserve safe, structured, positive spaces to grow, perform, and feel celebrated.

We believe our inaugural inaugural uh band festival has the potential to become an annual Portsmouth tradition, one that strengthens school pride, brings families together, attracts national visitors, supports local businesses, and gives young people something meaningful to look forward to.

Thank you for your time, your leadership, and your continued commitment to Portsmouth's young people.

We truly look forward to the opportunity to partner with you to make this vision a reality.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

And ladies and gentlemen, that concludes our speakers for the evening.

There's no more business to conduct for the good of the order.

This meeting is adjourned.

Strive safe.