The meeting began with presentations on the flood protection program update, the National Flood Insurance Program community rating system improvement, and small business resources. Council members also discussed district-specific issues, including sidewalk safety, animal registry, and upcoming events, before moving to a closed session.
Order, Mr. Du Hay, if we can proceed. All right. So Mr. Mayor, members of the council. The first presentation will be provided by our flood protection. Umersight board. It's the flood protection program update. The first folks you'll hear will be Jeff Waller, who is the chair of the Flood Protection Board, followed by Leisha Pico, which is the program manager for the project. So at this time, Mr. Waller, the floor is yours. Thank you. Seems like I was just here. Mr. Mayor, members of council. I I'm Jeff Waller, Chairman of the Flood Prevention Bond Referendum Oversight Board. The flood prevention bond referendum includes seven master projects with uh twenty-one projects identified in the ninth twenty twenty-one bond referendum, along with ten support projects and ten other active projects. The resolution creating this board calls for us to come and give an update every three months. I was here in June, and now I'm back. You all received the August uh 2026 status report prepared by Jacobs Engineering and the active construction projects are Bow Creek Stormwater Park, Elizabeth River floodplain restoration, Elizabeth uh Eastern Shore Drive bundle, Eastern Shore Drive phase 1F, a roadway project. And the Windsor Woods Princess Anne Plaza Lakes bundle. That's getting started, and there's a groundbreaking on that next week. Which is exciting. The uh storm the Bow Creek Stormwater Park Section 2 is at 100% design. City's been awarded 73 million dollars in state and federal grants, and they're pursuing actively 44 million dollars in future grants. We have uh three student interns on our board. Um Pay and Jay Rantha is a senior Princess Ann. He was with us last year. He's returning for a second year. And recently, council appointed uh two new student interns. Um, one Sophia Richardson's a senior at first colonial high school, and Aceland uh Uha is a senior at Ocean Lakes. The board will advise City Council members if we're presenting something at our monthly meeting that is in your district, so you can uh join us if you're able. Um board meetings are open to the public. We've changed our starting time. We used to start at two o'clock on the second Thursday of the month, and we've backed that up to two Thursday, 2:30 on the second Thursday of the month. Our meetings are open to the public, the public can comment. The board has a website accessible from the Ripple Effect website, email address posted there for anybody who wants to talk to us. Board members are still excited to be part of this. Uh we met for the first time four years ago this month. Seven members and all seven members are still on it. They're still excited to be there, along with our three students. And with that, I'm going to turn it over to uh Leisha Pika from Jacobs Engineering. Welcome. Thank you. Well, I'm going to talk to you for about 10 minutes today. I'm giving you that heads up because this slide might make you think I'm going to talk to you for about 30 minutes. So I'm going to give over the highlights. I'm picking up where Jeff left off on what have we done since Hurricane Matthew? How are we in a better place? And if you categorize all the work that's been done from an infrastructure perspective on how we've reduced neighborhood flooding, strengthen our coastal defenses, and really advanced a lot of long-term planning.