8/8/2023 - Regular - DRAFT
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285
Roanoke County Administration Center
5204 Bernard Drive
Roanoke, Virginia 24018
The Board of Supervisors of Roanoke County, Virginia met this day at the
Roanoke County Administration Center, this being the first regularly scheduled meeting
of the month of August 2023. Audio and video recordings of this meeting will be held on
file for a minimum of five (5) years in the office of the Clerk to the Board of Supervisors.
IN RE: OPENING CEREMONIES
Before the meeting was called to order, a moment of silence was
observed. The Pledge of Allegiance was recited by all present.
IN RE: CALL TO ORDER
Chairman Hooker called the meeting to order at 3:00 p.m. The roll call
was taken.
MEMBERS PRESENT: Chairman Martha B. Hooker; Supervisors Paul M. Mahoney
(attended via ZOOM), Phil C. North, P. Jason Peters and
David F. Radford
MEMBERS ABSENT: None
STAFF PRESENT: Richard L. Caywood, County Administrator; Rebecca
Owens, Deputy County Administrator; Doug Blount,
Assistant County Administrator; Peter S. Lubeck, County
Attorney; Amy Whittaker, Public Information Officer and
Deborah C. Jacks, Chief Deputy Clerk to the Board
IN RE: WORK SESSION
1. Work session to discuss the Roanoke County Fire and Rescue
study with the Board of Supervisors (C. Travis Griffith, Chief of
Fire and Rescue; Joseph E. Pozzo, Senior Manager for Fire and
EMS, Center for Public Safety Management, LLC)
Mr. Caywood provided over and turned the meeting over to Mr. Pozzo,
Center for Public Safety Management who provided a PowerPoint presentation, a copy
of which is on file in the office of the Clerk to the Board of Supervisors.
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Supervisor Radford commented with regards to page 21, it looks like your
build order is based on alternate B or C with Mr. Pozzo responding in the affirmative.
Supervisor Radford added it’s got the arrow going either or so it will work either way
with Mr. Pozzo responding in the affirmative stating if you do a Tanglewood and an Oak
Grove and you decide you want to leave the current Cave Spring station in place, that is
why he has the arrow gong both ways; it can do both. Supervisor Radford stated it
looks like we brought the response time to six (6) minutes with those additional four
stations with Mr. Pozzo responding in the affirmative.
Fire Chief Travis Griffith stated he thinks if you left the existing Cave
Spring, that certainly helps you down a little bit more towards Back Creek, and you do
have a lot of volume there so, there are a lot of people backing each other up. In a
perfect world, having three would be better than two (2) because even though you can
get there in six (6) minutes, that is only if you are there at the station. There are some
operational benefits to have that existing location, which is very central, but if you were
going to start making changes, you can still work in the same rough order where,
looking at the map today, Hanging Rock is the biggest hole because we are already
filling what is now the biggest hole in Bonsack.
Supervisor Peters stated that would otherwise be the top priority and then
have something closer to Tanglewood, based on the current volume, but if you subtract
that station, it makes the system weaker.
Supervisor Radford asked how these four help the response time for Bent
Mountain and Mason’s Cove, because it looks like in an earlier chart they were around
14 minutes. Mr. Pozzo responded, “The Mason's Cove district is always going to be the
Mason's Cove district. You will get some help to the bottom of the mountain that would
be in Hanging Rock right as you come down the mountain, you're going to get some
assistance there, but that's always going to be long. If you just look on the map, you just
see where those roads are, this is just always going to be long.
Chief Griffith added another thing to remember is when we are talking
about Bent Mountain and Catawba, there is not staffing 24 hours.
Chief Griffith stated he thinks one of the first recommendations would be
to do the 24/7 staffing at that station.
Supervisor Hooker stated it would be a “shot in the arm” for that
community knowing there would be people always there. She reiterated that the first
step is to get 24-hour staffing.
Supervisor Hooker stated when we are talking about continuing to need
the volunteers and we count on them, we want to make sure that we are taking good
care of them. We want to make sure they are staying on board with us, that they are
encouraged to continue to volunteer. The average age of our volunteer is something to
take note of because by year 15, how many will still be operational ready. She does not
think we are getting the influx of these young people like we were twenty (20) years
ago, so she has some concerning with that. Supervisor Hooker asked Chief Griffith
what the average ago of our volunteers and if we have a timeline where we can predict
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this is going to be a real hole that we need to fill. Chief Griffith responded it's really a
separation of the two services, too. You got to look at the fire side and the EMS side.
From the fire side, we age out much faster than we do the EMS side. A lot of people get
in the fire training, it's tougher. It's harder to get. Once they get it, running a fire call is
physically hard; it's mentally hard. So those people tend to age out faster without
bringing anyone in and unfortunately, the younger generation, a lot of them don't want
to do that work to get the fire certification. It's hard. The classes are hard. Where the
EMS side, one of the things we've seen and you see in some of this through the Burton
EMT program, the expansion of the medical field as a whole, the medical system, a lot
of people are coming in through the EMS/EMT side of things to get into the medical
field. A lot of EMS volunteers or EMTs end up as nurses and while the EMS side isn't as
physically demanding, sometimes, it's easier for that younger generation who may not
have the work ethic that we did and want to put in the work to get the fire certifications,
it's a way in the door. So, from the fire side, your average age is definitely much older
than the EMS side of things. You're seeing the newer members come in on the EMS
side, not the fire side.
Supervisor Radford noted, it's really hard for us to get people employed in
the construction industry. So, if we're having trouble trying to pay people, then how in
the heck are we going to get free people free to volunteer? To me, I don't see
volunteers. You said keep it strong, but they're going to age out and there's nothing
going to be to fill that void. Chief Griffith stated he would create a roadmap and some
projections and build out as far as costs from not just personnel, but facilities,
apparatus, all this. Because when you talk about building a new station, it's apparatus,
it's the people, it's the furniture, etc. There's a lot more to that involved.
Supervisor Mahoney inquired about our insurance rates, with Mr. Pozzo
stating on page 59 of the actual report shows the biggest deficiencies and strengthening
some of your staffing and adding the additional stations will take you into a higher level.
Supervisor Mahoney then added , it makes a whole lot of sense to me to after Hanging
Rock, putting a new station out there in that Oak Grove area. If you look at that stretch
of Rt. 419 from Brambleton up to the Salem City line, there's a lot of houses there and a
lot of people live there. If you look at an Oak Grove station, that makes a whole lot of
sense.
Supervisor North inquired if there was any federal money to offset the
construction and equipment with Mr. Pozzo responding there is assistance to firefighter
grant money, which includes apparatus. He is not sure that you can show financial
needs.
Supervisor Radford asked if they considered our zoning documents, we
have recently allowed 4,5,6 stories with Mr. Pozzo responding yes at the perspective
from the ladder companies; ISO rates you on 3 or more stories. Supervisor Radford
stated even if fully sprinklered with Mr. Pozzo responding in the affirmative.
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Supervisor Peter stated he appreciated the study; has been asking for this
for what feels like ten (10) years. He was glad for clarification the four (4) and six (6)
minutes. He then stated that we have been talking about replacing the Hollins station
and it has also been talked about moving the Hollins station closer to I581. At Valley
Point rather then doing the Hanging Rock. He thinks it is going to be more one-sided at
Handing Rock; maybe put in a better position for Fort Lewis. Is there a reason why we
would go to Hanging Rock rather than the Valley Point area? Chief Griffith stated with
the Hanging Rock station, you get so much more of that Cove Road area. That Cove
Road area, when you start looking at the new apartment complex at CVS, you got the
apartment complex up from our office, you got the apartment complex going in at the
park and ride. That growth in that area is tremendous. AEPs expanding through that
whole area out through there. I think the data supports it. The best placement of that is
in Hanging Rock.
Supervisor Peters then stated as he looks around at some of our older
stations, he personally has a hard time sinking a lot of money into those old buildings.
Why would we not look at doing new facilities? We know the game plan here. Why put
lipstick on the pig? Let's build a building and to piggyback on that question, why is it that
we now only want a one-story structure? I mean Roanoke City built station one, they
just built station seven. We know it's cheaper to go up than out. When he is looking at
the facilities and think that we're going to need one, I would rather build a new and
knowing the longevity of what's taking place. Additionally, he has seen the hodgepodge
we have done for some of the career staffing. I would rather us do it right and be done
with it. Because again, you can put the lipstick on the pig, but you're going to have to
come back and do something again in 10 years. So, I guess kind of twofold question, I
know we talked about repair versus replace, but secondly is that the two story that
would save us more money and especially more if let's say we put one down here in
Cave Spring at Tanglewood. Well, we don't want to take up all that land. Why wouldn't
we build it two stories? Why didn't that become more of our blueprint, if you will, when
we did station 12 and make that our blueprint for filling in around the county? Mr. Pozzo
responded, there are some stations you're probably better off just building a new
station. However, if you're going to put a dollar amount on it and a lot of money, 383
people or 384 people, that's a lot of people. At a 15-year mark, you already got three or
four new stations in here depending on how you do it. So, my fire chief hat is, "Yeah,
let's build all new fire stations. You're right, let's go do it." But my consultant hat is, "I
can't lay all that on you. Right? Because to just get to the build out of the people, it's a
lot of money and he does not want to give you this and then you say, "Thanks."
The work session was held from 3:06 p.m. until 5:12 p.m.
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IN RE: REPORTS AND INQUIRIES OF BOARD MEMBERS
Supervisor North thanked Parks and Rec for all the work they did on the
Walter Park. Six new pickle ball courts. We now have 18 countywide. This is a result of
listening all the citizens' input for the fastest growing sport in the United States of
America right now. And that's pickle ball. Kudos to Parks and Rec. He also attended the
law enforcement basic graduation. So, four new graduates will join the Roanoke County
force and saw Congressman Ben Cline and wished them well.
Supervisor Hooker advised she was at that graduation too. It was very
well done. We had a meeting with Delegate Head, had some interesting conversation
that we'll be following up on. She went to a Feeding Southwest Virginia Elected Officials'
Day meeting and was really perplexed that we have a growing need for food delivered
to our citizens. A decreasing amount of supply. There are fewer organizations that are
donating the food and an increasing demand. She would just like to better understand
the demographics in Roanoke County on why that's happening for us; it's across the
County. Actually, it is across the country actually. But was just wondering what
specifically, is there something that we can be doing locally to help that issue? She
would just like to see what we can do about that.
IN RE: ADJOURNMENT
Chairman Hooker adjourned the meeting at 5:14 p.m.
Submitted by: Approved by:
________________________ ___________________________________
Deborah C. Jacks Martha B. Hooker
Chief Deputy Clerk to the Board Chairman
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