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Home My WebLink About2/5/2019 - RegularMINUTES OF A REGULAR MEETING OF VINTON TOWN COUNCIL HELD AT 7:00 P.M ON TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2019, IN THE COUNCIL CHAMBERS OF THE VINTON MUNICIPAL BUILDING LOCATED AT 311 SOUTH POLLARD STREET, VINTON, VIRGINIA MEMBERS PRESENT: Bradley E. Grose, Mayor Keith N. Liles, Vice Mayor Sabrina McCarty Janet Scheid Michael W. Stovall STAFF PRESENT: Barry W. Thompson, Town Manager Susan N. Johnson, Executive Assistant/Town Clerk Jeremy Carroll, Town Attorney Pete Peters, Assistant Town Manager/Di rector of Economic Development Anne Cantrell, Treasurer/Finance Director Joey Hiner, Public Works Director Thomas Foster, Police Chief Nathan McClung, Principal Planner The Mayor called the regular meeting to order 2t 7:00 p.m. The Town Clerk called the roll with Council Member McCarty, Council Member Scheid, Council Member Stovall, Vice Mayor Liles and Mayor Grose present, Roll call After a Moment of Silence, Matthew King with the Boy Scouts led the Pledge of Allegiance to the U.S. Flag. Under upcoming community events, Council Member McCarty announced the following: February 8 — 7:00 p.m. — Virginia Tech v. West Virginia and February 9 — 7.00 p.m. — Virginia Tech v. Stevenson University — Lancer Lot; February 22-March 12 — 7:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m. — Husband in Clover — Star City Playhouse; March 7 — 12 Noon — Chamber Lunch N Lunch with Keith Hartman of the Small Development Business Center and March 26 — Senior Expo - Vinton War Memorial. Chief Foster commented on State Trooper Lucas Dowell that was killed in the line of duty yesterday in Cumberland County. He then read a quote from Albert Schweitzer, "The purpose of human life is to serve and to show compassion and the will to help others". This was the 66 th Virginia State Trooper to be killed in the line of duty and he became the 14 1h law enforcement officer to be killed in 2019. Under requests to postpone, add to or change the order of agenda items, the Town Manager requested Item 2 (c) under Items Requiring Action be tabled to a future meeting. After further review, it was determined this needs to go through our small purchase procurement process, Council Member Stovall made a motion to table the item to a future meeting; the Resolution authorizing the Town Manager motion was seconded by Council Member Scheid to execute an Engagement Letter for and carried by the following vote, with all Professional Services between the Town members voting: Vote 5-0; Yeas (5) — McCarty, of Vinton and VML VACO Finance tabled Scheid, Stovall, Liles, Grose; Nays (0) — None, to a future meeting. Council Member Scheid made a motion to approve the Consent Agenda as presented; the motion was seconded by Council Member McCarty and carried by the following vote, with all members votingVote 5-0; Yeas (5) — McCarty, Scheid, Stovall, Liles, Grose; Nays (0) Approved minutes of Regular Council — None. meeting of January 15, 2019 The next item on the agenda was a quarterly report from the Vinton Volunteer Fire Department. Chief Oakes reviewed his quarterly report, which was a part of the agenda package and is on file in the Town Clerk's Office as a part of the permanent record . Chief Oakes commented that he has one member graduating from the Roanoke County Volunteer Academy tomorrow night and has one that was not able to get in the Roanoke County Academy, but was able to get into one in Giles County. Also, there are two other applications in process. The Mayor asked if the Fire Department automatically respond to calls for automobile accidents. Chief Oakes responded that if it is a fender bender, they most likely would not get called; however, if there are fluid leaks or injuries, they would get called. Under citizens' comments and petitions, Alvin Atkinson of Tinker Avenue, Vinton, commented that the property at 525 Tinker Avenue was being renovated and the renovations are being done late at night and they are drag racing up and down the road, which is creating a lot of noise. This has been going on for about two weeks and he has spoken with Officer Bray. Chief Foster commented that he would have an officer that evening star monitoring the issue of the drag racing. Stephanie Roberts of Tinker Avenue also commented that the drag racing has been going #n consistently at odd hours. 0 The next item on the agenda was a briefin on the 2019 Roanoke County Real Estat Reassessment. Sandy Walton, Senior Apprais with Roanoke County reviewed a PowerPoi presentation, which was a part of the agend package and is on file in the Town Clerk's Offic as a part of the permanent record. Council Member Scheid commented on the Roanoke County real estate assessment change between 2018 and 2019 being 3.17 and the Town being 2.46. She asked how that compared with previous years and Ms. Walton responded j that she would get that information and email to Council. Council Member Scheid next asked if the percentage change by classification with multi -family residential included the old William Byrd High School property that is being renovated. Ms. Walton responded that she would also email that information to Council. The next item on the agenda was a briefing on the 2017-2024 grants that have been applied for and secured by the Town. The Town Manager commented that Nathan McClung has prepared a listing of all of the grants that the Town has been able to secure, which document will be placed in Dropbox and updated from time to time, Mr. McClung commented that several departments provided the information for the listing, He then reviewed the listing, which was a part of the agenda package and is on file in the Town Clerk's Office as a part of the permanent record. The Mayor made comments on the importance of grants for the Town and how they have improved the quality of life, the appearance of the community, the safety of our citizens and staff and have spurred private investments. The Town Manager expressed appreciation to all of the departments for tneir hard work on going after grants to help supplement the budget. He also expressed appreciation to Council for their support when they are asked to approve grant requests. The next item on the agenda was to consider adoption of a Resolution allowing the Town Treasurer/Finance Director to remove outstanding Personal Property delinquent taxes and Vehicle License Fees over five years old from the active records to a permanent file. Anne Cantrell commented that the amounts requested to be written off are roughly the same as last year' Looking at the collection rate over the past five I years, they have been able to collect 98.61% of the personal property taxes and 92,69% of the vehicle license fees, In perspective in 2012, the collection rate was 98% in personal property and , 93% in vehicle license fees. This is according to State Code Section 58.1-3940 which states that the Treasurer cannot collect after the five year period. Vice Mayor Liles made a motion to adopt Adopted Resolution No. 2282 allowing the the Resolution as presented; the motion was Town Treasure r/Fi na nce Director to seconded by Council Member McCarty and remove outstanding Personal Property carried by the following vote, with all members delinquent taxes and Vehicle License voting: Vote 5-0; Yeas (5) — McCarty, Scheid, Fees over five years old from the active Stovall, Liles, Grose; Nays (0) — None. I records to a permanent file The next item on the agenda was to consider adoption of a Resolution allowing the Town Treasurer/Finance Director to remove outstandina from the active records to a permanent file. Anne Cantrell commented that they are writing off $11,553.50, but they billed $2,916,411, The write- off is 0.39%, which is a collection rate of 99.61%. These bills are written off the books, but they can be pulled back out if the opportunity ever comes up to collect them. Council Member Scheid made a motion to adopt the Resolution as presented; the motion was seconded by Vice Mayor Liles and carried by the following vote, with all members voting: Vote 5-0; Yeas (5) — McCarty, Scheid, Stovall, Liles, Grose; Nays (0) — None. Hiner commented that the Public Works Committee met on January 24, 2019The main topic was the refuse ordinance update and the Committee reviewed the comments from Council at their January 15, 2019 meeting, specifically about the Southampton and Dillon Woods town homes, Staff met with three members of the Southampton HOA Board to discuss options for their refuse collection. One of the options was the possibility of dumpsters, but the concerns expressed were the locations, tidiness, security and the residents being able to take their trash to the dumpster site. Another option discussed was third -party curbside collection. The HOA Board members asked if they could bring their cans out to the right-of-way because two of the streets are internal. However, this would mean that they would have 36 cans lined up on one side and 36 on the other side. With regard to Dillon Woods, staff met with the President of the HOA. There is not a good Adopted Resolution No. 2283 allowing the Town Treasurer/Finance Director to remove outstanding water and sewer delinjuent bills over five ears I m h Left0i to 0 location # dumpster,options discussed were a different size can forresidents, single location for a number of the larger cans that would be accessible for our crews or third party curbside collection. The Committee reviewed drafts of were sent out on s to 33 properties Publicwould be affected by the limiting the number of units to four and not going on private property. # -# seven calls in response# those#-d the date of Public# and several citizens have indicated that they would like to attend the Public • . Staff has since discovered some other properties # • be ownersaffected and will be sending those property At the last meeting, Council directed staff to order the carts from #beendone and later this week there will be a conferenceto schedule the set up and delivery. A total of 3,400 carts were s#-_a with the bulk of order being the 96-gallon, but there will also be some of the 64-gallon as well as the 48-gailon carts for some ofthe smaller areas andas apossible askedoption for the Dillon Woods Townhomes, The Mayor approximately # properties have more than four units and Mr. Hiner responded 'r With regard to Southampton, Council Member Stovall asked who would pay for the dumpster. Mr, Hiner responded the Townwould take care of Mr. Hiner .#e further comments regarding properties ## not have a good location for large dumpster, but perhaps they could use a smaller one or use a third party forcurbside collection. Theresome facilities in Roanoke City that use private contractorsand staff is in the process of getting information on these private contractors from Roanoke City to provide to those property owners. Council Member Stovall asked if that information would be available by February I 91h, the date of the Public Hearing. The Town Manager responded that staff is addressing questions # and that he and Hiner will be meeting with one of apartment #wners tomorrow. M The Town Manager commented that if the Ordinance is passed by Council on February 19'h, notices will be sent to all the service locations in the downtown area as well as to the areas outside the downtown explaining the new change in the refuse collection and that the media can also publish an article to assist in •" the R message out, Arrangements have been mad,*r, with our mailing company to prepare and send out the mailing for us. Under appointments to Boards/Commissions/ Committees, Vice Mayor Liles made a motion to re -appoint Dave Jones to the Planning Commission for a new four-year term beginning March 1, 2019 and ending February 28, 2023; the motion was seconded by Council Member Stovall and carried by the following vote, with all members voting-, Vote 5-0; Yeas (5) — McCarty, Scheid, Stovall, Liles, Grose; Nays (0) — None. The Mayor commented on two recent ribbon cuttings, one at Master Sergeant BBQ and for a bakery at Izzy's Place, Comments from Council: Council Member I Scheid asked the status of the dumpsters at Lake Drive Plaza. The Town Manager commented that staff met with Brenda Thompson of Brixmor today. Chief Foster commented that there were two previous meetings scheduled with Ms. Thompson, but both were cancelled due to weather. They the dumpster station were not staying closed. Two of the doors were broken and non- operational, having been struck by the contractors that empty the dumpsters. Some possible solutions were discussed such as providing a side entrance for employees to use to access the dumpsters. The main doors would remain closed and only be opened by the contractor emptying the dumpsters. Some reconfiguration would need to be done and they discussed possibly removing one of the dumpsters to make room and emptying more often or making the station larger. Ms. Thompson has reached out to contractors to get immediate repairs done on the gates and fencing. Chief Foster next commented that they discussed the problem of plastic bags and other debris that have blown up on the embankment and Ms. Thompson indicated she had already contacted a o,rivate landsca�_2e com�aao come out and clean that area again and she is possibly looking at some fencing that might help the debris from getting on the bank. She also mentioned the st",5ftarrc6 came,a7a-#rrtth-e dumpster station to make the businesses that use those facilities more accountable, Other options 4iscussed were the installation of bollards near th�g ilumpster station so the trucks would not hit thwa station and working with the contractor to keep Re -appointed Dave Jones to the Planning Commission for a new four-year term beginning March 1, 2019 and ending February 28, 2023 0 those dumpsters pushed back into those facilities far enough so the gates can be closed, Some marking on the concrete pad to show where the dumpsters need to be placed in the station or replacing some of the larger dumpsters with smaller ones to make them easier for employees to access them were also discussed as other options. Prior to this meeting, Dustin Bray visited the Kroger dumpster faces at Bonsack and Cave Spring which provided some of the options that we discussed with Ms. Thompson. Council Member Scheid requested that the VML/VACo engagement letter that was pulled from the agenda be discussed at the next Finance Committee meeting. The Mayor commented that Brixmor seems to be making a real effort to remedy a difficult situation. Chief Foster and the Town Manager also commented that Ms. Thompson has been very accommodating in trying to work with the Town in making that shopping center more attractive. She has also indicated that she wants to work with Valley Metro to get a bus shelter there. Council Member Scheid made a motion to adjourn the meeting; the motion was seconded by Vice Mayor Liles and carried by the following vote, with all members voting-, Vote 5-0; Yeas (5) — McCarty, Scheid, Stovall, Liles, Grose; None. The meeting was adjourned at 8:26 p.m. Meeting adjourned Bradley E. Grose, Mayor A EST - Susan N. Johnson, C C, Town Clerk C V N