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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1/15/2013 - Regular MINUTES OF A COUNCIL IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD MEETING OF VINTON TOWN COUNCIL HELD AT 6:30 P.M, ON TUESDAY, JANUARY 15, 2013, AT THE CAMPBELL MEMORIAL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH LOCATED AT 1130 HARDY ROAD, VINTON, VIRGINIA. MEMBERS PRESENT: Bradley E. Grose, Mayor William W. Nance, Vice Mayor 1. Douglas Adams, Jr. Robert R. Altice Matthew S. Hare STAFF PRESENT- Christopher S. Lawrence, Town Manager Susan N. Johnson, Executive Assistant/Town Clerk Ryan Spitzer, Assistant to the Town Manager Ben Cook, Police Chief Mark Vaught, Police Lieutenant Robert Eakin, Police Officer Christopher Linkous, Fire/EMS Captain Chad Helms, Fire Lieutenant Barry Thompson, Finance Director/Treasurer Gary Woodson, Public Works Director Joey Hiner, Assistant Public Works Director Anita McMillan, Planning &Zoning Director Mary Beth Layman, Special Programs Director Kevin Kipp, War Memorial Facility Manager The Mayor opened the meeting at 6:40 p.m. Reverend James Smith welcomed everyone in attendance and led in prayer. Lynn Andrews of 208 Minnie Bell Lane asked what is happening with Preston Road. Ben Cook, Police Chief, commented that a proposal will be discussed at the upcoming Highway Safety Commission meeting on January 24 th. The proposal is to put a stop sign at the intersection of Fairmont and Preston and to lower the speed limit to 15 mph. Ms. Andrews commented that the stop sign is not the problem and Mr. Cook responded that the speed limit should help a lot and that Public Works had also moved some mailboxes back from the road. The Town Manager commented that one proposal was to actually close Preston, but staff did not recommend that action. Mr. Altice indicated that any recommendation from the Commission will have to be brought to Council. The Mayor called the regular meeting to order at 6:45 p.m. The Town Manager called the roll with Council Member Adams, Council Member Altice, Council Member Hare, Vice Mayor Nance and Mayor Grose present. The Mayor introduced the Moment of Silence and Mr. are led the Pledge of Allegiance to the U.S. Flag. Mr. Adams made a motion to approve the consent agenda as Approved minutes of Council presented, the motion was seconded by Vice Mayor Nance and meeting of January 2, 2013 carried by the following vote, with all members voting: Vote 5-0; Yeas(5)—Adams, Altice, Hare, Nance, Grose; Nays(0)- None. Vice Mayor Nance read a letter from Chief Cook naming Master Police Officer Scott Hurt as Police Officer for the month of December 2012: The Town Manager commented on the debt that the town is obligated to for the Glade-Tinker Creek Project and our part of the sewer plant improvements through the Western Virginia Water Authority in an approximate amount of$1.5 million. Staff is in the process of obtaining some proposals from the Virginia Municipal League and the Virginia Resource Authority and those proposals will be brought back to Council at a future meeting for consideration and approval. The Mayor expressed thanks to the Church for hosting the meeting and thanked staff for their attendance. He also commented on the recent award ceremony where Southern States was presented the 2012 Feed Mill of the Year Award by the American Feed Industry Association. Mr. are made brief comments on the financial reports for October and November 2013. The Finance Committee met on Monday and reviewed the reports and received an update from Kevin Kipp on the War Memorial. The events at the War Memorial have been steadily increasing and there is almost $30,000 booked for the rest of the fiscal year. Mr. Hare next commented on the November financial report which shows revenues in the General Fund are slightly above the projection at this point. Expenses are below the projection which is due in part to a number of open positions and the timing of some expenses. The Utility Fund is also in line with the projection. Vice Mayor Nance commented that the trends are consistent in comparing where we are now with last year. Mr. Hare moved that Council approve the October and November 2012 financial reports, the motion was seconded by Vice Mayor Nance. Mr. Thompson commented that Council will be asked to approve the write-off of personal property taxes and the delinquent water/sewer bills at their next meeting. He also stated that the implementation on November 1s' of the new deposit policy for residential renters has gone well and 20 deposits have been collected. The motion was carried by the following vote, with all Approved the October and members voting: Vote 5-0; Yeas (5) — Adams, Altice, Hare, November 2012 financial reports Nance, Grose; Nays(0)—None. Comments from Council Members: Vice Mayor Nance expressed thanks to the Church for hosting the meeting and for 2 staff that was in attendance. Mr. Altice commented that the rain is an inconvenience, but it does contribute to our water system.. Mr. Adams expressed thanks to the Fire and EMS Department- for the service they provided to his family recently and commented on the quick response by staff to citizens' requests. Also, he recently attended the Newly Elected Officials conference; which was very informative and after hearing comments from ether officials, it made him very proud of the town and how we do business. Vice Mayor Nance moves that the regular meeting be adjourned, the motion was seconded by Mr. Altice and carried by the following vote, with all members voting. Vote 5-0; Yeas — Adams, Altice; Ware, fiance, Grose, bays (0) — lone. The regular meeting was adjourned at 7:11 p.m. The Town Manager commented that the Planning & Zoning [department renovation has been completed which will improve serving the customers as well as provide a better level of security for staff. The Montgomery village pressure reducing valve replacement has been completed along with the replacement of the HVAC and garage lights at the Public Works facility; The work session began at 7:30 p.m. with an update on the $700,000 CI BG Downtown and Economic Revitalization Grant. Ryan Spitzer, Assistant to the Town Manager, began with comments that the second required Public Nearing will be at the February 5, 2013 Council meeting and later in February or early March; Council will need to approve the actual grant contract, He next began a review of a Power Point presentation that he gave to the Project Management Team on January 101h. The four main items covered were an overview of the project area, the management plan, the budget and the five key areas relating to streetscaping, gateway improvements, the Farmer's Market, facades and business development. Under the area of streetscaping, discussion was had regarding the value of street lights and the focus area for the lights. Mr. Spitzer commented that the Project Management Team will make a final recommendation to Council in this regard. The Project Management Team will be meeting the second Tuesday of each month at 9:00 am at the Mar Memorial. The Team's` function will be to decide how the funds are paid, that the Town reaches all of their benchmarks, what the design characteristics will be, the type of landscaping to be used, etc. The draft Plan and Administrative Program Manual furnished with the agenda will be the guidebook for this Team. Also, a group of affected business owners will meet every other month to share their input on the project. 3 The overall budget for the project is $2,161,311.. This is made up of$700,000 from the grant; $1,255,000 for the library, which consist of funds from the Town and Roanoke County: and $176772 in faade funds from the Town, Roanoke County and participating businesses. The grant allows a total of $ 0,000 in administration costs. In response to a question from Mr. Hare, this amount can be used for engineering services and reimbursement of staff time, but we do not have to use the total allowed. Mr.. Spitzer continued with the presentation stating the streetscaping budget i $269,010. The Town has already contributed $20,010 in the demolition of the former Steve's garage. Discussion was .had regarding the value of street lights in a downtown area and what benefit are they to revitalization other than aesthetics. Comments were made that just putting street lights will not be the answer. We will have to look at the whole Main street approach. We will have to involve business owners and will have to plan how we will keep this momentum going after the project is completed. tither parts of the streetsc ping will include wayt riding signs, plantings and rehabilitation of the former Steve's garage site. The gateway improvements budget is $69,136 for the Washington/Pollard and Virginia/Pollard intersections. The Farmer's Market budget is $119,016 and will consist of landscaping, lighting and parking areas. The fa ade budget is $208,809 of which $67, 33 is from the grant and $101,372 is other funds from the town and the County. The plan is to improve 11 storefronts and three have already been completed. If we do not have businesses interested in the program, we can allocate that money to another project in the downtown area or leave until the end of the project to see if a business owner would like to piggyback on those funds;. The basic guidelines that are already in place will be followed with some modifications. The design has to be approved by the Project Team and by Council and the business cannot use their own contractor. It has to be a contractor approved by the Town for this project. If they do choose to use their own contractor, the Town must approve and they must meet the specifications of the grant. In business development, there is a budget of $124,600 which will cover branding, a revolving loan program and a downtown guide. A draft of the Revolving Loan Program was part of the agenda package. There will be a separate Revolving Loan subcommittee that will consist of the Town Manager, Treasurer/Finance Director, one representative of Town Council and two representatives of banks located within the town. The loan will be administered by the town... For every $25,000 loaned, a business must create one lower to moderate income job for the duration of the grant program. A business has to put down"10% toward any lean amount and the interest rate will be set by the subcommittee according to the prime rate. Mr. Spitzer then commented that as of February 8 cn our 90-day deadline, we will have all the requirements complete except for the receipt of the environmental study. However DHCD has indicated that the delay in the study will not be a problem. The work session was adjourned at :30 p.m. w t A ET Bradley F.ttXre, Mayor" Susan N. Johnson, own Cleric