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HomeMy WebLinkAbout11/5/2013 - Regular MINUTES OF A REGULAR MEETING OF VINTON TOWN COUNCIL HELD AT 7:00 P.M. ON TUESDAY, NC VEMBER 5, 2013, IN THE COUNCIL CHAMBERS OF THE VINTON MUNICIPAL BUILDING LOCATED AT 311 SOUTH POLLARD STREET, 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, Town Clerk Ryan Spitzer,Assistant to the Town Manager Gary Woodson, Public Works Director Joey Hiner,Assistant Public Works Director The Mayor called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. The Roll Call Town Clerk called the roll with Council Member Adams, Council Member Altice, Council Member Hare, Vice Mayor Nance, and Mayor Grose present. After a Moment of Silence Mr. Altice led the Pledge of Allegiance to the U.S. Flag. Under the upcoming community events/announcements, the Mayor announced a neighborhood meeting concerning the future of the former Roland E. Cook School on November 2 ' at 7:00 p.m. in Council Chambers. The Roanoke State of the County address is tomorrow, November 6th, at 7:30 a.m. at Green Ridge Recreation Center. The Blue Ridge Veterans Association event is this Sunday from 12 Noon to 4:00 pm. at the War Memorial. The Mayor also announced a ribbon cutting on November 7th at 11:00 a.m. at Flowers by Eddie, a new business on King Street. The Town Manager announced that the State of the Town address will be Tuesday, December 10th, at 7:30 a.m. for breakfast followed by the presentation. RVTV-3 will be recording the event for replay four times on Channel 3. Mr. Adams announced a fundraising event for Dedrick Rose, the UPS driver who is paralyzed, on Saturday, November at 6:00 pm. at the Woodland Place. Mr. Adams made a motion that the consent agenda be approved as presented; the motion was seconded by Mr. Approved minutes of the Hare and carried by the following vote, with all members meeting of October 1, 2013 and voting: Vote 5-0; Yeas (5) — Adams, Altice, Hare, Nance, the Council Retreat of October Grose; Nays(0)—None. 11, 2013 The Town Manager announced that the Town Attorney was absent due to her handling of a case in Court today. The next item on the agenda was a briefing on a new initiative by the United Way of Roanoke Valley known as the Bank Can Roanoke Valley tB )RV Project. The Town Manager began by commenting that he had received a letter' from the Chris Merrill, Roanoke City Manager, who is also the Chair of the Bank Can Roanoke Valley Steering Committee. This is a project developed through the United Way focusing on educating local citizens who are unbanked and underbanked citizens. The Cities of Roanoke and Salem are on board with the program and Roanoke County will be considering at their meeting next week. The Town Manager then introduced Abby Verdillo and plate Schuckers from United flay. Ms. Verdillo commented that the project began by reviewing data on unbanked individuals who are not connected with a financial institution and those who are underbanked that may have a financial institution but are not using them properly and are depending can alternative streams of financing. 'There are approximately 6,500 households in the category of unbanked and research shows that an average individual will spend around $1,000 a year in fees to alternative streams of financing. These fees can be used to pay down debts or meet other expenses and that is where this motivation is coming from. Ms. Verdillo provided Council with a profile showing the specific data for Vinton. There are 14 local financial institutions that have come together for this Bank On Roanoke Valley Project which will be launched on January 1, 2014. The goal in a two-year time period is to open approximately 1,000 new accounts in the Valley and to be able to monitor and track them to be sure they stay open and active and they translate to the changes we want to see. The financial institutions are also working together to create a common financial education curriculum which they can share and will be implemented throughout the Roanoke Valley. Ms. Verdillo stated that the United Clay is requesting Council to support the project financially and to partner with there to specifically to target the neighborhoods and to offer or sponsor financial education classes in Vinton. With the financial investment and based on the data for the town, it would only take two individuals to actually opera a hank account and change the way they are living to make that investment pay off. Mr. Adams asked what the funds from the town would be used for and Ms. Verdillo responded for outreach and marketing efforts and to support the data tracking portion of the program so that we know on a quarterly basis if we are hitting the targets we are supposed to be hitting and to report back to the localities. The Mayor commented that he supports the program, but Council is very careful on how we spend taxpayers' money. 2 However, he likes the program for its partnership with United Way and the fact that the program is teaching financial management and stability. Vice Mayor Nance commented that he likes the idea of united Way partnering with banks to assist in an educational forum. However, there are other avenues for financial education and the town should do what it can to help foster this relationship in ways other than using taxpayer dollars. We do still have a tight budget and need o be careful what we commit to since this suggests a annual financial commitment. Mr. Hare commented that he too thinks it is a great idea. However, although the United Way does a lot of goad work, people give to the United Way voluntarily. Taking taxpayer money and giving it to United Way is not voluntary. He feels this is something the banks can do on their own without the help of governments and he cannot support it. Mr. Adams asked if we were to join at this time and after a year, we do not feel it is the right thing for us what our options would be. Ms. Verdillo responded there is a clause at the end of the agreement that allows either party to terminate by providing a 30-day advance written notice. Mr. Altice commented that he does not feel we can commit to it for more than a year. The next item on the agenda was to consider adoption Adopted Resolution No. 2041` of a resolution authorizing the Town Manager to execute a authorising the Torn Manager Local Government Memorandum of understanding for the to execute a Local Government Barak On Roanoke Valley (BORV) Project and approve the Memorandum of Understanding transfer of funds in the amount of$1,500.00 as the Town of for the Bank Can Roanoke Malley Vinton's commitment level for the 2014 program year, Mr. ORV) Project and approve the Adams made a motion that the Resolution be adapted as transfer of funds in the amount presented, the motion was seconded by Mr. Altice and carried o $1,500,00 as the Town of y the following roll call vote,with all members voting: Vote 3- inton's commitment level for 2 Yeas 3j Adams;Altice, arose, days(2)—Hare, Nance, the 2014 program year The next item on the agenda was to consider adoption of a Resolution awarding a Laid and authorizing the Town Manager to execute a contract with Sawyer Paving in the amount of$135,795.36 for street resurfacing. Gary Woodson commented that with last year's funds, the east section of Virginia Avenue was resurfaced. We wanted to take this year's funding and try to get the other half of Virginia Avenue from the westbound side from Pollard to the City line resurfaced. We solicited bias and received one bid from Sawyer Paving, the contractor that has done the paving for the past several years in the town. The balance of the paving funds will be used once we take an assessment of the town's roadway systems.: There is also the possibility of doing the intersection of By-Pass and Washington and some improvements on Mountain View Road. Mr. Woodson said the plan is to try and get this work done within the next couple of weeks,. If the weather changes we will pull it and get them to honor the contract price and have it done in the Spring. Mr. Hare asked if there would be any risk that they would mill it and then the weather turn and not get the paving done and the response was absolutely not. On this stretch of roadway they should be able to mill and lay down at the same time. The Town Manager commented that this is a lot of money and weather is very important to the long-term quality of that kind of investment and if it is not right, there is nothing wrong with doing it in the Spring. Mr. Woodson said he tried to get it in a month or so earlier, but the way the process and procurement of bids, it did net happen. Vice Adopted Resolution No 2042 Mayor Dance made a motion that the Resolution be awarding a bid and authorizing approved as presented; the motion was seconder! by Mr. the Town Manager to execute a Altice and carried by the following roll call vote, with all contract with Sawyer Paving in members voting. Vote -0; Yeas t5 —Adams, Altice, Hare, the amount of $135,795.36 for Nance, Grose; bays (0)— None, street resurfacing The next item on the agenda was update can old business. The Town Manager commented that we have been working pretty diligently on the buzzard problem that has attempted to roast in the Gladetown area. Two primary tactics are being used--ma noise maker, which is like a cap gun or roman candle type of flare gun is being used early morning to try and scare them to move and a propane air can that makes a really loud noise on a consistent frequency. Since the buzzards are a protected species you have to have a permit to kill one. The Police Department has applied to the State to receive a permit to kill one and dace it in a location where they are nesting. They do not like to be around their dead. We are aware of the neighbors' complaints and are doing as much as we are allowed without a permit. Aire Mayor Dance asked how long it would be to hear hack from the State and the Town Manager responded he did not know, but he would find out. The Town Manager further commented that PFG has complained that they have thousands of dollars in damage to their roof and we believe we have developed a good case; for property damage and tree damage. A resident of ladetown in the audience stated they have been on his new roof, but he has not seen any damage. He hears the noise makers in the morning, but they are welcomed. The Mayor asked him to take the information provided by the Town Manager back to his neighbors. The Town Manager er excused himself to attend the Volunteer Fire Department's business meeting to discuss our efforts for 24-hour fire coverage, The Mayor commented about the election and how important it is to exercise this right to vote. He holds this_. Council up as an example of how government should work. Mice Mayor Nance agreed that here is something missing in other levels of government that is present here. r. Hare reviewed the Financial Report for September- 2013. The Finance Committee met and reviewed this report before the Council meeting. At this point we are pretty close to our budget revenue number. For the General Fund, we are off just shy of $6 ,000 and on the expenditure side we are underspent. The cigarette tax is under budget $2,000. We knew there would be a buy ahead of the stickers, but this is evidence of purchasing happening on a monthly basis and it is possible that could last. Can the utility side, we are pretty close to being on budget, just shy of $33,000 and underspending again for various reasons. We were a little bit further behind earlier but we have caught back up. We are hovering about where we think we should be even though from a volumetric standpoint, the volume of water and sewer is downs Cash from August to September is up about$3 0,000.. We reviewed the financials for the tar Memorial and what events they have booked so far. They have around $161,000 in bookings for the rest of the year which is above our budget of$146,000. However, the $160„666 does have a lot of re-sale items figured in, but if you compare every month year-to-year from 2013 to 2012, in some cases, we have doubled the amount of events. There is a positive momentum. Mr. Hare further commented that we have just entered into a new debt structuring agreement regarding the Pound. Essentially the localities had to pay off the debt that Sotetourt County had for the previous facility and we were able to get a lower interest rate which gave lower payments over all and saved about$40,t 00. Further comments were made regarding the Finance Committee continuing to work with the tar Memorial staff to create a better financial report because it has never been tracked in this much detail before. We are trying to get everyone on the same page so that the numbers coming into the Finance Department from the War Memorial are to a degree that they can be interpreted properly; Mr. Hare made a motion that the September financial report Accepted financial report for be accepted as presented; the motion was seconded by September 2013 Vice Mayor Dance and carried by the fallowing vote; with all members voting: Vote 6-0, Yeas (6) —Adams, Altide, Hare, Dance, Grose, Nays (0) lone. Comments from Council embers: Mr. Hare congratulated our new representative for the Vinton Magisterial District, Jason Peters. Thanks to Public Works for the work they have rune on the Wolf Creek Greenway. Our members of the Greenway Commission as well as Liz Belcher will be at the next Council meeting to update us can some future considerations for maintaining the Greenways. Vice Mayor Nance reminded everyone that he will not be at the November 1 th Council meeting and apologized that h did not get to attend the Zombie Walk can Saturday night. Mr. Altice commented that the employees' luncheon at Public Works he attended was well received and the Mayor agreed'. Mr. Adams commented that the Zombie Walk was a success and the money went to the Vinton reedy Family program. He expressed thanks to the Police Department for their assistance. Also, he commented that Mountain View Road is looking better and expressed thanks to Public Works.. Vice Mayor Nonce made a motion to adjourn the meeting; the motion was seconded by Mr. Hare and carried by the following vote, with all members voting. Vote 5_0 Yeas (5) — Adams, Alti e, Hare, Nance, Grose; Nays 0). The meeting was adjourned at 8: 5'p.m. APPROVED: Bradley B. Grose, Mayor A Tc Susan N.Johnson,Town fork B