March 12, 2013
MINUTES OF THE BROOKNEAL TOWN COUNCIL
7:00 PM – The regular meeting of the Brookneal Town Council
The municipal government of the Town of Brookneal met with the following members present:
Phyllis Campbell, Mayor
James Nowlin, Vice Mayor
Robert Jean, Richard Adams, Barbara Laprade, Mark Wilkes, and J. B. David, Jr., Council Members
Russell Thurston, Town Manager
Bobbie Waller, Clerk/Treasurer
Mike Crews, Public Works Director
Ricky Baldwin, Police Chief
INVOCATION AND PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG
APPROVAL OF AGENDA
Upon motion by Barbara Laprade, seconded by Richard Adams, and unanimously carried, Council approved the agenda for the March 12, 2013, regular meeting of the Brookneal Town Council.
MINUTES
Upon motion by Robert Jean, seconded by Mark Wilkes, and unanimously carried, Council approved the February 12, 2013, Town Council meeting minutes.
TREASURER'S REPORT
Mayor Campbell asked that the March 2013 treasurer's report be filed for audit.
PRESENTATION AND APPROVAL OF INVOICES
Be it resolved that motion was made by James Nowlin, seconded by Mark Wilkes, and unanimously carried, authorizing the payment of the invoices for the period of February 13, 2013 to March 12, 2013, in the amount of $13,407.89.
PUBLIC COMMENT
Mr. J. D. Puckett, Brookneal representative on the Campbell County Board of Supervisors, spoke before Council concerning the school facilities plan. He said a couple of years ago; the Campbell County School Board authorized a study of the school system to see where things may need to be added or changed. He said the discussion is for a middle school east and a middle school west as well as a high school west and a high school east. He said the east section would be made up primarily of this area and Rustburg, and the west section would be made up of Brookville and the region to Altavista. He said this is to be laid out over a 20 year period of time. He said his concern is what is going to happen to communities if this happens. He noted that Brookneal Elementary is over crowded at 109% capacity. He said the capacity at William Campbell is 67%. He said there will be a meeting March 25, 2013 at 7 pm at Vo Tech to vote on and discuss the proposal for the 2 new high schools and 2 new middle schools. He said you need to register by March 22 to speak at the meeting. He said these are tentative plans right now; nothing is set in concrete yet. He said he thought it would probably reach the Board of Supervisors in mid-fall of this year. He said that he wants the Council to be aware of this and take an active part in the process and have a say in it.
Town Manager Russell Thurston introduced Mr. John Vincent, of Cook Avenue and said that Mr. Vincent has been working very hard on planning a car show for Day in the Town. Mr. Vincent presented the Council with some information on the car show that is being planned for Day in the Town, May 4, 2013. He said that he started a car show in Oklahoma which is a 3 day event with 87,000 people attended and approximately 550 cars. He said he had a vision of a Day in the Town, but not just on Main Street, but all over the Town. He said he would like to propose a date change because of other major events in the area on that date including the Big Boys Toy Show in Lynchburg as well as the Heritage Festival in Halifax County. He proposed moving it to the 3rd weekend in May. He said he wants to start promoting next year's event at the Heritage Festival in South Boston this year; he wants to have a date ready to promote. Mayor Campbell told Mr. Vincent that someone would get back with him by the end of the week on the date change.
POLICE REPORT
Chief Richard Baldwin presented the police report to the Council for February 2013. He said of the 91 calls for service in February, 73 calls were answered by the Brookneal Police Department.
PUBLIC WORKS REPORT
Public Works Director Mike Crews said the Dixie Girls and Boys are starting their 2013 season with the girls opening ceremony being held on April 13, 2013.
• SPRING CLEAN UP
Mr. Crews proposed that spring clean up this year be held from March 25, 2013 through April 5, 2013.
Mr. Crews said that he has had a citizen contact the Town about hooking onto Town sewer in the area of Hale Street. He said an engineering study would have to be done before anything further could be pursued. He asked Council's input on the issue. Mr. Thurston said that the citizen could spend a few thousand dollars and have their problem fixed, but the Town's fix maybe several years down the road and much more costly. Councilperson David said that if the town had the money and resources it would not be a problem, but with everything so tight, he did not see that it could be done. Councilperson Adams made the recommendation that he did not think this could be done at this time.
TOWN MANAGER REPORT
Town Manager Russell Thurston said that the staff has been working on the 2013-14 budget. He said that there would be some health insurance increases passed on to the employees this year. Mr. Thurston said that the business expo with the Chamber of Commerce is going to be held on Saturday, April 6, 2013. He said that he would be meeting with the Region 2000 on March 13, 2013 to discuss the bids for engineering on the VDOT Phase 3 project. He said that another environmental study will have to be done. He said he has asked VDOT to increase the scope of the project. His recommendation of the scope of this project is to finish Rush Street, do some work on Lynchburg Avenue, work on the intersection of Smith Street and Main Street, and maybe do some type of pedestrian walkway down to Food Lion. Consensus from the Council was to move forward with Mr. Thurston's recommendation.
REQUEST FOR TRANSFERS OF APPROPRIATION
Upon motion by Mark Wilkes, seconded by Barbara Laprade, and unanimously carried, the Council approved the following transfers of appropriation:
REQUEST FOR TRANSFER OF APPROPRIATION
To: Brookneal Town Council
Date: March 12, 2013
The following Appropriation Transfers are requested for FY2013:
Category—Expense INCREASE New Total Balance in Account
Postal Services—01-1228-5201 $ 1,000.00 $ 3,000.00 $ 904.83
Category--Revenue INCREASE New Total Balance in Account
Meals Tax—01-1201-0100 $ 1,000.00 $101,493.00 $ N/A
To cover the costs of postal services for the rest of FY13. This shortage was due to multiple notices that have had to be sent out per health department requirements.
Category—Expense INCREASE New Total Balance in Account
Sanitation—Vehicle Supplies—01-4203-5408 $ 2,000.00 $ 3,200.00 $ 1,949.55
Category--Revenue INCREASE New Total Balance in Account
Meals Tax—01-1201-0100 $ 2,000.00 $103,493.00 $ N/A
To cover the costs of tires for the sanitation vehicle.
Respectfully requested by:
_________________________________
Treasurer
_________________________________
Date
• BANK OF CHARLOTTE COUNTY
Upon motion by Robert Jean, seconded by Richard Adams, and unanimously carried, the Council authorized the Town Manager Russell Thurston and Clerk/Treasurer Bobbie Waller to investigate moving the Town's main checking account from Wells Fargo Bank to Bank of Charlotte County.
COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATIONS
Finance and Planning Committee Chairperson Richard Adams said that his committee had been working on the issue that was raised at the January meeting concerning some type of practice of sending out letters of appreciation to former employees, council members and people in the community. He said they had been talking to adjoining localities and nobody has any sort of policy or set practice on doing it; it is generally a discretionary matter that falls within the scope of the town manager's office to do so. He said most towns do send out some type of brief thank you letter. Some town managers strongly recommended that you do not make a policy.
ITEMS FROM TOWN COUNCIL
Councilperson Laprade suggested sprucing up the Wickliffe cemetery by having the garden club or another Town club adopt Wickliffe as a beautification project. She also suggested having online access to paying water bills. She also brought to everyone's attention that the shopping center at CVS has an excessive amount of trash in the area and no maintenance is done to that area.
Councilperson David asked if the Town could put a note on the water bills that said if a citizen has a sewer problem to call the Town first. After much discussion, Mayor Campbell said that she thought the Physical Development Committee should discuss this issue and bring back a recommendation to Council.
ADJOURNMENT
Upon motion from Robert Jean, seconded by Mark Wilkes, and unanimously carried, Mayor Campbell announced that the March 12, 2013, meeting was adjourned.
___________________________ ____________________________
Bobbie A. Waller Phyllis L. Campbell
Clerk/Treasurer Mayor
