August 8, 2017
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
Richard Adams, Robert Jean, and Joseph David, Council Members
Bobbie Waller, Clerk/Treasurer
Mike Crews, Public Works Director
Richard Baldwin, Chief of Police
Absent: Russell Thurston, Town Manager, Barbara Laprade and Mark Wilkes, Council
Members
INVOCATION AND PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG
APPROVAL OF AGENDA
Upon motion by Joseph David, seconded by Richard Adams, and unanimously carried, Council approved the agenda for the August 8, 2017, regular meeting of the Brookneal Town Council.
MINUTES
Upon motion by Robert Jean, seconded by Joseph David, and unanimously carried, Council approved the minutes for the July 11, 2017, Town Council meeting.
TREASURER’S REPORT
Mayor Campbell asked that the August 2017 treasurer’s report be filed for audit.
PRESENTATION AND APPROVAL OF INVOICES
Be it resolved that motion was made by James Nowlin, seconded by Robert Jean and unanimously carried, authorizing the payment of the invoices for the period of July 12, 2017 to August 8, 2017, in the amount of $9,239.84.
MR. O. H. BOBBITT, III, CONCERNING RURITAN CLUB IN BROOKNEAL
Mr. O. H. Bobbitt, III appeared before Council to discuss the ruritan club. He said ruritan clubs will be celebrating their 90th anniversary next year. He said it is a civic and community service organization that was founded in Virginia. He said they look for rural communities to develop relationships with and form ruritan clubs, the main emphasis being service to that community. He said they are about fellowship, good will and community service. He noted they provide “Rudy” bears to the emergency service departments to give to children to console them in emergency situations, and they also give dictionaries to 3rd graders. He said they award college scholarships to high school seniors.
He said they are asking for use of the community building, and he said the club meets once per month. He said the board of directors would meet another time each month to decide business functions and would meet in another location. He said that all eyes across the “ruritan” nation are going to be on Brookneal, and he said the Brookneal club will be called the “21st Century Club”. He said the ruritan club suffers from something other clubs across the nation also suffer from, an aging membership. He said this club is going to see how they can involve younger people in the community; he said the Brookneal club has committed to be the model club for all ruritans across the country. He said for their charter night, they had 16 people join and their average age is 41 years old, whereas the average age for the typical ruritan club is 71. He said that they will be volunteering to read to the students at the elementary school, and each ruritan member will read to the children 1 hour per month at the elementary school. He said they will do fundraisers, and 100% of those funds will go into the community.
MOTION TO ALLOW RURITAN CLUB TO USE COMMUNITY BUILDING ON A REGULAR BASIS
Upon motion by Robert Jean, seconded by Richard Adams, and unanimously carried, the Council voted to allow the 21 Century Ruritan Club to use the community building once per month on a date to be determined with the front office.
UPDATE ON THE COMPREHENSIVE PLAN
Philipp Gabathuler from Region 2000 was in attendance at the Council meeting. He said he wanted to start the comprehensive planning update process with a community survey. He said he was thinking about giving a month for completion of the survey. He passed out a copy of the survey draft and asked Council for their feedback. He said that he started the survey with a rating of community services that are provided. He said that in his experience he has not asked people to put their names on the surveys they complete. There was then discussion on what should go in the survey and ways to distribute the survey.
POLICE REPORT
Chief Richard Baldwin presented the police report for July 2017. He said of the 106 calls for service, 90 were answered by the Brookneal Police Department.
PUBLIC WORKS REPORT
Public Works Director Mike Crews said they have been working on the PER (Preliminary Engineering Report) for the water system. He said they received good results back from the TTHM testing in July. He said the Office of Drinking Water will do their water plant inspection this Friday.
COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATIONS
There were no committee recommendations.
ITEMS FROM TOWN COUNCIL
Clerk/Treasurer Bobbie Waller said that she has a new person in the front office by the name of Faye Grix. She started on August 4, 2017 after Sue O’Shea accepted another job.
ADJOURNMENT
Upon motion by James Nowlin, seconded by Robert Jean, and unanimously carried, Mayor Campbell announced that the August 8, 2017, Council meeting was adjourned.
