December 10, 2019
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:
James A. Nowlin, Mayor
Phyllis Campbell, Barbara Laprade, Mark Wilkes and Cynthia Johnson, Council Members
Russell Thurston, Town Manager
Bobbie Waller, Clerk/Treasurer
Mike Crews, Public Works Director
Clifton Mason, Police Officer
Absent: Richard Adams, Vice Mayor, Joseph David, Council Member, and Richard Baldwin, Chief of Police
INVOCATION AND PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG
APPROVAL OF AGENDA
Upon motion by Phyllis Campbell, seconded by Mark Wilkes, and unanimously carried, Council approved the agenda for the December 10, 2019, regular meeting of the Brookneal Town Council. Mayor Campbell said that she wanted to add an item for consideration: Council to consider not having a December Council meeting in the future.
MINUTES
Upon motion by Barbara Laprade, seconded by Mark Wilkes, and unanimously carried, Council approved the minutes for the November 12, 2019, Town Council meeting.
TREASURER’S REPORT
Mayor Nowlin asked that the December 2019 treasurer’s report be filed for audit.
PRESENTATION AND APPROVAL OF INVOICES
Be it resolved that motion was made by Mark Wilkes, seconded by Cynthia Johnson, and unanimously carried, authorizing the payment of the invoices for the period of
November 13, 2019 to December 10, 2019 in the amount of $9,645.73.
PUBLIC COMMENT
No one appeared before Council during public comment time.
POLICE REPORT
Police Officer Clifton Mason presented the police report for November 2019. He said of the 107 calls for service last month, 102 were answered by the Brookneal Police Department and 5 by Campbell County sheriff’s office.
PUBLIC WORKS REPORT
Public Works Director Mike Crews said the Kenworth trash truck has been in the shop since November 19, 2019. He said they borrowed the Town of Gretna’s trash truck, and he still has it. He said trash pickup for Tuesday, Christmas Eve (December 24, 2019) will be done on Monday, December 23, 2019.
TOWN MANAGER REPORT
Town Manager Russell Thurston said the parade went well; everyone had to work a little harder since parade coordinator Lori Shepherd is now employed at Lowe’s in South Boston, and is no longer working in Town. He said the employee Christmas luncheon will be held on December 18, 2019, and he said Councilperson Cindy Johnson has voluntarily offered to have the lunch catered for the employees. He said they are still working on the Town reservoir. He said an electrician has been out already, and some of the infrastructure has been done. He said that the Town has done as much of the work as we can to help Dominion Power and the 3rd party electrician; he said a lot of the digging and setting up posts has already been done by the Town. He said the joint dinner meeting with Town of Altavista and Campbell County Board of Supervisors turned out very well at Sonny Buck’s Diner on November 19, 2019. He said Mr. Crews got a lot of the streetlights fixed and converted over to an LED system that will last a lot longer and not generate as much heat as the regular bulbs. He said the new sanitation truck is in the process of being built in Texas, and he said it should be here end of February or first of March. He said taxes have been steadily coming in, and the front office has been working hard on collecting taxes.
He said the request for proposals on the hotel/lodging study has been submitted to USDA and is pending approval from them. He said there were some gaps in the sample proposals sent by USDA, so he redone the contract to make sure the scope of the work was defined and the plan of work was well defined. He said he wanted the contract to reflect what the deliverables should be. He said he hopes they will be sent out within 30 days, and he will get the responses back soon so the Town can award the contract.
He said the new auditing firm came and done their field work in November, and the audit report is in process.
COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATIONS
There were no committee recommendations.
ITEMS FROM TOWN COUNCIL
Councilperson Wilkes told the Council about the Free Reading Library for children that has been installed at the Brookneal Recreation park in memory of former Council member and Brookneal Elementary School librarian Margaret “Meg” Tibbs. The idea of the free reading library is for kids to come and get books and leave books for others, although they don’t necessarily have to leave books.
Councilperson Campbell commented on how good the parade was this year. She said she thought it was probably one of the best parades around. She noted that the late Councilperson Bob Jean’s old station wagon was on a float from Childrey Baptist Church. Ms. Waller thanked Councilperson Johnson for her help and work at the community building with all the band kids. Councilperson Johnson commented on how well organized the Brookneal parade was this year and how well the parade flowed.
ADJOURNMENT
Upon motion by Phyllis Campbell, seconded by Mark Wilkes, and unanimously carried, Mayor Nowlin announced that the December 10, 2019 Council meeting was adjourned.
Bobbie A. Waller: Clerk/Treasurer
James Nowlin: Mayor
