Town of Pound - Pound, Web viewTown of Pound. Regular Council Meeting. 8422 North River Road. March...

Town of PoundRegular Council Meeting8422 North River Road

March 28, 20176:00 p.m.

PRESENTGeorge Dean, Mayor Eric Price – Thompson & Litton Danny Stanley – Council Margaret Sturgill – Pound Historical SocietyGlenn Cantrell – Council Heath Wiley – Inter Mountain CableTerry Short – Council Roy Harlow – Inter Mountain CableClifton Cauthorne – Council Carol Baker - TourismJenny Carter – Clerk Treasurer Harold GreerTony Baker – Chief of Police Sherron DeanTommy Shell – Pastor First Baptist Church Phil Cantrell, Sr.Donnie Rife – Sophie MullinsJohn Stallard – Fire Chief D’Anna CvetnichTina Stallard Pay CaldwellRobin Dotson – Coach, Central Warriors Girls Basketball Brook Porter Brittany Mullins Hannah CarterHaley Mullins Rachel PorchicOliva Mullins Sarah DotsonGracie Mullins Annie ChurchWalter Crouse Lisa BevinsMark Carter Ernest CarterTerri Carter Clay Carty

CALL TO ORDER AND WELCOME

The mayor called the meeting to order and welcomed everyone.

PLEDGE AND INVOCATION

The mayor led everyone in the Pledge of Allegiance to the American flag. Pastor Tommy Shell, First Baptist Church, gave the invocation.

ROLL CALL OF COUNCIL

The roll call:Present – Glenn Cantrell, Clifton Cauthorne, Terry Short, Danny StanleyAbsent – Jonathan Walters

Mayor George Dean declared a quorum and the Town of Pound’s business will be conducted.

CONSENT CALENDAR

Councilman Cantrell asked for one change to the February Minutes on Page 4 under Heritage Days. When Arvil introduces the committee members for Heritage Days, Bill Cantrell, Sr., should be Phil Cantrell, Sr. Clerk Treasurer Carter said she would make the correction to the February 21, 2017, Minutes. Councilman Short said that, on the Agenda, Donnie Rife was asked to address Council and asked if this could be added to the Agenda as 5.1. Mayor Dean stated he needed to add to the Agenda an 11.1 concerning a Resolution relative to putting in a grant request for I-Perl meters. Councilman Short said that he had no changes, but would like to say that this was the best looking set of Minutes he’d ever seen in his life and that he appreciated the effort and time Clerk Treasurer Carter had put into them. Councilman Stanley made a motion to approve the Consent Calendar. Councilman Cantrell seconded the motion. Mayor Dean asked if there was any additional discussion. There was none.

VOTE:Ayes: Cantrell, Cauthorne, Short, StanleyNays: NoneAbsent: Jonathan Walters

Mayor Dean stated the Consent Calendar was approved with Agenda changes and one change in the Minutes.

WISE CENTRAL WARRIORS GIRLS BASKETBALL TEAM

Mayor Dean, Council, and the audience warmly welcomed the Wise Central Warriors Girls Basketball Team. Mayor Dean asked if the team would step forward and turn to allow everyone to see them. Mayor Dean congratulated the Wise Central Warriors Girls Basketball team and expressed pride and gratitude for their 24 and 6 season accomplishments. He read and presented a Proclamation to Coach Robin Dotson (named Coach of the Year) and the Wise Central Warriors Girls Basketball team for winning the VSHL 2A State Championship for the third time in the last four years and stated that a plaque would be forthcoming. Coach Dotson introduced the Lady Warriors and added they were honored to be here before the Pound Town Council. Coach Dotson complimented the team stating that Pound, Wise, and all of southwest Virginia should be proud of these ladies, and he thanked Council and everyone for having them tonight. Mayor Dean thanked them for coming out and said he would call Coach Dotson when the plaque was ready and would get it to them.

DONNIE RIFE

Mayor Dean asked Mr. Donnie Rife to come forward and address Council. Mr. Rife said it was a pleasure to be here and thanked Council for having him. He said he didn’t need anything from Council, but he has a simple request. He said he wasn’t going to tell Council anything they don’t

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already know, but their town is dying. Mr. Rife stated he had a direction he wanted Council to pursue. He said he had brought this up to supervisor Ronnie Shortt in Richmond in January and, if it went any further than that, he didn’t know. Every building in this town that’s torn down will not be rebuilt unless there is a flood wall in Pound. Mr. Rife said what he would like Council to do is make contact with the Board of Supervisors. If Council looks at the project that was done in Buchanan County and since it is about the survival of the town, what do you have to lose. He asked that Council get our Supervisor to speak with the IDA. He stated we have one of the most productive IDA directors in Carl Snodgrass. He accomplishes things that you wouldn’t think could get done. But if Pound comes in here and cleans up their river, builds a flood wall, builds three arch bridges from one side to the other for accessibility, and builds a boardwalk along the flood wall with entrances into the building from behind the floodwall, people will come off of US 23 to look at that because it will be so unique that it is unbelievable and they will shop in the shops and the new businesses that will come in. He said the money can be made available. What was done in Buchanan County is massive compared to what it would take to bring Pound back to life. If the flood wall is put in place, every square foot in this town can be built back. He added, Pound is important to Dickenson County because it is a gateway into Dickenson County. He stated Pound has nothing to lose and everything to gain. In order to make this come together, Council must work with the Supervisors, the IDA, and have a joint effort to work with the Army Corps of Engineers. Without this, the town doesn’t have a chance. He said all they can tell Council is “no.” If they say “no,” then be able to persevere and continue on. Even if they say “no,” you are no worse off. Mr. Rife stated he would like to leave his contact information with each Council member. He doesn’t work for any engineering companies or anything of this nature, but he would be glad to give up some of his time to help get this done if Council wants him to. This is a challenge that won’t be easy, but it will be so worth it because you are looking at the difference in survival and disappearing. He added that by the time the flood wall is built up, the town will qualify for another downtown revitalization project, and maybe even qualify for something from the Tobacco Commission and others. He said you can get just about anything done if you continue to follow up on it. Follow up and follow through—the two most important things you can do for a project. We don’t have another choice. He reiterated he has given Council a challenge and offered a direction and he thinks Council needs to pursue this. He remembered that you couldn’t even find a parking spot in this town back in the 1970s. Everyone said the bypass killed the town. It was one of the things that did kill the town, but the bypass can be utilized because you have great access off US23 to come into town. Mr. Rife stated he would call Mayor Dean tomorrow. He has already talked with Councilman Short and some of the others and said this is something that can be done. It isn’t going to be easy, but it can make the difference between life and death for this town. He thanked Council for their time and asked that Council please pursue this. Councilman Short addressed Mr. Rife and said that Mr. Rife offered to meet with Council again and he would like to get a schedule and see when we could meet with him and look at more details into this. Councilman Cauthorne suggested that the Town of Pound has an Economic Development Authority (EDA) just like the county, and he thinks Tony Baker is the Administrator. He suggested Mr. Rife get with Tony Baker and when the EDA meets next time, talk with them because they are really into economic development. Councilman Cauthorne stated that this is a channel that could really research this and bring a proposal back to Council. Mr. Rife

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said it would not be an easy path, but it would be so well worth it if it gets accomplished. He added it is not going to get accomplished tomorrow, but it could be huge for this town because you are literally talking about survival of a great little town. Mr. Rife thanked Council for letting him speak and that he hopes Council will pursue this and not take no for an answer. He stressed, “follow through, follow through, and follow through.”

PUBLIC HEARING

Mayor Dean stated there is a Public Hearing scheduled relative to Town Council accepting Connie Clark’s offer of property as well as Debbi Hale’s Deeds of Easement that she has obtained. Mayor Dean stated a Resolution was completed last year thanking Connie Clark for the property, but we never did formally accept the property. This is why we are having a Public Hearing tonight. Mayor Dean read the Notice of Public Hearing, a copy of which is attached to these Minutes. He stated he has the items out of order, so we are going to discuss Item 6b.

6b. DEEDS OF EASEMENTMayor Dean said these Deeds of Easement are behind the Valero around the old railroad track towards Stacey Branch. He stated that unless we accept these Deeds of Easements, we cannot improve that property to do what needs to be done in order to access the tunnel. Ms. Hale has gone to a lot of work to get this done. On one of the easements, Mayor Dean said he noticed that it was notarized by some lady in Maryland. Debbi Hale is working very hard to get what we need in order for us to get access to the tunnel. Mayor Dean opened the floor to anyone who wants to address whether or not we should accept the two easements and pressing ahead with working on the tunnel that Debbi Hale has obtained. An audience member shouted out, “I say go for it.” Another audience member said they “second that motion.” Mayor Dean said he has eight people saying they want the deeds of easement. He said it appears everyone wants us to do what we can with the tunnel to help build businesses here in Pound and help breathe some life into the town. An audience member spoke out and Mayor Dean asked if he was going to address Council to come forward. Mr. Clay Carty came forward and addressed Council and said he thought it would give people so much more to do. He was of the opinion that it would keep young people out of trouble. He said you have to go into Tennessee or deep into Kentucky to find something to do. He said he thinks it would be a good thing. Mayor Dean asked if Chief Baker would want to give us a hint as to where we are headed. Chief Baker said there would be a good hint under the Tourism Committee. Councilman Cantrell said that the easement for the Page property is also going to tie this into the reservoir. Mayor Dean stated the easements were available for anyone who wants to see or read them. Attorney Gilliam asked if this was the tunnel. Mayor Dean said yes. Attorney Gilliam stated people are fascinated by tunnels. Mayor Dean said we hope so. Councilman Cauthorne said this is private landowner who is willing giving access. Mayor Dean said yes and that is why they are giving the access. Councilman Cauthorne said he thought we were all unanimous. Mayor Dean asked if there was anyone else who wanted to speak for or against the Town of Pound accepting at least the two current deeds of easement towards fixing the right-of-way up to the tunnel for public access. Carol Baker approached Council and said that Debbi was concerned because she had tried to get access to the tunnel and we have spoken with members of

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VDOT. This is something that is ongoing and isn’t something she can just go forward and do. There’s certain processes that must be done. We spoke to a VDOT member Sunday and the VDOT member assured us they are doing everything they can to protect nature and protect the citizens. It is something that is moving forward. It’s just not going to happen now. There’s a process that has to happen. Debbi deserves tons of credit because she has worked continuously. It may seem like nothing is happening right now, but it is. It will just take a little time for it to happen. Chief Tony Baker spoke up and said, “She said VDOT, but it is the National Forest.” Ms. Baker apologized and said, “National Forest, not VDOT.” Mayor Dean asked if there was anyone else wanting to speak for or against acceptance of the easements. Mr. Walter Crouse, approached and addressed Council. He said as a property owner in Pound, we need economic development; we need to get tourists in here; we need businesses in here; and we need to get people who rent properties. Mayor Dean asked if there was anyone else who wanted to speak for or against the acceptance of the easements that Debbi Hale has provided. No one else approached Council.

6a. CONNIE CLARK PROPERTYMayor Dean asked Council to remember that we have already thanked Connie Clark for the property. The Christmas tree was sitting to the right side of the property, so the property is out to the edge of the highway. Mayor Dean asked if anyone wanted to see a picture of the property. Ms. Clark liked that the Christmas tree was there so well that this is why she wanted the Town of Pound to have the property so we wouldn’t have to call her any more to put the Christmas tree there. It is in that vicinity. It starts at the edge of the road and is about a 40-foot wide piece of property that goes straight back for about close to about 180 feet. It goes a little way up the bank. Councilman Cantrell said if it’s like most of the property in that area, it’s about 25-foot wide by 150-foot long. Mayor Dean asked if anyone wanted to speak for or against the Town of Pound accepting the already thanked for property offered by Connie Clark. Councilman Cauthorne asked if there was a brown truck over there. Councilman Stanley stated it was becoming a car lot. Mayor Dean said that it is becoming a car lot, but that car lot is Connie’s problem right at this time but, once we accept it and she signs the deed over and we take it and record it, then we own the property. We can then tell them to move their trucks. Right now, we just have to look at them because we don’t own the property. Councilman Stanley said he would ask them to pay something on it. Mayor Dean said yes, if they wanted to pay a parking fee out there. Councilman Cauthorne said $25.00 per month. Mayor Dean said we could do something like that. Right now, this is still Connie’s land and whether or not something is on it is her prerogative. We can’t do anything about it but, if we get the property, that’s what we’ll do. Mayor Dean asked if anyone else wanted to speak for or against accepting the property. Councilman Stanley made a motion to close the Public Hearing. Councilman Cauthorne seconded the motion.

VOTE:Ayes: Cantrell, Cauthorne, Short, StanleyNays: NoneAbsent: Walters

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Mayor Dean stated the Public Hearing is now closed for discussion on those two different properties. He said the chair would entertain a motion to accept the two deeds of easement that Debbi Hale has presented to Council. Councilman Cantrell made the motion. Councilman Cauthorne seconded the motion. Mayor Dean asked if there was additional discussion. There was none. A “yes” vote is acceptance of the easements; a “no” vote is we’re not going to get our tunnel.


Mayor Dean said the motion passes, and we will accept those deeds of easement and do what is necessary to get them recorded.

Councilman Cantrell made a motion to accept the Connie Clark property. Councilman Stanley seconded the motion. Mayor Dean asked if there was any additional discussion. There was none.


Mayor Dean said we will do the deed on the Connie Clark property right away. He said he would talk to her, get it signed and recorded, and then we will do what we need to do about vehicles.

AUDIENCE

Mayor Dean opened the floor to the audience to come forward and discuss anything for five minutes.

Harold Greer, 9326 Mill Creek Road, Pound, Virginia, Out-of-Town – Mr. Greer approached Council and said, at the meeting a couple of months ago, Officer McAfee brought up the fact that he would be willing to buy a police car for the town. He said he thought the town ought to accept this. Any time anyone offers anything free to the town, given the shape the town is in, if the town doesn’t take it, it is in bad shape. He thinks this would be an asset and that the town should accept it. Mr. Greer said he agreed with Mr. Rife on infrastructure. It is probable that Congress will pass an infrastructure bill that will have a lot of money. It is always a possibility that the town, if you do the right lobbying, could get some of that money. He has heard something about the Coalfield Expressway that may be a possibility. However, there is a hold on this by Senator McCain of Arizona. He said he didn’t think the hold would be removed unless some changes are made as to the route of the expressway. He thinks this will possibly be done. The thing he really wanted to talk about was annexation—the boundary adjustment. The 2020 Census is coming up and in

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probably about a year and a half, they are going to probably start hiring people for it. One of the problems the town has is that we are in a very bad demographic situation. This hurts the town when it comes to getting grants and other things. If we had over 1,000 people, it would help us tremendously. He said he does think there is a way we can get it. We need to look into annexing the prison. It can be done, and it can be done without taking anybody’s houses where we’re going to have people coming to the Board of Supervisors and complaining. There is a high percentage of that property that we could connect to the prison owned by Forest Products, owned by outside corporations. Naturally, it will raise the taxes a bit to pay for the town, but we could trade a border to the prison. Now, what would be the advantage of this? Basically, it would about double our population which would help us with grants and would also give us a significant minority population which would help us with grants. It is just a reality. He said he worked on these things about 40 years ago and knows a little about it, but he is positive the rules have changed since then. However, he thinks it would help us if we took a look at this and making a boundary adjustment on to the school as well. Pound’s population has basically stayed static for several years, but we are close to the potential that it could start to decline. He said he would give a specific example. The enrollment at J.W. Adams School in the last 10-13 years has fallen by about 200 kids. At the start of the 2015 school year and the start of the 2016 school year, they lost 44 kids. The Pre-K enrollment at Adams is the same as that of Appalachia and it’s less than St. Paul. This is not good. He doesn’t think there is much of a chance of getting in families that have kids. One of the reasons he thinks this is because of school consolidation and that is one of the reasons he opposed it so strongly. You may have a very good high school at Esserville, but parents are not going to move their kids to a town where they have to go over a high mountain to a high school. This is just a fact of life. He has seen it happen with college kids. Because almost everyone here who’s tried to rent property to college kids, they will experience a snow or two and then they’ll move out. The same thing happens with especially lowland parents. When they see Indian Creek Mountain and Jenkins Mountain and Red Onion, the parents will say, “Why don’t we move there if we are going to have to take our kids to school over there.” The reality is parents do not necessarily look at elementary schools. One of the key determinants in educational attractiveness to parents is the high school. It hurt us badly when we lost the high school, and he doesn’t think we are going to be able to attract parents with young kids. We must look for other ways to boost our population. He thinks taking in the prison would be the easiest way of doing this. We also need to take in the school so that if anything happens to the school and it is closed, we need that property for the town because this is key, economic property for development by the town. A third item he is thinking about also is that the town needs to pass a Resolution calling for more open access on the four lane. He said we need to look at taking some of the property across the four lane, but we need to look at getting a little bit better access to the four lane because that, to some extent, is our future. Again, if they build the expressway, we have to make certain that we have open access to that. The whole key to any of these highways is getting access to it. If we don’t have access, we can’t put anything on it, it’s just that simple. Right now, there’s a big fight going on in Lee County. Down in Pennington Gap, a lot of folks there are upset about the bypass because they won’t have access to it and they are afraid it will ruin the town. These are just things to throw out to Council, but he hopes the Planning Commission and Council will consider trying to annex the prison because he thinks it will make a tremendous difference in the town’s

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population. He thanked Council for listening. Councilman Cauthorne said Councilman Walters championed that idea and we could put that on the fast track for the Planning Commission. Mayor Dean said, if he wasn’t mistaken, didn’t Council already pass a Resolution about getting access roads whenever the expressway gets built. We’ve already passed a Resolution asking for that about two years ago. Councilman Short asked, “A Resolution for what, George?” Mayor Dean said that where it is limited access to the Coalfield Expressway is to get us frontage road access completely—all the way down that. We didn’t do it for the four-lane US 23, but we did do it for the Coalfield Expressway. Councilman Cauthorne asked if the Planning Commission could get Council a blueprint in the next few months about annexing Red Onion State Prison. Councilman Short said we could attempt to do that. Councilman Cauthorne said just a blueprint of what we need to do to move ahead because the Census is coming up. Councilman Short said it has been discussed. Councilman Cauthorne said that this was part of Vice Mayor Walters’ campaign and he thinks it is a good idea. Attorney Gilliam interjected that he didn’t think we needed to discuss this right now. Mayor Dean asked if there was anyone else who wanted to address Council.

Walter Crouse, Hurricane Section, Wise County – Mr. Crouse said we need jobs and businesses to come to Pound. As spokesperson for property owner, Glenda Skeen, six rentals and zero renters for nearly one year, she must pay taxes and insurance for empty apartments in two buildings. If property owners cannot get renters, taxes basically will not be paid. No income, no way to pay expenses. Council must not keep raising taxes. Pound already has the highest tax rate in Wise County. Council needs to reduce the water deposit as well as the Appalachian Power needs to reduce its deposit for the power. Expensive deposits scare off potential renters. The town must help property owners in every way possible. Glenda finally has one apartment rented a week ago. The streets and gutters need to be cleaned. He sweeps off in front of her building every time he comes over here. As Chairman of Keep Wise County Beautiful, I and Greg Cross are looking for new members to the executive committee. For those who want to be out next Saturday morning, we will be conducting the second half of our litter index with a tour of the scenic backroads around Pound. We will start here, go to Norton, and then to Big Stone Gap. The last tour, we went to St. Paul, Coeburn, and Wise. Please do not litter our byways. Tourists should not be discouraged by dirty byways. We want to get people here to spend some money. The Pound High School should be converted to an orphanage for the many children in foster care. Children are being neglected, abused, et cetera. Children are better served in a safe, caring facility where they are item number one and not a source of income to their foster parents. He said he has mentioned this several times to the Board of Supervisors, and he will keep mentioning this. This is an idea birthed by Glenda Skeen. He said his message to the Central High School Senior girls, UVA-Wise needs you to join their Winning Women’s program. Greg Cross and I want your support for a project that will be brought up before the Board of Supervisors at their next meeting to create a way, instead of sending everybody down to Duffield costing the county millions of dollars, that we can keep them at home and put them to work for non-profit organizations such as the Town of Pound to clean streets and so forth and do various jobs. It is time to say “no” to DEQ and Regulators in Richmond and Washington, D.C., who have no idea how poor southwestern Virginia actually is. Our economy has been destroyed as most of the easily mined coal is gone. To bring up the area behind the properties on the north side of Main Street, the Clintwood side, the

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slide has to be fixed. We need to get some of the money from DMME that was wasted when they spent too much money in Norton to put up a wall there so everything will stay there. We don’t need the Methodist Church laying on top of Glenda’s building and other neighbors. The bank needs to be torn down, and one way to help pay for the bank is sell bricks as souvenirs and suggested contacting people who have lived or live in the Town of Pound and let them know this is a way to raise money to help pay the expense. Lastly, say “no” to the Coalfield Expressway. We’ve got a fine road, Route 83, that takes us to Clintwood and to Haysi. We don’t need a road that takes everyone away from Pound and Clintwood. Annex the prison. We need population increase. It won’t cost anyone any money because they don’t have to vote. Big Stone Gap has done that with the prison down there to help their population. Mr. Crouse thanked Council. Councilman Cauthorne asked if the landslide was on the Agenda. Mayor Dean said “no,” but that he had a meeting today with Frank Kibler of LENOWISCO, Sara Harrington of VDEM, and Jessica Swinney of Wise County’s Emergency Management, and the package that went up that got denied…after talking with them, it wasn’t the quality our package - it was political. They gave us some information to help beef up that package and, now, that package is going forward under Hurricane Matthew’s Emergency Funding, so we are going after it again. He said he is asking for over $500,000.00 free and clear to do the landslide fix. Right now, Mayor Dean said he is doing everything he can to take care of this out there. People come and say they want to take a brick or rock or something out of that. The engineers have said, “Leave it alone.” You don’t know how much you pull out of the bottom interrupts the stability there. A couple of bricks could actually start all of that coming down and then Church Street is gone and we have a really big problem. If anyone is saying they are going to go over and steal a few bricks or rocks or whatever out of there, it will get you in big trouble. People need to stay out of that and leave it alone until we can get it fixed. Then, at that time, maybe we can look at souvenirs but, right now, everything that is there needs to stay in place to keep the bank as stable as we can possibly keep it and protect Church Street in the interim until we actually get this fixed. So, you can pass the word on—stay out of there, period. Leave it alone. Mayor Dean said it may be said that nothing is happening, but he is doing all he can. DMME has said no mining took place and they don’t want anything to do with it. Mayor Dean said he has no way to prove any mining took place there to get into some of those funds. He said he hasn’t given this up yet because of a photo he recently saw. He is looking at every avenue he possibly can. This is the landslide update right now. He said he is trying to get some dollars to get this fixed.

Sherron Dean, 11521 Austin Hill Road, Pound, Virginia – Ms. Dean stepped forward and addressed Council. She said she does live in the corporation. Mr. Rife has a wonderful idea. Ms. Dean said she has told everyone on Council and in the town that if you don’t work together, it won’t work. Everyone has to be on the same page. Everyone has ideas, but put them together and work together or it’s not going to work. But it is a wonderful idea. Please deal with it and work with everyone. We could have a nice town, but everyone has to work together. You can’t have this one group over here bickering and fighting and this little group over here saying okay, we can do this. You have to get together in the middle and work together. That means everyone here. Ms. Dean said she does pick up garbage in the town. Ms. Dean thanked Council.

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Clay Carty, 278 Ralph Stanley Road, Clintwood, Virginia – He said he wants to let everyone know how much he appreciates Council and the Picking in the Pound. It has been a very big part of his life, and he really appreciates it. He said he missed Jackie and was sure Jackie would thank Council a lot. As Mr. Carty was leaving the podium, Mayor Dean asked Mr. Carty to return to the podium. Mayor Dean said Mr. Carty had asked to speak, but he didn’t have the opportunity to add it to the Agenda and is giving him the opportunity right now. He asked Mr. Carty to tell Council what Mr. Carty had told him. Mr. Carty said his sister, Leeann Campbell, has stage-four cancer. Hospice has been called in, and she is really going through a rough time right now. She was given two weeks to three months to live. Mr. Carty said he was wondering if he could do a benefit show here to help with expenses for her funeral and she has to have people staying with her at night and needs money for traveling. Just having someone come and stay all night with her and help her would be helping her with gas and food while they are there, stuff like that. Mayor Dean asked if Mr. Carty wanted to do something similar to Picking in the Pound, and the donations from the folks that come to enjoy the music will go to help your sister. Mr. Carty said yes. Mayor Dean asked Council if anyone had a problem with this. Councilman Stanley asked Mr. Carty when he wanted to do this. Mr. Carty replied, if he could, he’d like to do this on April 1st. Councilman Stanley asked if that was the same night as the Picking in the Pound. Mayor Dean answered, “no.” Mayor Dean said he thought he had told him April 1st from 4 pm until 10 pm. Mr. Carty said they would be responsible for all the cleaning and would clean the bathrooms. They would bring in all the food. He said anything Council needs they would help out just to make sure this is a good thing. Mayor Dean said the chair will entertain a motion to allow Clay Carty and his friends to hold a benefit for Clay’s sister here in Town Hall on April 1, 2017, from about the 4 pm to 10 pm timeframe. Councilman Stanley so moved. Councilman Cantrell seconded the motion. Mayor Dean asked if there was additional discussion. Councilman Cauthorne said this helps everyone—his sister and also brings people to the town. Councilman Cauthorne stated he thought it was a good idea. Mayor Dean asked if there was any additional discussion. There was none.


Mayor Dean stated that Town Hall would be open to Mr. Carty on April 1, 2017, from 4 pm until 10 pm.

Mr. Carty added that they would bring their own trash bags. He also said they have crock pots for chili and asked if they could put them in the kitchen. Mayor Dean said they surely could and that they have access to the kitchen, the hallway, the Council Chambers, and to the bathrooms. Councilman Cantrell added just like Picking in the Pound does. Mayor Dean said, “Yes, just like Picking in the Pound.” Mr. Carty said they sure appreciate it and thanked Council.

Mayor Dean asked if anyone else wished to address Council.

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Phil Cantrell, Sr., 11114 Highland Avenue, Pound, Virginia – Mr. Cantrell stated that this is the first meeting he has been to that something productive has come about. Usually when he is here, he is fussing at Council, but he is thanking Council right now. He said he appreciates this amount of cooperation he has seen among Council and added it is encouraging. He said he may come back up after a while and cuss at Council again but, right now, he thanks Council. Mayor Dean thanked Mr. Cantrell for his confidence in Council.

Mayor Dean asked if anyone else wanted to address Council. No one stepped forward, and Mayor Dean stated that the time for audience comment is closed.

TOURISM COMMITTEE

Ms. Carol Baker approached Council and stated that, about a week ago, Chief Tony Baker received a phone call and was given an idea that would be very positive for the Town of Pound. She asked Council to listen for a few moments to some things the Tourism Committee has been approached with that could be very beneficial to the Town of Pound. She said that on March 19th Chief Baker was contacted by some very important and influential people about the possibility of constructing a covered bridge on Route 83 which is the bridge that overlooks the Pound River near the Fire Hall on the Crooked Road. Chief Baker received an email that expressed interest in the Town of Pound’s rich history and access to the Crooked Road. She reported that a survey of all the bridges on the Crooked Road had been conducted and looked at as being one of seven covered bridges in the state of Virginia. Mr. Robert Kahn had been contacted by Mr. Frank Kilgore and Senator Ben Chafin to survey the bridges and to report back to them which bridges and/or locations in towns that would be the best place for the project to take place. Two hundred sixty-seven miles and nine hours of surveying the Crooked Road was completed to view potential sites for the covered bridge. We are extremely pleased and proud to say that the results of the survey determined that the bridge on Route 83 was chosen as the most suitable site for a covered bridge. Mr. Kahn, in an email, stated his pick would be the Pound Bridge on Route 83. A copy of the Covered Bridge Resolution proposal dated March 28, 2017, by the Town of Pound Recreation, Parks, and Tourism Committee which Ms. Baker read to Council is attached to these Minutes. Ms. Baker presented a proposed Resolution to Council that she said Mr. Tim McAfee had also looked over. She added that any changes can be made to this Resolution that would be needed. She asked that Council consider allowing this to be looked at and considered as a potential project. At the end of the packet are some pictures of bridges along the Crooked Road. Ms. Baker read a copy of the proposed Covered Bridge Survey and Participation Resolution to Council, a copy of which is attached to these Minutes. Ms. Baker said that, if changes were necessary, they would be glad to change whatever they needed to and asked that Council vote on the Resolution. She reiterated this could be very beneficial for tourism to the Town of Pound. Ms. Baker said that Chief Baker goes above and beyond talking to officials and persons in higher positions to try to do what is best for the Town of Pound and to bring in tourism and to build the town up. Ms. Baker said that Chief Baker did not approach anyone about this but that Chief Baker received a phone call last Sunday afternoon. Councilman Stanley asked if there must be a Public Hearing for the Resolution. Councilman Cauthorne said that, with a Resolution, he didn’t think

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so. Councilman Cantrell said that Attorney Gilliam is shaking his head “no.” Councilman Cauthorne said that one question he would have is the height of the bridge because of coal trucks. He said we have hope that the energy industry comes back into existence. Ms. Baker stated that this has already been addressed. She said Mr. Todd Pillion has been in contact with members of VDOT. She added that this issue is not something they can assess themselves. She said key members of VDOT have been contacted to come and take a look at this to study it and let us know what the possibilities are. Councilman Cauthorne asked if this was just a study. Ms. Baker said “yes.” Councilman Cauthorne asked about double-wide trailers going through it. She reiterated that this was something that VDOT will assess and let them know. Councilman Cauthorne stated that a lot of covered bridges are one lane and very narrow. Councilman Cantrell said this covered bridge would be built on the existing structure so it would be based on the current width and everything that is currently there. He added that mainly the height would need to be looked at and that it is good to go the way it is. Councilman Short asked if what was meant was that a canopy would be built over the bridge. Councilman Cantrell said “exactly.” Councilman Cauthorne said he thought the old-fashioned bridges would have a canopy. Councilman Short said that was the reason he was asking because VDOT sunk a lot of money into this bridge. He also added that the historical value of this bridge has been looked at before and this is one of the reasons the substructures were left in place. Councilman Cantrell said the bridge would not be replaced, but that the canopy would be placed on top. He said the historical value is still there, but we are just adding to it. Councilman Stanley said Attorney Gilliam if he looked over this and does it looks okay. Attorney Gilliam said it looks fine to him. Councilman Cantrell made a motion to accept the Resolution for the covered bridge. Councilman Stanley seconded the motion. Mayor Dean asked if there was any additional discussion. Councilman Cauthorne said that as long as the coal trucks and doublewides can go through, it is fine with him. Mayor Dean asked what the Resolution number would be and Clerk Treasurer Carter said the number would be 2017-04-001. [The correct Resolution number is 2017-03-001.] Councilman Cauthorne asked would we divide our Town of Pound Recreation and Parks Committee or would the Tourism Committee be sufficient. He said he noticed in the Resolution it said, “…working with Town of Pound Council members and the Town of Pound Recreation, Parks, and Tourism Committee.” Councilman Cantrell said this was the Tourism Committee already. Councilman Short said it wasn’t in the Resolution. It was just in Ms. Baker’s letter. Mayor Dean said the Resolution looks good the way it is written. Mayor Dean asked if there was any additional discussion. There was none.

Vote:Ayes: Cantrell, Cauthorne, Short, StanleyNayes: NoneAbsent: Walters

Mayor Dean stated the “yeses” have it, so the Resolution passes and we will do some research. Ms. Baker said she would like to take a moment to express her thanks to Chief Tony Baker on how hard he works and how he goes above and beyond to contact anyone and everyone he can for the good of the Town of Pound. She said there are countless days and nights; it doesn’t end when

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he gets off his shift. It is all night long. He is up all hours of the night. She said she is very proud of him for the effort he puts forth for the Town of Pound. Mayor Dean thanked Ms. Baker. Councilman Stanley said we had one of their kayaking events and Chief Baker had contacted several officials about this. Councilman Stanley said he didn’t think Chief Baker would be able to get them to come, but he was shocked and pleased to see each one of them and he knew their attendance was the result of Chief Tony Baker’s efforts. He said he thanked Chief Baker then, and he thanks him now.

TOWN WI-FI

Mayor Dean said to Council that he knows Council has already approved the Agenda and that it was an oversight on his part that he wanted to move an item on the Agenda up closer to the front. Mayor Dean asked if anyone was opposed to this. No one was opposed. Mayor Dean stated he wanted to move Item 16 Town Wi-Fi up to Item 9 if that was okay. Mayor Dean said it would switch places with Heritage Days. Mayor Dean said we have had Town Wi-Fi on the Agenda now for probably the last six Council meetings. Mayor Dean said that he and Councilman Cauthorne spoke with a gentleman outside Town Hall about Wi-Fi. Mayor Dean said that, in the interim, he has asked Intermountain Cable representatives to come and give a presentation about Wi-Fi and they are here at Council meeting tonight. Mayor Dean asked the gentlemen from Inter Mountain Cable to come forward and discuss Wi-Fi. Mayor Dean introduced Mr. Heath Wiley but said he didn’t think anyone knew his cohort. Mr. Wiley thanked Council for having them over and said that anytime Council needed them to contact them. Mr. Roy Harlow from Inter Mountain Cable introduced himself as the outside county superintendent. Mr. Harlow stated that Mr. Wiley had spoken with him about the Wi-Fi and that he isn’t sure as to what the town perceives that they need. That is why he is here tonight to talk about some of those issues and questions. He said they could follow up with Council or our Economic Development committee or whomever they need to. Councilman Cauthorne said that, in the town of Clintwood, they have a system where, at the parks—and they have an extensive amount of parks there—where you can go to the park and you can tap into a public Wi-Fi system. Councilman Cauthorne said he believed he was told Level Three or he believes the third tier is what they have in one location. He said it takes a tower to send it out to transmitters in different parts of the town. He said he guessed you had to have a site to get to that transmitter. Mr. Harlow interjected, “line of sight.” Councilman Cauthorne said this is something we could talk to our delegates and congressmen about because you never know when an opportunity might arise for funding for this or whether we might be able to come up with funding. The main expense it seems after following up with the person he spoke with in Clintwood is the setup and the monthly in Clintwood is between $200.00 and $300.00 per month to provide Wi-Fi to the community. This is what he is checking on is the price for setup and to actually put it out there for the community. Mr. Harlow said that is one of the questions that they had been thinking through - some of the point is where are you wanting to cover. Is it the entire town or just the parks or just some places because he guessed some businesses may already have it. He said he doesn’t know what the town has here. Councilman Cauthorne said it would depend on the cost. Like between the Fire Hall and Old Mill Village. He said he thought this is an area where he thought the people would use it. Councilman Cauthorne said we have the downtown, the

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Pixie, and a business owner thinking of putting in a café. Here we have the park, we have Town Hall, Picking in the Pound, and different events. This would be the core and maybe extend it up and down Main Street as the funding became available. Mr. Harlow said that some of the things you have to consider are the line of sight, where are you going to put the APs—the closer you have them together, the better your service will be. If you spread them out, you will get sporadic coverage and that is not good coverage so people will just not use it. If you’ve ever tried to get on a Wi-Fi that just sits there and spins, people just don’t use it. So you spend a lot of money that doesn’t get used. If you put it on power poles, you must have power to every location. Mayor Dean said this means the electric bill goes up. Mr. Harlow said “yes, if you are charged minimum usage on every AP…” Councilman Cauthorne said they currently have Christmas decorations that light up on some of the poles, so we do have a tap in. Mayor Dean added that that is through a specific contract to do the Christmas lights with AEP. Mr. Harlow said that if you put any of them on their poles, you would have to have an agreement to put them on the poles. Mr. Harlow added is there room to get them on there. This is some of the things you are going to have to ask them. How many devices will be needed to be put out for the town? He said his company has a sister company that does Wi-Fi and they do this from different locations and you can control it from a central point, maybe city hall that you put your controller in. Someone has to manage the network whether it’s city hall or an independent manager or whatever. Councilman Stanley asked when Mr. Harlow says “line of sight,” what is that distance of line of sight. Mr. Harlow said that you have different equipment for different line of sight. He said to picture a screen mesh. It has mesh. This one might work and this one might not, but they don’t work in between here and there. So if you are just looking to do the city park, then you have to go look at the park and see how many APs it will take to cover that park. Typically, you want them about every 50-feet or so. You can spread them out and get them in the two to three hundred foot range and they probably would still work in line of sight. He added you can get units that work 1,000 to 1,500 feet apart. Mayor Dean said that very few of those poles are less than 150 feet apart. Mr. Harlow said the second thing you have to look at is open access. Then, security comes into play. Who’s going to watch the security of this when copyright infringements happen. Attorney Gilliam said we’d probably get a subpoena or (inaudible) from the FBI for unauthorized pictures that you download or movies or…. Mr. Harlow interjected that you must watch these things and this are the kinds of things that Council needs to consider. Mayor Dean asked if people have a manager of the site or somebody that you pay to take care of this or to look at it. Mr. Harlow asked if his question was where someone at the city would manage. Mr. Harlow said that it could be that you have somebody in the IT now that could do this or maybe a city Council member would like to volunteer to manage this part of the network. Mr. Harlow said someone needs to be responsible. He said if they were to provide the town with bandwidth and they get a copyright infringement notification from a vendor, they have to give that copyright infringement to the city and those IP addresses. He said how that is traced out it above him. He said he didn’t stand here to try to think he could try to explain that especially when it is an open access network. When people find out they can hide behind open access, they tend to go there to download a movie or pictures or music or inappropriate material. This is something Council has to think about. Councilman Cauthorne said that if this is an open Wi-Fi, couldn’t this also be a tool of law enforcement to catch some of these people. Mr. Harlow said that yes, it could be. Mr. Harlow said that you definitely do not want to

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tie this to your network here at Town Hall. Mayor Dean said, “Absolutely not.” Mayor Dean said it would have nothing to do with the network here in Town Hall. Attorney Gilliam asked if we would be sent notification that, in your open access, someone is coming in and using it to download copyright material. Mr. Harlow replied not necessarily on open access, but inside the network itself. Mr. Harlow said we know where those IP addresses are used so, if someone downloads it and we say, “Who used this IP address,” and we get a subpoena and tell them who had that IP address at that given time. Councilman Cauthorne said that you are not getting sued, but you are becoming a conduit for criminals. Mr. Harlow said that if you have a Wi-Fi network in your home, it needs to be secured. Don’t have your network open where your neighbor can use it or someone can pull in your driveway and download a movie because, guess who the FBI is going to knock on who’s door? It is going to be you, and you are going to have to say you didn’t do this, and they will confiscate your computers and say, okay, you didn’t do it. Mayor Dean said that if we were to set this up, we would have to have an IT expert to be looking at this or having something to do with it on a regular basis. Otherwise, we could be opening ourselves up to potential litigation. Mr. Harlow said he thought it was something that Council would want to consider. This would be up to your attorney to say could we be liable. Mr. Harlow said he didn’t know; he is not an attorney. He said he is just telling Council some of the things they deal with every day in the networking side situation. Councilman Cauthorne asked what it would cost to set up something like this. Mr. Harlow said it would depend on how many APs you want. Councilman Cauthorne said the person he spoke with said we could get a Tier Three. Mr. Harlow said he wasn’t sure what the person was talking about there. Mr. Harlow said the controller is $6,000.00 to $7,000.00; the access points for the type they would sell and manage and would put in a business the size of the Expo in Pikeville or something similar, then they are about $2,000.00 each. Mayor Dean asked if Mr. Harlow was talking about the line of sight units that go on the poles. Mr. Harlow answered, “Correct.” Mr. Harlow said the APs they use are good stuff. If you want to pursue it more, we will get someone to come over and look at it and get you a better price, but it isn’t cheap. He said you would definitely need some grant money to help you. Councilman Cauthorne asked if what Mr. Harlow was saying was $6,000.00 or $7,000.00 … Mr. Harlow interjected, “For the controller.” Mr. Harlow added $2,000.00 for each AP. He added that that’s above him as far as pricing this. Councilman Cauthorne said he was just trying to get a price in case something was to come available. So it would be about $20,000.00 to set up. Mr. Harlow said he thought you would start at $20,000.00 to $25,000.00 minimum. Councilman Short said initial cost. Councilman Cauthorne asked how much per month would it cost. Mr. Harlow said it would depend on the bandwidth that you are using. Councilman Cauthorne asked if Mr. Harlow didn’t know what was meant by Tier Three. Councilman Short said that may be their terminology. Mr. Harlow said he didn’t know his terminology. Councilman Cauthorne said the bandwidth to cover… Mr. Harlow interjected that it depends on how many users you have concurrently. The more people that get on the Wi-Fi, then the bandwidth keeps going down. So, how much bandwidth do you need for the city? Every time you get someone in one location, that AP is getting pulled from. For your densely populated areas, you may need six or seven, but over here you might need three. Councilman Cauthorne asked if $200.00 or $300.00 was in the ballpark. Mr. Harlow asked how many concurrent users did the person from Clintwood say they had. Councilman Cauthorne answered there was one central location and then it goes to the parks and

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also covers the Jettie Baker Center. Mr. Harlow said they would be glad to talk to him and see what he had in mind. If they could help him and you, that’s what they want to try to do. Councilman Cauthorne said it would never go forward if we don’t know how much this is going to cost approximately. Mr. Harlow said he didn’t know the size of the park you were trying to cover. He asked if you’ve ever been to a ball park where there’s Wi-Fi or cell service even and you try to use it while everyone is at that game, it is the same way. He said if you use it during Picking and there are two hundred people in here, it could be slow. Councilman Cauthorne asked for a number Council could contact him at. Mr. Harlow gave his office phone number of 606-479-6222. Mr. Harlow said we could also talk about how they handle open access. He added that he is not a fan of open access because of what he has seen with it. He said you have to be very careful when you get on an open access because people can not only see where you’re going, they can see you. Councilman Cauthorne said that goes for your customers, too. Mr. Harlow said his customers are residential customers and this is not going to hurt their residential business. Councilman Cantrell said it was very easy on open access to steal identities. Mr. Harlow said “yes.” Councilman Cauthorne said they need to have a warning and that people need to know that it is open access and not to put their credit cards… Mr. Harlow interjected that they had thought about doing it with their own company, but they have had a hard time having to authenticate that. How do they allow people on there that they know who they are. Mr. Wiley said the most reliable use in your home is private in your home under a secure network. He added they offer Wi-Fi solutions, but they are not here to say not good. Mr. Harlow said these are just things you need to consider as you are moving forward. He added that it may be that Council wants to do this for economic development. He said they would be glad to sit down with the economic development people and ask what they could do to help do this. Councilman Short said he guessed the liability for the open access is like when you go into the hospitals and you have a Wi-Fi but you go into a disclaimer screen. He said it didn’t matter what you sign or agree to, but it has to hold up in a court of law. Mr. Harlow said he wasn’t putting them all down. He likes when he can find some sometime like when you go in Starbucks or other places. He said a lot of students don’t have Wi-Fi at home so they go to McDonalds to get some homework done and it is great that they have that opportunity to do that. In Floyd County where they are, they are starting to get computers for all their students from about the fifth grade up so they can get their homework done even when they are not in school. Mr. Harlow said they have a total department that does Wi-Fi. Mr. Harlow left information about some of the gear they sell. He said it is for commercial and it is not cheap stuff. Mr. Harlow asked if there were any other questions or something they could follow back up with them on. He added it was a big process and was a doable thing, but it wouldn’t be easy. Mayor Dean thanked the gentlemen from Inter Mountain Cable for coming by and giving Council information on Wi-Fi.

PLANNING COMMISSION VACANCY/APPOINTMENT

Councilman Short said they have lost two members. Teresa Fleming resigned because of a conflict with work and she has a heavy work load. She has still offered to help. The other person is Peter Holbrook. Mayor Dean said he was only appointed about nine months ago. Councilman Short said his parents moved to Tennessee when they sold their home and he moved to Norton to

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continue to work here. Councilman Short said the Planning Commission met last night and they had two recommendations. For Peter Holbrook, they recommended Susan Downs Freeman who is Linda Browning’s daughter from The Fabric House and for Teresa Fleming’s replacement was Stacey Carson. A third person volunteered and that was Pastor Daniel Dent. He said he was willing to help, but he felt like his plate was full, but he still offered his services. Councilman Short said they would put him on the next list. This was voted on by the Planning Commission on the two actual recommendations. Mayor Dean said they would take them one at a time. He said the chair would entertain a motion to appoint Susan Downs Freeman in place of Peter Holbrook. Councilman Stanley so moved. Councilman Cantrell seconded the motion. Councilman Short made a motion and asked if the motion could be amended to include the dates. Councilman Cauthorne seconded the motion. Peter Holbrook’s term ends August 21, 2020. Mayor Dean said the motion is amended to include the termination of August 21, 2020. Mayor Dean asked if there was any additional discussion. There was none. Mayor Dean said that a yes vote puts Susan Downs Freeman as a replacement to Peter Holbrook to serve out the rest of his term that will end August 21, 2020. A no vote is to not put her in that position.


Mayor Dean said the yeses have it and we have a new member of the Planning Commission, Susan Downs Freeman, and Mayor Dean asked if Councilman Short would advise her of such. Councilman Short said “yes.”

Mayor Dean said the chair would entertain a motion to have Stacey Carson complete the term of Teresa Fleming with a termination date of October 15, 2017. Danny Stanley so moved. Councilman Cauthorne seconded the motion. Mayor Dean asked if there was any additional discussion. There was none.


Mayor Dean said the yeses have it. Stacey Carson is now a new member of the Planning Commission to serve out through October 15, 2017. Councilman Short said he would email them and inform them. Clerk Treasurer Carter said they would have to get a letter from her. Mayor Dean said they would have to go to the Courthouse and take their Oaths of Office and bring their paperwork back to the Town of Pound Clerk Treasurer Carter. Councilman Short said he would need a copy of this when they returned their paperwork.

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RESOLUTION FOR VDOT DRAINAGE ISSUES

Councilman Cauthorne made a motion to accept the Resolution. Councilman Stanley asked if it had to be read to make it legal. Mayor Dean said he rewrote it this afternoon, but it was pretty much the same thing. Mayor Dean said this would be Resolution Number 2017-03-001 [the correct Resolution number is 2017-03-002] and read the Resolution, a copy of which is attached to these Minutes. Councilman Short seconded the motion. Mayor Dean asked if there was any additional discussion on the Resolution. There was none.


Councilman Short asked what Mayor Dean had changed. Mayor Dean said he kept what Councilman Short had, but just repackaged it. Mayor Dean said Councilman Short sent it out to be edited, but he just didn’t get a chance to until late this afternoon. It was just repackaged.

RESOLUTION GRANT REQUEST I-PERL METERS

Mayor Dean asked Clerk Treasurer Carter what the Resolution number would be. Clerk Treasurer Carter answered 2017-05-001. [The correct Resolution number is 2017-03-003.] Mayor Dean read the Resolution, and a copy is attached to these Minutes. Mayor Dean asked if there was a motion to accept the Resolution. Councilman Short so moved. Councilman Cauthorne seconded the motion. Mayor Dean asked if there was any additional discussion on the Resolution he read. Councilman Stanley asked if we were working with an engineer on this. Mayor Dean said yes and he is working with Paul Greene. Councilman Cantrell said after talking with Mr. Greene, this is a Resolution to get grant dollars to buy meters and the town… Mayor Dean interjected that Mr. Greene said you don’t want to go out for an RFP unless you know you got dollars. Mayor Dean said that is what this is, just to see if we can go forward to get the grant dollars and, if we get approved for grant dollars, then we’ll go out for an RFP to see if someone can get us a bunch of I-Perls and then put them in. Mayor Dean said he was talking to Clintwood Mayor Don Baker about I-Perl meters. The reason this came up was because he had a guy come in and give a presentation on RG3 Meters. The I-Perl meters that we have can be retrofitted in the meter box to be drive-by read. Right now, we have a wand that we go up and touch the black cup on top of the meter box lid. This triggers the meter to tell you what it needs to tell you and the wand transmits the information to the handheld and the handheld brings it back and uploads into the software in the computers so we can do water bills. A drive-by, which I-Perls are capable of doing once they get retrofitted, so instead of having to do the touch wand to trigger or interrogate the meter itself the drive-by shoots out an omnidirectional signal so that every meter in a somewhat reasonable vicinity line of sight says, “Hey, I’m here and here’s the information you want.” It all comes flying back in. Where we have three guys reading meters and taking about two days as hard as they can go to read 12 books, and that’s a thousand meters, it takes one guy in a drive-by truck

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about three to four hours to read two thousand meters. That’s a big difference. However, there is a substantial cost to get the truck configured to do that. Mayor Dean said he wouldn’t configure one of those trucks out there to do that right now. Councilman Cantrell said you do not have to configure a truck to do that. He added you can take a laptop, a magnetic antenna, and go. There are two at the PSA. Mayor Dean asked how much it cost to put that in the PSA truck—a laptop with antenna, transmission read, and all that. Councilman Stanley said the software they just did in Buchanan County was about $30,000.00. Mayor Dean said that was what he was getting at that it was about a $30,000.00 initial outlay to get that. Mayor Dean said the meters in the ground are getting old and a lot of them are not only past their useful life but way past their useful life. Right now, there are probably a lot of meters that are giving away 30 percent of the water that’s going through them. He said you can’t have meters doing this. Councilman Cantrell said the meters that are in the ground are cable of (inaudible). Mayor Dean said he knew they were capable, but Don told him they had to do something to the current I-Perls to get them to be able to do that. Mayor Dean said they won’t do this just the way they are right now. If this other device is put on them, then they become radio-read line of sight omnidirectional. Councilman Cantrell said they are great, but if your computer goes down, you have pull out the wand transmitter. Mayor Dean said that the bottom line for this Resolution is to go out and get grant dollars for new I-Perl meters. What we do with them later on down the road is another thing, but this is just to replace what’s in the ground with I-Perl meters. Mayor Dean said that we have to do this because we are giving away water—disregarding any leaks we’ve got. Councilman Cantrell said every time you put in a new I-Perl, the people are not happy about it. Mayor Dean said that’s because every time you put one in, a customer calls and says, “My water bill really went up.” He said that’s because they are not getting free water any more. Sure it went up. Mayor Dean asked if there was any additional discussion on this. There was none.


Mayor Dean said the yeses have it and we will pursue the paperwork to get this grant in as fast as we can.

WWTP OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT

Councilman Short said we mentioned month before last the possibility of putting out for bids the operation of the Waste Water Treatment Plant. He said he was reading in the Minutes where we needed to bring this up again. Mayor Dean said he would bring Council up to speed on this. Other than what you read in his Manager’s Report, he had a meeting with one of the Veolia finance guys, J.R. Parrish, Zack and Dennis were in there and he agreed that the contract just what Mayor Dean said it was that they should have been paying the utilities, but they didn’t bid it that way. He didn’t press the issue and neither did Mayor Dean. Mayor Dean said whatever Council wanted to do with this and any legal ramifications associated with this, just as he put in his Manager’s

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Report, he needs to bring everything out right now. Mayor Dean said that Veolia provides a lot of services that we haven’t been taking advantage of. They also said that, when it was originally bid, it was to use our dump truck to take the sludge to the landfill. Our dump truck has been broken for a substantial period of time. They have been hiring tractor trailer trucks to go down there and fill it up and take it to the landfill and get rid of it. Mayor Dean said he also found out we have a jetter over in Williamson, West Virginia, that’s been there 10 years to get repaired and he told them to find out the status on this because he’d like to have it back. Mayor Dean said Veolia said he was right in what Mayor Dean interpreted in the contract that Veolia, whenever they signed the contract, that everything that the Town of Pound was paying to make that Waste Water Treatment Plant run inclusive of utilities (which is AEP’s electrical charges), was part of the cost that they would incur and that they would take care of. He said the contract wasn’t bid to cover the electrics. Mayor Dean said he looked at this and we are talking upwards of maybe $500,000.00 or more. He said he would have to go back a lot of years to look up a lot of records to find out exactly how much we paid AEP to run the Sewer Plant but, based on the current—and all he did was take $1,000.00 per year off the electric bill going backwards—for 14 ½ years comes out to over $500,000.00. This is all the electric bills we have paid that, in the contract, were what Veolia should have been paying, but they said they bid it without paying the electrics. Attorney Gilliam said that written contracts are enforceable up to five years. Mayor Dean said that, the way the contract is written, we renew every five years. The verbiage hasn’t changed. He said he had already signed it January 30, 2017. The latest renewal agreement or what he calls the “CPI” was agreed back in October which was another one year renewal with them. Mayor Dean said every year he signs the letter which has the CPI, we’re accepting another year of their services with the increase in the cost for them to provide this service and, if you like that idea, sign it. Mayor Dean reminded Council that they said to go for it. So we have until October. It just so happens that this October is not just like the second, third, or fourth October, this is the fifth year October which means that the contract is, in fact, up in October. Attorney Gilliam said let’s say they did include the utilities in their bidding process and then they began receiving a windfall. It sounds like this would be something hard to admit. It sounds like it may be something where you might say we really didn’t include it originally. That sounds like a deflection. Councilman Short said whether they did or not is beside the point. They signed a contract. It was up to them to estimate it and bid it and, if they made a mistake on their bidding, he said he has never known of any owner saying, “Oh, I’m sorry. You made a mistake on your bid. Yes, we’ll pay you for it.” Attorney Gilliam said that as for the things they say have been windfalls to us, as far as he knows, they gratuitously give us things. Councilman Short said, “No, you misunderstood what he said. They have offered services in their contract that we have not taken advantage of.” Attorney Gilliam said that means that they’ve not had the expense of. What he’s saying is that there’s this truck we are supposed to have, but we’ve not had it. If they’ve decided not to come to us and say we need a truck and have decided to go ahead and spend their own money and supply their own truck, he doesn’t think they can come to us and say they want to subtract that expense from the electrical we should have been paying. Councilman Short said even if they want to approach us with that, he would be open to it, but they are going to have to show that they did not include that rental in their O&M that they eventually turned back over to us in that $30,000.00 R&M. Attorney Gilliam said what you’re saying is that Veolia has some explaining to do. Councilman Short said “yes.” He added that the

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reason he brought this up is because he thinks we need to advertise out and, since Mayor Dean brought this up, we need to go after the money that’s owed us. Mayor Dean said whatever Council wants to do. He said it was his job to bring this to Council’s attention so Council is in the know. Councilman Short said that Veolia has had their notice. Mayor Dean said that is one of the reasons J.R. Parrish came down here is because of the letter. Councilman Short said they’ve had 60 days and they haven’t been to Council, but it sounds like their contract is up anyway. Mayor Dean said J.R. Parrish is coming to the next Council meeting so Council will have an opportunity to speak with him at the next Council meeting. Councilman Short said he still wants to go ahead and put it out for bids. Mayor Dean said he thought Council should be thinking about Council having an RFP out by May because this is when we really need to get a letter that let’s Veolia know we are going out for bids and we are not renewing the contract come October. Councilman Short said that as long as we go ahead and approve tonight that we go ahead and advertise for bids, we can give Veolia the required notice. Mayor Dean said that is exactly right. Councilman Short made a motion to put the Waste Water Treatment Plant operation service out for bids and to provide Veolia the required notification as stated in the contract. Mayor Dean said that we are not going to renew in October. Councilman Stanley seconded the motion. Mayor Dean asked if there was any additional discussion. There was none.


Mayor Dean said the yeses have it and he will compose a letter to Veolia telling them that there will be no renewal in October and RFPs and we will be glad to have them bid on it.

Mayor Dean said the question about the dollars we believe we are owed has been brought up. It has been 14 years and it hasn’t been paid. We have plenty of time to pursue that. Councilman Short reminded Council that the contract is only enforceable for five years so we can only back up for five years of that cost. Mayor Dean said he could tell Council that’s $200,000.00 right now. Attorney Gilliam said that a verbal contract is enforceable for three years, but it must be proved by strict evidence. A written contract is five years. Mayor Dean said this year’s electric bill is probably going to hit about $48,000.00 and, if he dropped it down to $40,000.00, it would be $200,000.00. Councilman Short made a motion that Attorney Gary Gilliam reviews the contract. Attorney Gilliam stated he had reviewed the contract and that we went through this a few months ago. He said he needed the figures. Mayor Dean reminded Council that Councilman Short made a motion and asked if there is a second. Councilman Short amended the motion to state that Attorney Gary Gilliam and Mayor Dean review the contract and any expenses we have incurred that should have been incurred by Veolia as stated in the contract to proceed with means to recoup those losses. Councilman Cauthorne seconded the motion. Mayor Dean asked if there was any additional discussion on this. Councilman Cantrell said he thought what we would have to ask Veolia what did they incur that they are saying we didn’t do for them. Mayor Dean made the suggestion that since our next meeting is short to us on April 11, 2017, could he ask that before he

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sends a letter out that Council have J.R. Parrish speak and then send the letter after he talks, or does Council want him to go ahead and send the letter out and he will already have it in his hand before he comes to the next Council meeting. Mayor Dean said he could change his mind and decide not to come to the next Council meeting. Attorney Gilliam said that he could tell them from experience that, if you give them notice, they will get their backup. They have lots of lawyers. Mayor Dean said that, based on what he saw in Coeburn, the last four months of this contract won’t be good. If it’s not good, this sways our look-see when it comes to RFP time. If you want to keep in the good graces of someone that you’re bidding a contract to, you’re going to want to continue to provide even better service than you did before to get them to sway towards coming and renewing with you. Attorney Gilliam said that the town of Coeburn’s position was not somebody can bid; it was like you are out—period. Councilman Short said that if Mayor Dean thought it best to hold off on the actual notification of the action that we just took, then Council gives Mayor Dean the authority to do whatever it takes. If you feel it’s in our best interest to hold off until they want to meet with you, then that’s fine. Mayor Dean said he felt like that would be in our best interest before we do this. But he asked Council to be prepared the next day so that we’re moving forward and meet the 120 day constraint and the verbiage in the letter may change somewhat relative to that meeting. Attorney Gilliam said that we need to look and see what the language is about notification in the contract about who is entitled to receive it. Mayor Dean interjected and said also certified mail to be sure that it doesn’t get lost and we don’t meet the 120 day constraint. Mayor Dean said that if J.R. Parrish shows up on April 11th, then the last two weeks in April will be a flurry of activity relative to letters and RFP requests. Councilman Cauthorne said that if a letter is sent out now, he is liable to put up a brick wall with his attorney and say, whatever you do, don’t talk to them or share information…. Mayor Dean said he believes we should hold off on any additional notifications and let them come down and give their spiel and then, after that, do what we need to do. Mayor Dean asked if there was any additional discussion. Councilman Short said that the only thing Council did was to give Mayor Dean the authority to begin and take necessary actions and Mayor Dean is just delaying on notification of those actions. Mayor Dean asked if there was any additional discussion. There was none. Mayor Dean said a “yes” vote is to have Mayor Dean and Attorney Gilliam get ready to compose a letter relative to what is going to happen here after April 11, 2017. It is to do the letter, but to wait and get the last bit of input before proceeding on a course we are already on based on the votes we have already taken. A “yes” vote puts us on that path to RFPs. Mayor Dean asked what the motion was. Clerk Treasurer Carter said the motion was for Attorney Gary Gilliam and Mayor Dean to review the contract and any expense we have incurred that should have been incurred by Veolia and proceed with the means to recoup those losses. Mayor Dean said what he was talking about was to give him a chance because he is the finance guy to talk about this before the letter is composed because he may have an offer coming down from Veolia that we don’t even know about right now. Councilman Short said that this is delaying the action on the first vote we just took. Attorney Gilliam said “yes.” Mayor Dean said a “yes” vote is, before the letter goes out, to get a final input so the final verbiage can be established for the letter. Mayor Dean reminded Council that the letter is going out. Councilman Cauthorne said we have already done the motion on the letter going out. Mayor Dean said “yes.” Councilman Cantrell said a “yes” vote is to delay the letter until after… Mayor Dean said “yes.”

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Mayor Dean said the first vote is we are going to do RFPs and we’re not going to renew the contract. This one is we are going out with a letter to tell Veolia about the electrics and how we want to recoup our losses after we review the contract to see if there is maybe more than the electrics. But we want to hear what the finance officer has to say about how they feel about the fact that we’ve said Veolia owes us a ton of money right now and see what they’ve got to say before the final composition of that letter is completed. That’s all that was about. The “yeses” have it, and that is where we are headed with that right now. Attorney Gilliam said they have a clause in that contract that basically says if we run into extra expenses along the way; we can tack that onto the contract. Councilman Cantrell said the original contract said we had to go 10 years because they, supposedly, put money into the Sewer Plant and we had to pay them back. Mayor Dean asked Eric Price of Thompson & Litton if there was anything he wanted to speak with Council about before he leaves on where we stand right now on Option 3B. Mr. Price said that one thing to consider is that, when you put an RFP out, to include the Collection System. Mr. Price said he didn’t see a lot of work going on in the Collection System right now so it may behoove the town to let someone else do it. Councilman Cantrell asked that whenever Mayor Dean starts putting together an RFP for this, could Mayor Dean consult with him on this. Mr. Price said yes. Councilman Short said he would email him a sample RFP he had from John Stallard.

FINANCES

Councilman Short said some of the questions have been answered in the Manager’s Report. He said we have not actually officially completed the Pre-Audit. Clerk Treasurer Carter said “no.” Mayor Dean said we are very close. Clerk Treasurer Carter said she has had to send more and more information and the Pre-Auditor hasn’t asked for anything in about five days or so, so that’s a good sign. Clerk Treasurer said she felt the Pre-Audit should be completed very shortly. Councilman Short said that, if he was correct in the Manager’s Report, Mayor Dean had spoken with Charles and he’s hoping to finish the Audit by the end of April with the time frame right now, is that correct? Mayor Dean answered if we can get squared away with Diana Pope and get in Thrower and Blanton’s queue, then yes, he doesn’t see any problem with making this happen at the moment unless Diana comes up with something new. He added he doesn’t think she is because the information she has been getting is very good. Mayor Dean said it was good enough that BB&T is not going to do anything with their accounts so he is feeling very comfortable about this. It has taken a lot of work to get to this point given what happened. Councilman Short said according to the way he calculated the Debt Reserve Fund, we are right at where we are supposed to be. Mayor Dean said we are close and are a tiny bit short but, if Council recalls when he was presenting this, he asked for $7.22 and Council only gave him $7.00, so we are a little bit short.

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Councilman Short said that, if he has calculated correctly and according to the monthly report, no money was put into the Debt Reserve this month. Mayor Dean said, “Yet.” He added that we started two months late because it wasn’t in the budget. Councilman Short asked if we began collecting on the July water bill so we would begin collecting April 1st because we didn’t pass this until after July 1st, right. Mayor Dean said “yes.” Councilman Short said we started collecting as of July 1st on our bills for the $7.00 fee so we would have been paying in or receiving funds after August 1st. That would have actually been starting one month late. Mayor Dean said he could show where we are two months late getting started. What we are trying to do is add to it as best we can to get us there within the $7.00. Mayor Dean said he thinks we are going to be short and he believes he will have to ask for an extension to get past that four months to ask for an additional six months of doing this. He believes they may be amenable to this. Mayor Dean said he isn’t going to do anything before he needs to. Councilman Short said that, according to his calculations, we are supposed to be putting roughly $5,217.00 per month… Mayor Dean said that customers fluctuate. When he did the original calculations, he was in the area of 1,100 customers. There were 1,104 and he used the number 1,100. The population is going down. The number hasn’t been above 1,075 to 1,072 and that is 25 people he’s lost $7.00 from for 12-24 months running. That, in and of itself, is hard to make up. Councilman Short said he was using the 1,110 which was what we started out with. Mayor Dean said he used 1,100 people in his calculations. Councilman Short said we are staying fairly close on the Debt Reserve and the Debt Retirement. He added it looks good on this. Mayor Dean said that is what we are trying to do, but if we hadn’t put the $7.00 in there, we’d be in hurting status. Councilman Short said that we have on our debt deviation…in our Operating Funds, we are improving—Water, Sewer…--the problem is, the total debt since last year, has went up $150,000.00. What he is also looking at is our current year budget, and we mentioned this last month, he doesn’t see how we are going to get there according to our budget because right now in the Water Fund we are roughly 15 percent over budget and in the Sewer Fund we are 28 percent over budget. He is talking about adjusted budget versus adjusted revenue. Money we have received that was not budgeted and money we have expensed that was not budgeted—these are adjusted. We are still looking at 15 percent over for Water and 30 percent over Sewer. Mayor Dean said he didn’t know if he agrees with Councilman Short’s calculations. He’d said he isn’t going to refute them, he’s just saying he does not know if he agrees. Councilman Short said this is off of the Budget Versus Actual Report that Clerk Treasurer Carter sends. Councilman Short said he didn’t know if it was noticed, but we are 20 percent under budget on the Administrative Expenses for the General Fund. On the Police budget, we are 7.8 percent over budget. On the Fire budget, we are 8 percent under. But the Streets, and he doesn’t understand this and this is one thing he is going to ask us to check on, the Street, the 900 account is showing 45 percent over budget. Mayor Dean said he is going to have to take a look at that and asked Councilman Short if he is asking how the money was spent on the Street. Councilman Cantrell asked where the engine replacement was charged for the Dodge. Mayor Dean said that was supposed to have been spread across three funds. Councilman Short said the salaries on the Streets are 65 percent over budget. This deals with the 900 which is 65 percent over budget. Mayor Dean asked if Council remembered when we said we didn’t get people shifted across the funds in time; this is part of that problem right there. The people didn’t get shifted the way that they were supposed to be shifted. Councilman Short said he would send information to Clerk

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Treasurer Carter. Councilman Cauthorne said that would explain the Administrative Expenses being lower. Mayor Dean said we were at 2/12 in Streets, 6/12 in Water, and 4/12 in Sewer. This was based on where do they spend the portion of their time working, but they didn’t get shifted when they should have gotten shifted. Councilman Short said he wasn’t saying anything negative on what he was seeing. Mayor Dean said there were reasons for this. Councilman Short said he is just concerned with our budget. Mayor Dean said he was, too. He reminded Council that we had started testing for Cryptosporidium at $680.00 per month that he had no idea even existed. He said it is in this coming year’s budget, but we have had to pay this and it wasn’t in the budget. That is one of the things that hurt us. He added who would have thought, that if we replace the engine in Car #3, that we will have replaced three engines in 10 months’ time. There are just things we are facing that are hard to control and we are doing the best we can with what we have to work with. There are things the Police do that are out of their control, too. For example, the Restitution Funds. Who would have thought a storm would come through an hour before they were supposed to be in court doing all kinds of cases and getting all kinds of money for us. The Courthouse was shut down and the Police didn’t get to do what they needed to do. There has been a myriad of unplanned things occur. Councilman Short said the variance between the adjusted budget and the adjusted revenue is $150,000.00. Mayor Dean said he would take a look at this. Mayor Dean said he isn’t going to refute the numbers, but he said he didn’t agree with them right now until he gets a chance to get a closer look. He said he doesn’t know what Councilman Short is using, but he will sit down with his calculator and pencil and go through it line-by-line. Councilman Short said he would send it to us, but don’t delete anything because there are calculations in there. If something is deleted, there may be links that it may mess up. Mayor Dean said he was still working on the budget and has his first input and was based on February 20, 2017, Budget Versus Actual for prorating to see where we stand. He said he did some initial cuts on this based on the Budget Versus Actual Report. He added he used March 20, 2017, Budget Versus Actual Report and he spent Sunday night redoing the worksheet thanks to Councilman Cantrell and redoing the proration relative to new amounts of actual collected revenues and actual expenses. When he did this, he did some number changing. Some things looked better than he thought they would. The March Budget Versus Actual showed this. He has since adjusted his initial cut. Mayor Dean said he wants to have an Admin meeting on this probably this Thursday in the evening. Councilman Cauthorne said he couldn’t make it Thursday evenings because he coaches Soccer. Mayor Dean suggested Friday evening. Clerk Treasurer Carter asked for the time frame. Chief Baker said he couldn’t attend Friday evening. Councilman Short said we have through Saturday to have a proposed budget. Mayor Dean set the Administrative Meeting for Friday, March 31, 2017, at 6 p.m. at the Town Hall and discuss the budget. Chief Baker said he would get one of his guys to stand in in his place. Mayor Dean said that would be fine. This will be the first Administrative Meeting to look at initial cuts and discuss assumptions, etc.

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DELINQUENT BUSINESS LICENSES

Mayor Dean said he thought that right now we have only two people delinquent. Clerk Treasurer Carter said HRW (the TV Repair Shop) and Fielder’s Choice are the only two that are delinquent from last year. The current business licenses are not due until May 1, 2017. Mayor Dean said these are the only two companies that have not paid their business licenses for last year. Councilman Short asked when they pay their business license due May 1st, what year is that for. Mayor Dean said the license is for the upcoming year of business based on what your tax filing gross product was for the previous year. If it’s your first year starting, you pay $50.00. After that, it’s based on your tax liability. Councilman Short said when business licenses are paid on May of this year, that pays for the license… Mayor Dean interjected up until May of 2018. Councilman Short said okay, it goes from May to May. That was what he was asking. Mayor Dean said we have people operating in our current budget cycle that did not purchase back in May of 2016 to cover them. They have been operating 11 months without a business license and those are the two that are doing this. Councilman Stanley said some of them for several years. Mayor Dean said yes, some of them for several years, and we are going to have to get serious about this. Councilman Stanley asked if we didn’t authorize someone to do a letter. Councilman Short asked about Rachel’s Haven. We said they have only got a license the first year they were in business and they haven’t gotten another one since then. He asked if they have paid. Mayor Dean said we need to take a look based on the definitions that Rachel’s Haven needs to buy a business license because his understanding is that their offices and headquarters are over in Wise out of her house. Councilman Short said that isn’t true. Councilman Cauthorne asked if Rite Aid has a business license. Mayor Dean said “yes.” Councilman Cauthorne asked if their headquarters are in Pound. Mayor Dean said “no, same thing.” Councilman Short said that whether it is in Wise or not, which they are not, their state corporation’s filings list the Town of Pound as their office location. It was filed by Attorney Greg Stewart and he is their attorney of record for their corporation and it was established in the Town of Pound and will continue filing thereafter in the Town of Pound as their business location. That’s under the State Corporation Commission. All their documentation shows the Town of Pound. Mayor Dean said that sure sounds like they need a business license. Councilman Short said that from the time it was formed, there is no change. The only change in their State Corporation filing is their officers, not their location. Councilman Cauthorne said he thinks that businesses like this going back the legal amount of time to collect back taxes would really help our town a lot. Councilman Short said that just because they didn’t buy one last year doesn’t mean they can come in this year and pay $50.00. That is their initial year and they have to pay based on their tax filings for every year thereafter. Attorney Gilliam said we could send them a letter stating where we can’t find where you have been paying your business license. Councilman Short said you can look on the State Corporation’s website and see it. Councilman Cauthorne said if Pizza Plus had corporate headquarters here in Pound, they’d have to have a business license. Councilman Short said as long as they have a business location of operation they are required to have a business license no matter where your corporate headquarters are located. Attorney Gilliam asked Clerk Treasurer Carter to get him some information. Councilman Cantrell asked if that included rental property as a business. Mayor Dean asked if he meant like Figg Enterprises. Councilman Cantrell said “yes.” He added if you are going to go after one, you may

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as well go after them all. Councilman Short said that would be a question for Attorney Gilliam when it comes to rental property being a business. Councilman Cantrell asked if we were going to go after anyone who rents property because they are managing that property. Councilman Cauthorne said we all know what a business is. You set up a shop and do business out of that shop. He added to look at the statute of limitations and look at all the businesses going back when they should have had the license and collecting off the revenues. We have discussed this for months. Mayor Dean said Council sits there and dumps this stuff on us and don’t realize how hard people are working here. Sometimes we don’t have the time to do the stuff that Council wants us to do. We have to prioritize our work, and you just laid something else on. Mayor Dean said he would have to hire another person and we are already in a budget situation right now. We will do what we can when we can about it, that’s all he can tell Council. It’s easy to say can you all get that done by the next meeting. That gets old. Let us tell you when we can do it and get to it. It is in the queue. We just can’t produce it that fast unless Council wants to tell the ladies to work six hours of overtime every day to get you the information you want. He said he doesn’t have the people to do and work as fast as you all would like it to happen. It just doesn’t work that way. We are working with a shoestring crew right now and we are doing as much as we can as fast as we can. We will get into this business license thing as fast as we can but, if you all want that by the next meeting, then authorize me to hire another person right now and figure out how we are going to pay them because the people in the office don’t have the time to do this right at this instant. We can get into it when the audit is over with and done, but right now they are just busy. If you want it by the next meeting, authorize me to exceed the budget and hire someone else to help us to do this because, without them, we can’t get to this right at the moment. He said he would do what Council wants him to, but to produce something like that at the next meeting, he just doesn’t think they have the time to do this right now. Councilman Cauthorne said that the longer we wait, the less time we are going to be able to collect for. Mayor Dean said he fully agrees with Councilman Cauthorne on this issue. He’s just telling Council by the next meeting—the next meeting is April 11th. That is three weeks at best from right now. Clerk Treasurer said it is 14 days. Mayor Dean said two weeks. Clerk Treasurer Carter said 10 business days, 14 days. Mayor Dean said it is not a waiting thing. It is a do it when we can do it relative to the priorities of the workload of what has to be done first. Failing an Audit is a lot worse than not collecting a business license fee. Councilman Cauthorne said he agrees with this, but he is just saying we have probably been asking for this for the last year or six months. Councilman Cantrell said there have been staff changes. Councilman Stanley said he thought that we should just get to it when we can. He said he knows we are doing the best we can. Councilman Cantrell said that is why he is glad the Administrative Meeting is going to take place Friday at 6 p.m. because Clerk Treasurer Carter can set in there and not have to worry about what is going on in that office that she’s missing because it’s going on during the day. Our Administrative Meetings usually last four and five hours. During this past year, we have had staff changes and problems in the staff. It’s not a quick fix issue. Clerk Treasurer Carter asked if she could say something, too. She admitted she is new and has a lot to learn. Attorney Gilliam said that if he had a little note that said he thinks these people are late on their business licenses, he could write a letter saying they are late on their business licenses and you need to address this issue in the near future. Otherwise, we may be forced to look at legal action. Don’t even go into the details of it. Just say who they are and what their address is that he

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can mail a letter to. We can start like that. That may produce results and it may not. That may not be difficult to do, but he’s not in the office either. He doesn’t know what the nuts and bolts are. Clerk Treasurer Carter said as far as the situation that I’ve walked into, we were backed up a long way. We are trying to catch up. Between Carissa and me—Megan was helping before she left, but it wasn’t totally caught up and there are still things that are behind that we are trying to catch up on. Carissa now, with her and me working together, she has actually gotten bank statements caught up that have not been caught up in years. That’s why I say we should be ready after this initial Audit that we have right now is completed, we should be ready to walk right into, once the fiscal year is over, straight into the next audit. Councilman Short said he knows what load Clerk Treasurer Carter has. He said he told her that to begin with when we were talking about it. He said Clerk Treasurer Carter is not only backing up and doing things that have not been done; you’re backing up and correcting mistakes that were made and were not caught. He said he knows Clerk Treasurer Carter is doing it at least through last year minimum. Clerk Treasurer Carter said “yes.” She added it is not only just those things but, from her standpoint of organization, when you go in and look at our filing the way it is, it’s very disorganized and hard to locate information. Sometimes it takes a long time to locate a file she needs. She added Carissa and I are working on the next fiscal year—we don’t want to mess with anything right now because we are in the current fiscal year—but we are hoping in July, we can have everything organized and ready to go in an organized manner. Councilman Short said so you can start with day one. Clerk Treasurer Carter said “yes.” Mayor Dean reminded Council that, with the office staff, he is like the corporate memory and asking Glenn questions to when he wasn’t even living in Pound to get information. But Clerk Treasurer Carter doesn’t know this at all. Before, you had Linda who lived here and was here for 19 years and she had that corporate knowledge. Now, Mayor Dean said he has a smidgen of it, but he is having to bring Clerk Treasurer Carter up to speed. Clerk Treasurer Carter will ask if we can talk about something for just a minute, and we’ll sit and talk and he will give her as much as he knows about it and give her this, this, and this and that will give her the rest of the information she needs to help her get smart in that area. Mayor Dean said Clerk Treasurer Carter’s learning curve right now has been vertical ever since she was appointed as Acting Clerk Treasurer and she has no choice in that matter. Because of the amount of workload in the office, Clerk Treasurer Carter is taking this recording home and typing up the verbatim Minutes while she is home. Now, that is costing you. You all wanted verbatim Minutes. The last set cost you, based on overtime, probably a little over two hundred dollars extra for the Minutes to be produced in the terms of the way you like them produced in terms of verbatim. In trying to complete the daily duties, she does not have time to work on those Minutes during the daytime hours. She takes those home to work on them, and that’s overtime. There’s no choice. That’s what you want with the Minutes, and that’s what you’re getting with the Minutes and that’s what she’s doing. Councilman Cauthorne said he just asked for certain sections of the Minutes to be verbatim. He’s never asked for the entire Minutes to be verbatim. Clerk Treasurer Carter said that these last Minutes were not verbatim sometimes, in order to get the point across; it has to be pretty detailed. She said she could summarize it into a short… Mayor Dean said but you lose a lot in the translation. He also said he looks at them, reads them, and edits them, and it’s like a good reminder. He likes it. But, there is a price in the office to be paid to have this. Clerk Treasurer Carter is taking them home with her. She comes back and says she spent 13 hours on this, but

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she’s only going to charge 10 hours. That’s wonderful. He said I know how hard she works. You can see the pages. She has to listen to us, and it takes a little while to figure out whose voice she is hearing, but she’s getting a handle on that now in being able to type what she needs to type. Councilman Cauthorne said this is nothing against the current Clerk. What he is saying is that there are small businesses that need a business license, but we have larger businesses that are making big revenue that, if we were to go back and get their tax returns, we could get a lot more in. He said his focus was on these larger businesses that have not been paying their taxes for the last five years. His concern is getting revenue without taxpayers subsidizing. Mayor Dean said we are going after that just as fast as we can and this is a promise. He said he has a lot of other stuff to talk with Attorney Gilliam about. But we will get to this. It’s probably going to look a little ugly, but this is the way it is. That’s what you want, that’s what you’re going to get. Councilman Cantrell asked if he could ask one more question. Mayor Dean said “yes.” Councilman Cantrell said this is something where Mayor Dean and Attorney Gilliam would have to do some research, for example, tax exempt organizations. Are they required to buy a business license because they are a non-profit organization? Attorney Gilliam said they are only exempt from certain taxes like income taxes, but he said he wasn’t sure if they were exempt from all taxes. Mayor Dean asked if a business license was a tax. Councilman Cantrell said a business license is based on your taxes. Attorney Gilliam said gross income. Councilman Cantrell said if it's nonprofit like a business is for profit. Attorney Gilliam said it is only a gross. Councilman Cantrell said he wanted to make sure we were in the right. He didn’t want to go after someone and then find out we are wrong and have to turn around and pay them a big sum of money. Mayor Dean said there is substantial research to be done here. He said all he would ask of Council is to give us some time. He added that the answer being provided at the next meeting is slim to none. If we can, we will. We will get something to Attorney Gilliam to send out, and that will probably make them mad, but that’s okay. Mayor Dean said he apologized for the outburst, but Council hit a nerve there in terms of how hard they are working to say “here’s more, do more.” He said he can’t do more with less. We are doing everything we can with what we’ve got to work with. Nobody is wasting time. You are getting bang for the buck. Clerk Treasurer Carter said she would like to say that Mayor Dean and she both—she said she comes in at 8 a.m. every day at the time she is supposed to come in to work, and almost running from the time she gets to the office until the time she goes home. She said it is hard to keep up. She said she is trying her very best to do this. She said she agrees that we need to go after the revenues as they are due to the town and that is a goal for me to do and to look into. She said she knows Mayor Dean and she will be getting together on this and seeing what we have to do. Mayor Dean said during Carissa’s first two weeks, she didn’t even look up. You couldn’t even tell that she was there. She never spoke. She was buried in the computer doing all the backtracking and fixing stuff. She was completely buried in this. If you walked by, she never spoke. It wasn’t that she was ignoring you. She was just too busy to talk to you and she didn’t’ even want to engage you in conversation and say hi and have you give her more than four words back. She didn’t have time for that. Mayor Dean said he saw something the other day that he hadn’t seen. He saw that she had turned around and actually looked at the headlines of The Coalfield Progress newspaper as opposed to looking at the computer screen and making the entries. Carissa said she just wanted to see the headlines and then she’s right back on the computer again. She’s very personable, but she doesn’t have time to talk. Councilman Short said

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he knows what they have been doing since they’ve been there. They’ve been doing nothing but corrections and bring everything up and trying to organize… Mayor Dean interjected that they have been doing a fantastic job. Councilman Short said “absolutely.” He said in the short period of time since Clerk Treasurer Carter has been put into the Clerk position, he can already see a tremendous improvement. He said he had mentioned to Clerk Treasurer Carter what a major undertaking she was doing. Clerk Treasurer Carter said she knew this. Councilman Short said, hopefully, Clerk Treasurer Carter doesn’t think he feels that way. He said he was looking at the 2015-2016 final numbers prior to this last printout. He said there’s roughly $30,000.00 of corrections that he sees which to us may not seem like a big dollar amount, but he said he couldn’t even guess how many entries it took to come up with that. He knows that when we go to our Audit and send them these corrections, Charles is going to…. This last year that he jumped up and down about, the final corrections, is nothing compared to this one. He said he can see his Audit being from a quarter-inch to a half-inch due to all the notations that were made. He said he can completely understand what Clerk Treasurer Carter has done. He said he doesn’t understand the complete detail of it, but he knows what Clerk Treasurer Carter has done and he appreciates Clerk Treasurer Carter and Carissa both and he hopes we know that. Mayor Dean said if there is nothing else on the Business License topic, can we move on to McAfee Proposals 1 and 2. There was no more discussion.

MCAFEE PROPOSALS 1 & 2

Mayor Dean asked if anyone wanted to speak about this. We’ve had almost a month to think about this. He asked if Council remembers what the Proposals were. Council answered yes. Councilman Stanley said we have to do something. He said he knows it’s not what everybody wants to do because of the cost, but we have enough trouble picking up people on U.S. 23 now, and if we have to go to bicycles, it will be even worse. Councilman Short said we have two weeks before the next meeting, and we don’t have a budget yet. He said we need to come up with a rough budget to see if we have the latitude or if we’re going to do one of these, all three, or none of the above. Several Council members answered Proposal 3 has been approved. Councilman Short said he knew Council had approved for the grants. Councilman Stanley asked if Mayor Dean had met with Tim McAfee and worked on this. Mayor Dean said “no” that he wanted Council to think about it. There wasn’t anything for him and Mr. McAfee to work on. It is up to Council to figure out what they want to do with Proposals 1 and 2. Councilman Short said there would be a $6,000.00 expenditure when he provides the vehicle. Mayor Dean said $6,000.00 worth of police gear in it. Councilman Short said “yes, right now.” He added that he has already shown that we are well over budget. He doesn’t know if we are going to cover our losses this year or we are going to pack on more to it. He said he understands we are in bad shape with this—bad shape with our cars. He said we have already replaced one motor in a cruiser at $3,000.00; we’re working on a second one. That’s another $3,000.00. We spent almost $21,000.00 in the last two years in repairs and maintenance on those vehicles and we have blown the motors up in them. That’s a lot of expenditure to say that the vehicles we have now are junk. You’re saying we took this $21,000.00 worth of investment and may as well have thrown it away. He said he doesn’t agree with it. He said there is a $3,000.00 motor sitting down there right now that’s two and ½

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quarts low on oil. He said he cannot go with good conscience and approve any expenditure on new vehicles until someone can show him that they are going to take care of the ones they have. Councilman Short said to Councilman Stanley that they have managed fleets and he knows what would be done if a man came back and his motor had burned up with two and ½ quarts of oil. You wouldn’t put up with it. You’d say, “Why?” We paid for the expenses and the repairs and you blew it up? We paid for these services and you blew it up? All we are asking you to do is pull a dipstick every now and then, once a day before you crank it. He said it makes sense and he does the same thing with his. His said his truck is 17 years old and has 200,000 miles on it and he pulls a dipstick every day. Councilman Cantrell said that his truck is not involved in pursuits and stuff like that going from zero to 60 in ten seconds. Councilman Short said there is a difference between…. Councilman Cantrell said these cars were not police rated when they were purchased. Councilman Short said he understands this, but there is a difference between what he calls a police pursuit going zero to 60 and going zero to 60 in an abusive manner. He said you can still catch up with them without having to tromp it and burn the tires off the rear ends of them. There are two ways of handling this even if it’s in a pursuit. He said he didn’t mean this to be in a bad way, but you understand what he’s saying. You don’t have to blow the motor up to get to 60 mph quickly. He said he still doesn’t see how getting to 60 mph quickly, you lose 2 ½ quarts of oil with no leaks because you couldn’t see behind you if you blew that much motor oil. Councilman Cauthorne made a motion to table this discussion until next month’s meeting. Councilman Short seconded the motion. Mayor Dean asked if there was any further discussion to table the discussion. There was none.

VOTE:Ayes: Cauthorne, Short, StanleyNays: CantrellAbsent: Walters

Mayor Dean said the yeses have it and this will be on next month’s Agenda.

HERITAGE DAYS

Mayor Dean said we just had a Heritage Days meeting and he didn’t bring the handout with him but, based on what was discussed last time, Heritage Days is going to be all week. They are not going to close the road. What we talked about was Monday night was Story Time; Tuesday night was movie night for “The Killing Rock Second Hanging”; Wednesday night is the Gospel singing/social; Thursday night is Picking in the Pound and the burnout with water to wet the tires down and make a lot of noise and smoke and excite the crowd with the car show at the old Pound High School; Friday night is Kid’s night; Saturday is a lot of things with several different groups providing entertainment. There are some people talking about dumping the ducks out and selling duck tickets to help raise money for Heritage Days. The solicitation letters have gone out. It is moving along very well. We will meet again in two weeks. It is going to be spread out all over

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town with no closings. Arvil and Mayor Dean went through and checked all the electrics on the lights just like for the Christmas lights so we can spread vendors out whether they are 110 or 220 so we can put these in the grass and get them off the street, but still spread Heritage Days back out through town like we did before. There may be some question about the sound system for Friday and Saturday nights. There is still some question about this. They are still checking with various people to do that. There are two or three people they are checking with to get quotes or get them to agree to do this. He said Heritage Days looks like it is going to be pretty good. The main thing (which satisfies our Emergency Responders) is that the road is not closed. We are still going to have to do this over in town because the car wash is off limits. Councilman Stanley said he talked with Mr. Boggs about the place over here [the car wash] and he said we could use the space from the vacuum cleaners toward the laundry mat as long as we don’t block his vacuum cleaners. This would still give us a good distance through there. He said sometimes you just have to talk to people. He said this would give some more space there. He said he didn’t think we ought to use it for cars, but he said he did think we should use it for games and stuff like that. Mayor Dean said if he is going to let us do that, then we will probably take him up on that. He said we would put that in and talk about it at the next Heritage Days meeting. He said all the normal things you see at Heritage Days will be there. Mayor Dean asked if there was any additional discussion. There was none.

FIRE DEPARTMENT FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE

Mayor Dean said that Council saw the notes that were in Council packets on the Fire Department issue. Mayor Dean said that was tabled and we have a motion on the table right now. In order to continue discussion on that or anything associated with that, chair will entertain a motion to remove from the table that motion that put the Fire Department Financial accounting information delayed it. Councilman Cauthorne asked if we put it on the table to discuss it this week do we still need a motion. Mayor Dean said that you have to get it off the table. It is tabled right now. We don’t want to talk about it unless you make a motion and pass it to bring it off the table. Councilman Short so moved. Councilman Cauthorne seconded. Mayor Dean said we have a motion and a second to bring the Fire Department Financial Accounting information tabled from last time off of the table. Mayor Dean asked if there was any additional discussion on that. He said a yes vote brings it off the table to continue discussion before any other votes are taken.


Mayor Dean said the Fire Department motion was made by Councilman Cauthorne for the Fire Department General Fund to be included on the Bank Balance Report in Council packets. We tabled it in order to get additional information from Charles Lawson of Thrower and Blanton. We have since gotten that information. That information was a 1 ½ page insert in the Council packets.

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Mayor Dean asked if everyone had a chance to read it. Council responded they did. Mayor Dean said we are now back open for discussion before that motion gets voted on relative to this new information. He said he opens the floor for discussion right now on the new information that was in your Council packets. Councilman Stanley said that, basically, to him when he read it, he was saying that it has to be in his Audit. Mayor Dean said that is the way he read it, too, that it has to be in the Audit. Councilman Stanley added not for Council every month. Mayor Dean said as long as it is in the Audit, that’s all that matters. Councilman Cantrell said he did state that last year and he did tell Charles last year, tell him what he needs, and he never contacted him. He said he requested from Clerk Treasurer Carter the Fire Department Bank Balance accounting sheets. He said he has no problem with that. It is part of the town. It needs to be audited. It can be audited. The only question he has is why we need it on the account balance sheet. The town can’t touch it. Councilman Stanley said he says we don’t. Councilman Short said we can’t touch it, but it is under the town’s name. Councilman Cantrell asked why Councilman Short wanted to see it. Councilman Short responded that the account is under the Town of Pound’s name. Councilman Cantrell agreed. It is called the Town of Pound Volunteer Fire Department. Councilman Cauthorne asked where it is accounted for on the sheet because all of the town’s money has to be accounted for on that sheet. Councilman Cantrell said all of the town’s money is not accounted for on that sheet. There are still five or six accounts that are not on that sheet. This are not all the accounts the town has. Councilman Short asked what accounts are not on the sheet. Councilman Cantrell said all you are doing is creating more work for the office again. Clerk Treasurer Carter said she had mentioned last time that there are pass through accounts like where the money is transferred into the account long enough to pay something else. For example, when we take money from the line of credit and put it in a bank account to pay Thompson and Litton. Councilman Short said that on the summary sheet are static accounts. Clerk Treasurer Carter said these are the main accounts. Councilman Short said everything is there except the Fire Department. Councilman Cantrell asked why they wanted it on there if they can’t touch it. Councilman Stanley said it doesn’t have to be on there. Councilman Cantrell said he just doesn’t understand why they want it on there and they have never been able to tell him. It is part of the town’s funds, but you can’t touch it. All the rest of these funds, you can touch. Councilman Short asked if it says on there that it’s not required to be on there. Councilman Cantrell said it’s not required to be on the account balance sheet, but it is required to be audited. You don’t have to have it monthly. Mayor Dean read from Clerk Treasurer Carter’s report: “Even though the Fire Department gets funding from grants and donations, it must still be part of the town’s audit and Council is privy to the information” according to Charles Lawson of Thrower and Blanton. Councilman Short asked what the problem is with putting this information on the report. Councilman Cantrell said if you want to know, ask, but he doesn’t know why you would want it on the account. Councilman Short said that if it is a town account, Clerk Treasurer Carter should have the information. Councilman Cantrell said she has it through the bank. Clerk Treasurer Carter said we have a separate Fire Department fund…. Councilman Cantrell interjected that it is a separate Fire Department account that we take care of at the department. He said the Fire Department has a separate checking account. Councilman Short said another thing he was asking was that it was through our EIN number. Councilman Cantrell said yes. Councilman Short asked should not every account that goes through our EIN number go through the Clerk? Councilman

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Cantrell said the only thing you have to do is ask. If she asks to see it, it’s not a problem. We’ve never hidden anything from anybody. Councilman Short said that every account that has our EIN has to go through the Clerk. Clerk Treasurer Carter said to let her explain the way she understands it from Charles. The way he explained it to me is that, if it is under the town’s EIN number under a control, then Council is privy to information in the accounts. Councilman Short asked the Clerk Treasurer if she was the one actually responsible for the accounts. Clerk Treasurer Carter said “yes.” Charles told her that she needed to get the financial information like bank statements and stuff that’s required to do the audit. But it was also my understanding that it should be on the reports as far as what Charles said and that was her understanding. She said that is what her sentence means, “…and Council is privy to the information” according to Charles. Councilman Cantrell said if someone walks into the Fire Department and asks what we have in our account, we tell them. It’s no big deal. Clerk Treasurer Carter said that she doesn’t have check signing ability on that. Neither Mayor Dean nor I do. Councilman Cantrell said Clerk Treasurer Carter just about did. He said Tina, the Treasurer of the Fire Department, has tried to get to the bank and say she needs access to the account, but the bank refused and said it is under the Town of Pound and you can’t have that information. We needed credit cards. “Nope, it’s under the Town of Pound. You can’t do it.” Councilman Cantrell said if he hadn’t caught this, only the town officials could have signed it. Councilman Short said we have a problem then. Councilman Cantrell asked what. Councilman Short asked if we didn’t take action on who can sign checks. Mayor Dean answered not for that fund. Councilman Short said under an organizational fund. Every account that’s under the town’s EIN. Mayor Dean said he doesn’t think it’s been phrased that way so far, not that he’s aware of. He said as long as he’s been here, as far as that specific account that grant dollars and donation dollars goes into, has never from a BB&T perspective, this is the first time it’s ever happened that they just grabbed all of the accounts—every one of them—inclusive of that one. The $20,000.00 check writing account, that is for us. But, the other one, we’ve never done that before. For some reason, whoever at BB&T just tossed that one into the pile and changed the signatures on it and they shouldn’t have. The signatures are within the officers of the Fire Department for that particular fund for them to buy new hoses, etc., not the truck. That’s a total separate issue with that $2.00 fee and buying a new fire truck. That’s for the authorities here. But the other one, we’ve never touched before. When that happened, Councilman Cantrell caught it and asked who changed the signatories on this. Mayor Dean said he had the same question of how did this happen. It was an oversight at BB&T. A new person just tossed them all in the hat and just did it all at one time. When he was signing, he thought this was more than he was used to, but he didn’t…and then it happened, and then it was undone after they caught the mistake and they said that was right. We don’t need to do this. The bottom line is that, when it comes Audit time, all of those bank statements, Clerk Treasurer Carter has to see every one of them and she can see who the checks were written to. Putting that on the sheet that’s probably good for 15 or 20 minutes maximum after its printed based on the flow through of cash and everything, he said it wasn’t necessary for him to see it. The Fire Truck Fund, the Budget Versus Actual, you can see that right there. Councilman Short asked if Charles said he felt like it should be on there. Clerk Treasurer Carter said that Charles told her that Council is privy to the information. If it is an account that uses the town’s EIN number because sometimes some of the grants flow through the town, he said, therefore, it should be a part of it. Mayor Dean said his understanding with the Fire

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Department is that if you want to see those bank statements, Clerk Treasurer Carter can ask for them any time and Council can ask for them any time. Mayor Dean said Council could tell Clerk Treasurer Carter that they are coming over and could they see the Fire Department account that isn’t on the sheet and you can look at it all you want. He said if you want to see it, it’s available. Councilman Cauthorne said his position, for the record and the Minutes, is that since this is a standing account of the town, it should be in the list of accounts on our bank balance report. Also, for the record, he said he doesn’t think that Council should decide how this money is spent. The people that we appoint to the Fire Department every year ought to be the ones spending this money. Mayor Dean said currently they are. Councilman Cauthorne said yes they are and he has no problem with that. The so-called elephant in the room is the $2.00 utility fee. He said he was going to make his position very clear on that. We have designated $42,000.00 of that fee to go toward paying off a fire truck. As far as he is concerned, the other $45,000.00 of that fee has not been designated yet. He thinks there is a question as to whether or not we have the right to continue collecting that money when the money is not designated for any purpose. That is something for next month’s Agenda. Councilman Cantrell said that as of right now the Pound Volunteer Fire Department is looking at a tanker and we are looking at it because of the structure fire on Middle Creek and we had to call Clintwood and Clincho in with tankers because we didn’t have one. He said he was looking at updating the Fire Department’s equipment, and that is what that fund is for. Councilman Cantrell said if you look at the Resolution, it says for a fire truck or other equipment as asked for by the Fire Department that Council has to approve. Councilman Cauthorne said next month have a copy of that Resolution or Ordinance and we’ll look at it. Mayor Dean asked if they were asking for when the $2.00 fee was established. Councilman Cauthorne said he asks for that one, but he also asks for when the new fire truck that we are buying right now was approved. Mayor Dean said the one we are writing the $20,000.00 check for right now. Councilman Cauthorne said “right.” He added that was to see if that was for this particular truck or was a continuing fund. Councilman Cantrell said it was a continuing fund. Councilman Cauthorne asked to look at it. Councilman Cantrell said we’ve looked at it 15 times. Councilman Short said he has never seen it. Mayor Dean asked what it was Council wanted him to find for them. Councilman Cauthorne said the original Ordinance that established the fee and then the second one that said the money would go toward the second fire truck. Councilman Cantrell said it says it was to be put into a fund to purchase fire vehicles or something of that nature. It didn’t say one specific truck. Mayor Dean said he would do his best to find that for them. Councilman Cauthorne said that once we look at it, it’s over, if we just see the Ordinance. Councilman Cantrell said he was going to say something right now. We went to the county attorney. She looked everything over. We explained the situation and she has given us some information that we passed on to Attorney Gilliam about various case logs. Where he doesn’t receive any monetary gain from the Fire Department, he can vote on anything for the Fire Department without being in conflict of interest according to Attorney Mullins. Councilman Cantrell said he would make a motion. Mayor Dean said the motion is already on there for Fire Department General Fund to be included on the Bank Balance Report and… Councilman Cantrell interjected that was killed. Mayor Dean said “no” it wasn’t killed, it was tabled. We didn’t vote on it. The vote was tabled and we brought it off the table and we’ve continued discussion about it, but this motion still has not been voted on yet as to whether or not the Fire Department General

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Fund, the one that the donations and the grant dollars go into, to be included on the Bank Balance Report in the Council packets. That’s what was brought off the table from last time. Councilman Cantrell said he thought they’d killed it. Mayor Dean said that didn’t kill it. Attorney Gilliam said that what we have is a motion and a second. Mayor Dean said he didn’t know who seconded it. He said he doesn’t even know if it got seconded the last time. Mayor Dean asked who seconded this motion. Councilman Short said he was sure he did. Councilman Cauthorne said this was just to put it on the Bank Balance Sheet. Councilman Cauthorne said that was in the original motion that none of this money would be used for any other cause except…. Mayor Dean interjected he knew it wasn’t in the motion and even Charles said that Council can’t touch it. That’s not even part of the question. Mayor Dean said a “yes” means that fund besides the $2.00 Fire Truck Fund that is on the sheet, that this other fund that the Fire Department has the signatory authority on based on the monthly statement that is associated with that, that dollar amount will end up being on this financial statement that’s put in the Council packet. A “yes” vote puts it in the Council packet, and a “no” vote leaves it where it is and has been for years. If you want to see that, ask them, and they will show it to you. Mayor Dean asked if there was any additional discussion. There was none.

VOTE:Ayes: Cauthorne, ShortNays: Cantrell, StanleyAbsent: Walters

Mayor Dean voted “Nay.” Councilman Stanley said we are going to get it for the Audit and that’s all we need. Councilman Cantrell told Clerk Treasurer Carter that, if she needs anything, to make out a form of what she needs and they can fill it out and give it to her. Councilman Cantrell said he would make another motion that this issue not be brought up again. We keep bringing up issues that were brought up years ago. Councilman Cauthorne asked if that was a legal motion. Mayor Dean said “no.” Councilman Cantrell said this keeps getting brought up again and again. Mayor Dean said there is a limitation on that, too, and he will tell Council what that is next time. Councilman Short said he was glad that we brought it up that it is supposed to be in the audit. Mayor Dean said it is going to be in the audit. It always has been. Mayor Dean said he was going to say this one last time. If you want to see the statement on that, go ask Tina at the Fire Department and she will show it to you. Councilman Short said he was not concerned with auditing what Tina has done. He was just talking about all the funds required to be in our town audit. Mayor Dean said he guarantees Charles will ask for the information this time because of all the hub-bub that’s been there. It will be there this time, he guarantees it.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

Councilman Stanley said he didn’t put this on the Agenda, but while we are there… Mayor Dean asked who put this on the Agenda. Clerk Treasurer Carter said Councilman Short said we would continue this discussion at the next Council meeting from last Council meeting. Mayor Dean said he remembered he highlighted that in yellow in the Minutes whenever he said anything from the

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Minutes that needed to be put on the Agenda will be continued at the next meeting. Councilman Stanley said he would like to read something at this time. Mayor Dean said okay. Councilman Stanley said that he would like to publicly announce that anything dealing with Thompson and Litton projects in the town that he will not vote and will abstain from all voting for those projects or information concerning that. He said he would also not be working on any projects that the town is involved in while he is on Council. He said he needs a copy of this when we get this done. Mayor Dean said that statement is read into the Minutes and it will be there. Councilman Stanley said thank you. Councilman Short said that the only thing he would say on that is that when he is talking about the Minutes that were not in the official record that Attorney Gilliam said was not there of the unofficial Minutes of that engineering selection process. Attorney Gilliam said he didn’t find it. Councilman Short said he found it. They were in the Planning Commission Minutes. They have not been signed by Mayor Dean or Linda. He said he found them and brought them down. Mayor Dean said okay, they were in the wrong book. Councilman Short said they haven’t been signed. Mayor Dean said they’d get that done.

OTHER BUSINESS

CHAMBER OF COMMERCE LETTERMayor Dean said he has several items to get to. The Wise County Chamber of Commerce is one. He said we bowed out of the Chamber of Commerce some time ago. Mayor Dean read the letter from the Chamber of Commerce. In the letter, it states that, “….Since the important services rendered by the Wise County Chamber of Commerce must be adequately financed to be effective, your support is critical. The Wise County Chamber of Commerce is a nonprofit organization whose goals and objectives are financed primarily from the dues from its members. Membership is the lifeblood of your Chamber. At this time, we wish to request that the Town of Pound renew its membership in the Wise County Chamber of Commerce and include us in your 2017-2018 budget. According to our investment schedule, membership dues for local governments are assessed at the rate of $0.50 per capita. Based on the population figures from the 2010 Census, dues for the Town of Pound would be $518.50.” The Chamber of Commerce wants us to give them this. Mayor Dean said he already has a problem with the budget, and we just don’t have it. Councilman Stanley said we need to do something. This is tourism. This is things we need to put in brochures. Councilman Cantrell said that we had our fall festival. Arvil went to the Chamber of Commerce and told them we have a fall festival and we need to check dates when we can have this. They said “no problem.” They showed them the dates of everything they had. Then, we wound up competing with about two other events because the Chamber of Commerce wasn’t getting all the events. Councilman Cauthorne said this is an issue where Councilman Cantrell and he are in agreement and that is that they don’t do anything for Pound, and he doesn’t think we need to be sending our money to them. Councilman Stanley said that is because we don’t make any contribution. Mayor Dean said he put in the budget $500.00 for an unplanned event meaning a potential fall event. If Council wants him to forget about any potential fall event we haven’t thought about and say that would be great if we did this, he could try to pull that $500.00 and give it to the Chamber of Commerce who does nothing for us. Council decided not to renew membership to the Chamber of Commerce.

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SPEARHEAD TRAILS LETTERMayor Dean read, “The Southwest Regional Recreation Authority/Spearhead Trails appreciates your support for our organization. We recognize that we can build miles and miles of trails but, without the localities and their amenities such as lodging, meals, fuel, and shopping, we have nothing to keep our riders there or even give them a reason to come back. We are looking for ways to become more involved with our localities and to lend our expertise in outdoor recreation. I’ve spent the last 18 years of my career working for various municipalities and have a great appreciation for the difficulties you face. As you know, we have seen $16,000,000.00 invested in the towns of St. Paul, Pocahontas, Pennington Gap, and Buchanan County since opening our first trail in 2013--$10,000,000.00 of the $16,000,000.00 privately invested. Jobs are being created and filled because of those investments. We want to see more. For us all to succeed, we know it’s necessary to maintain the trails we have and to look at expanding the trails. We are considering expanding our trails to include hiking, biking, equestrian, and paddling trails. We know the localities will benefit greatly as we add inventory to what southwest Virginia has to offer to outdoor recreation. We need to focus on expanding those ideas and programs and events. We want to work with you to bring more users to our trails and to your town. I think the best way to accomplish organized programs and events is to raise funds from each locality to hire a program coordinator. Several towns have seen the benefit of organized events such as runs and so forth as well as having someone who could tailor a vacation package around the interests of our visitors. Spearhead Trails would like to ask each of our localities to help based on their population. If each locality donated $1.00 per person, we believe we could have enough to cover the position for a program coordinator. We need your help so we can do more, and I think you will find that it is truly and investment. Please let me know when I can come to speak with you about this request, learn of your needs, and find ways we can partner together to make this happen.” Mayor Dean asked if Council wanted this individual speaking at the next Council meeting. Council said no.

VDOT LETTERVDOT is holding a Commonwealth Transportation Board and it will be in Abingdon at 5:30 p.m. on April 13, 2017, at the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center, One Partnership Circle in Abingdon, Virginia. Formal public comment on projects proposed. Mayor Dean said what they are talking about is the six-year improvement program and projects that have been scored through the new prioritization process. Mayor Dean said he wasn’t sure what the “new prioritization process” is. He said he went to a meeting in Abingdon about a year and a half ago and it was called HB 2. At that time, they were looking for public input, so he went. What he picked up on is they made it look good. Mayor Dean said they said they have $312,000,000.00 or something that was already scattered out through 63 road projects, ready to go, some of it out here on this expressway, to fix that. Then we had a governor who said he wanted to relook this. What he did was to re-disguise this program to regroup the three hundred million dollars and then take another look in a different way called “Smart Scale” and pull the money from those 63 projects as in we can do this all over again so that I can figure out how I’m going to fund all the congestion in the east quarter between Washington, D.C., and Chesapeake via Richmond. Mayor Dean said if

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anyone wants to go over there and see how they do business, he suggests you do it. Councilman Short said he would probably attend. He said VDOT had the projects allocated. The money was allocated for these projects and they were in the process of being designed. He said that if the projects weren’t completed on design, all that allocated money is pulled. We are going to reallocate this money. He took 97% from the remainder of southwest Virginia and took them to Hampton Roads in northern Virginia. Mayor Dean said Councilman Short can report to us at whichever Council meeting we need to that you are going to find out.

BROWN CARPET IN TOWN HALL HALLWAYMayor Dean expressed concern that someone from MEOC was going to trip over the carpet in the Town Hall hallway. He said he has seen them stumble. He is afraid that this is a potential liability waiting to happen. Mayor Dean said he put money in the budget to get the safe moved and for Glenn and other folks to get under the building and have Joey Reynolds create the correct timbers to re-support that floor through scabs. That is pretty important to get that done and get that floor fixed, but that carpet is pretty important, too. It is kind of a choice right now. Mayor Dean said he has quotes. Shag said he wasn’t going to quote the town the wood you are going to buy. The carpet is going to get replaced with flooring because we don’t need that carpet. Quality won’t touch it because it is rotten, and trying to stretch it to get the wrinkles out of it is going to cause it to rip and it will make a mess and that’s even worse. They said they would take it up and put a brand new carpet down for you. Mayor Dean said we weren’t going to go that route because we are going to put wood down. Town Hall has two projects right now. Based on the fact that Shag said $3,000.00 labor and he would put down whatever we buy. Shag said based on square footage which is about 1,000 square feet, don’t take the carpet off the stairway unless you are going to put something similar in terms of the capability of non-skid. Shad said you don’t want to put tile, vinyl, wood, or anything like that on those steps. You want something that is solid. Mayor Dean said that is yet to be determined. There is 1,000 square feet of wood requirements which is in the landings and down the hallway. Mayor Dean said he got a quote from Mike Craft today who said labor would be $4,565.00, but said that is negotiable. Mayor Dean said that would need to be negotiated down. He said he had looked through the quotes and we had put it in the budget $6,000.00. We are capable of either project. Which one is the most important right now to pursue. Mayor Dean said he had to move the safe regardless of whether we put the timbers under the floor. Councilman Cantrell said that if we move the safe the floor will last a little longer. Mayor Dean said it would. Councilman Cantrell said it is still sitting on some fairly solid stuff. Mayor Dean said he thought we could get into the next fiscal year with that. Councilman Cantrell said where you have the water off of it, he believes it will last a little longer. Mayor Dean said we put $6,000.00 in the budget which was primarily to fix the office floor, but this appears right now to be a more pressing issue from a liability standpoint. Mayor Dean asked Council what they wanted him to pursue—fixing the beams with Joe Reynolds and Glenn under the floor or taking care of the carpet. Council stated to take care of the carpet. Mayor Dean said that if he moves the safe off the floor, the floor is not going to cave in. Councilman Cantrell said it has been sitting there like that for about two to three years now. Mayor Dean said he thinks he needs to transition the project priority and put the floor repairs in the next budget. He asked Council how much he needed to put in the budget to do this. He said he put $6,000.00 in the budget last time and asked if Council

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thinks it will take $6,000.00 to bring the floor up to code. Councilman Cantrell said it depends on who you get to do it. Mayor Dean said he thought we could do some self-help with that with Joe Reynolds cutting the right size timbers. The important thing is scabbing with the right sized timbers because those are not standard timbers under there. Councilman Cantrell said there is rough cut lumber under there. Mayor Dean said he would like Council’s permission to go ahead and pursue that project and get it done. Councilman Cantrell made a motion to take the carpet up and replace it with wood. Councilman Stanley seconded the motion. Councilman Cauthorne said there was another local company that has done some work for him and we might get them to give us a quote. He said they did some good work. Mayor Dean said okay. Mayor Dean asked if there was any additional discussion. Councilman Cauthorne said if it was in the budget and if Mayor Dean thought it was best. There was no further discussion.


Mayor Dean said that the carpet gets done before the floor in the office. He said that was the end of his Other Business. Councilman Stanley said he had a couple of things. He said that we’ve been dealing with Mr. Don Baker in Clintwood pretty good. He said we needed to find out what kind of Ordinance they have because, if you don’t mow your grass over there, they go get it mowed and then send you a bill or cut your water off. Councilman Cantrell said we have the same thing. Councilman Stanley asked why don’t we do it. Councilman Cantrell said because we don’t have the people to do it. Councilman Stanley said he thought Lawn Rangers would be glad to go out and mow for us. Councilman Cantrell said that, if he’s not mistaken, if you look in the Property Maintenance Code, it is in there like that. Mayor Dean said that we have adopted the property maintenance code. Councilman Stanley said that the other issue is that our water payment to Clintwood is going up on 83, and he guesses we have another leak or one of them is getting worse. Mayor Dean said that thing out on 83, we ran tests. Jillian Galloway came here and she and Richard and I had a meeting here and we went through and checked the numbers from February ….. it was in the Manager’s Report that talked about the last four Februarys for the last four years seeing the gallons used and everything. Overall, we have probably in the last four years reduced our daily output of water by 4,000,000 gallons. We are producing 4,000,000 gallons a month less in water to the customers, but our water accountability has stayed almost the same. Bottom line is that we’ve still got some leaks. What we did was that we have been trying to find the leaks and get to them as fast as we can. With a three-man crew, sometimes that is tough. Ken Reynolds is coming back, but he didn’t get back as soon as we wanted. He will be back shortly. We ran a test off of Pilkenton Peak in the middle of the night so we didn’t bother anyone. We ran a test at J.W. Adams, and that leak was probably about half a gallon or gallon a minute, but this is not the leak that we are looking for right now. Out on Route 83 near Apple Street, there’s a fire hydrant there and there are three gate valves. Mayor Dean asked Councilman Cantrell to help him out. Councilman Cantrell said it was between Danny’s and Apple Street. Mayor Dean said there are three gate valves on the right side of the road. They shut down one of the gate valves and took a look and, what they did was to watch Pilkenton Peak tank water level drop. The drain off of Pilkenton Peak tank slowed way

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down. That’s something when they shut that down. The thing they were going to put on the fire hydrant was leaking, so we couldn’t do a pressure check. Last night, they went out and ran a test using Mill Creek tank. They closed that valve again and, this time, they were watching the Mill Creek Tank water level drop. What we did was stopped Pilkenton Peak water from coming through the valve out on Route 83 to go through Maple Street Pump House up to the Mill Creek tank. When we stopped that, Mill Creek tank was back-feeding. We watched the pressure drop. It didn’t just drop, it plummeted. What we know for a fact right now is that we have a main water line or large service line leak somewhere between that gate valve and the pump house at Maple Street. It’s actually leaking, based on the calculations, as much as 60,000 gallons per day. That’s about 1.8 million gallons per month. We can find and fix that leak. The guys are still working, but Ken Reynolds will be back here on the fourth, fifth, and sixth of April. We are going to concentrate on finding that leak. Whoever laid the fiber optic cable laid it practically on top of our main water line. If we go digging on that right now, we might dig right through that fiber optic cable. That’s the same cable that supplies the internet service over in Clintwood that you’re talking about—the Wi-Fi service. We have the leak isolated, but we don’t have it located. That may take some correlation and some work to find because when you start digging, you have to have your ducks lined up. We are checking Bold Camp water right now. We are reading meters right now, so we have to come back to that. Marty and Richard did the test last might because Chad and Ronald had to be up this morning to go read meters to stay caught up. We are working with a skeleton crew. Everyone is doing everything they can to keep us going. If we haven’t found it before then, Ken Reynolds will help us. We are using Ken as much as we can in the leak check because that’s probably not the only one. He has a feeling there’s one in the creek down behind Old Mill Village and there may be one down your way on the saddle because all the saddles down Highland Avenue “ain’t worth a pewter button.” The guys dug out Saturday, in front of Brian Cantrell’s house, an old saddle that was slightly too big for the pipe it was put on. The original installers cut a piece of tire inner tube and wrapped it around the pipe a couple of times and then put the saddle on there. That’s what was leaking big time. They put a sleeve on a line that was leaking, but Marty saw the saddle. Marty came to him and said he could tell him right now, that saddle needs to be replaced. He said he hates to have to cover that hole up, but he doesn’t have the right size saddle to take care of this. Mayor Dean said he told Marty to order one. He said it is in our dollars to order that saddle. Sure enough, that saddle blew not over two weeks after Marty said it was going to blow. As soon as we fixed that leak, the old saddle couldn’t handle it as Marty predicted and it blew out. Mayor Dean said he has a picture of the rubber inner tube around the pipe. He said this is the kind of stuff they are dealing with that they are having to fix, but they did it with the correct saddle this time. Everything is good out there. Our guys are doing a good job as fast as they can. Mayor Dean asked Council to just bear with us because we are doing as much as we can as fast as we can. He said we have a failing infrastructure, but we are slowly fixing it. Just like the grant to go after the I-Perl meters. We have old meters and they need to be replaced. That’s water distribution infrastructure. Councilman Stanley said we could use a man full time on sewer, too. Mayor Dean said “exactly, and they have to spread their time.” Councilman Stanley said he had one more thing about Mr. McAfee’s report. He asked Mr. Tim McAfee if there was anything he would like to come up and say to Council on this. Mr. McAfee approached Council and said he didn’t know he was going to be asked to speak. He said he thought it was open for discussion. He didn’t know it was open for his comments. Mr. McAfee said he had followed up on the last meeting. There’s some information that was requested.

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He said he didn’t have a face-to-face verbal conversation, but he did have a lot of information that was submitted in writing to Council. He said he also got some figures today that he made some reasonable, certain predictions based upon the activity of the Police Department. He said he didn’t have figures for 2017 to support those predictions at the time he made them in his email, but he was provided that today. He said Council is talking about where in the budget is this. To give an example of the significant increase that the town is going to experience in terms of Chief Baker’s actions in patrol enforcement. The total amount of income received from revenues from the last six months of 2016 looks to be about $5,000.00 to $6,000.00. As a result of things that went into place at the end of December, for the first three months of 2017, we are basically equal that. The projected income per month from patrol fines that we generated is going to be about 400-500 percent greater per month than has been experienced over the last budget year. There are around 150 speeding citations issued for calendar year 2016. We have already exceeded that for the first three months of 2017. When you talk about budget, he said he obtained a quote from Freedom Ford since the last Council meeting. Their quote for a new SUV Ford vehicle is $31,500.00 plus to outfit it is another $2,500.00. So you are looking at around $33,000.00 to $34,000.00. With the interest rates what they are for new vehicles for government entities, for example, BB&T rate is just under three percent. For $650.00 per month, you are going to be able to acquire a new SUV. The increased revenue you are going to experience is going to be about four times that. So, you can wait a week; you can wait two weeks; you can wait until something freezes over if you want. Councilman Cantrell asked Mr. McAfee that when he got his quote from Freedom Ford if they mentioned anything about a Fleet Code where you can get a little bit of a discount. Mr. McAfee responded that if Council sees the printout he has, their discount is huge. Councilman Cantrell said the Town of Pound does have a Fleet Code that puts us into that state bracket where we can get their discounts, he believes. He said he thought when the Rescue Squad bought their truck we gave them the Fleet Code and they were able to get a small discount on that. Mr. McAfee said the state contract price is—there might be a few hundred dollars difference depending on whether we get this bell or that whistle—but they are so close that…. Mayor Dean interjected that Freedom Ford knows they are competing with state contracts. Mr. McAfee said “yes.” Mr. McAfee said they have been doing that for some time. He said Norton has bought from Freedom Ford and the Sheriff’s Office has bought from Freedom Ford. In all fairness to Freedom Ford, they want to do business with our localities, and their prices are entirely consistent with what you would get. He said if we called Freedom Ford and said please order one, we wouldn’t get it until…. The first payment wouldn’t be until July. It is not going to be here in 30 days and maybe not 60 days. Attorney Gilliam asked Mr. McAfee if he thought he would be able to pay for it out of the Restitution Fund. Mr. McAfee said that when you say “Restitution Fund,” there’s going to be… We are averaging 100 speeding tickets per month. You had 100 total for last year. Mr. Bentley said he applauds what they are doing when people come off the hill flying at 75-80 miles per hour. He wants to slow people down. Mayor Dean asked Mr. McAfee if the Wise County court system was getting any better at giving us the money that you guys are earning. Mr. McAfee said he had a printout for the last two months. It has averaged $3,200.00 per month. We are not even up to where peak might be. Clerk Treasurer Carter said she and Carissa put this report together. Mayor Dean asked if we got the money. Clerk Treasurer Carter said “yes, we did.” Mr. McAfee said we are averaging now, and we are not even at the peak month yet. In July, August, September, we will be averaging about $5,000.00 per month in revenue. Mayor Dean said we would need to look at the budget and he told Mr. McAfee that it may

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be quicker than he thinks. Mayor Dean said he hopes, after Friday night, we will have something we can make a decision on that. Mayor Dean asked if anyone had anything else. Councilman Short said he asked about the EDA appointments, but he didn’t see them in the Minutes but, in that discussion, we said we had not received anything from Neil. Clerk Treasurer Carter said that she actually did receive this and she has all of these on file now. She said she sent out a letter, and they did do that. Mayor Dean asked if there was anything else. There was nothing.

ADJOURNMENT

Mayor Dean said the chair will entertain a motion to adjourn. Councilman Stanley so moved and Councilman Cantrell seconded. All in favor say, “Aye.” All Council responded, “Aye.”At 10:06 p.m. the Mayor declared the meeting adjourned.

APPROVED ON THIS THE_________________DAY OF _____________________2017.

__________________________________________________________________________MAYOR

__________________________________________________________________________CLERK/TREASURER

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Town of Pound - Pound, Web viewTown of Pound. Regular Council Meeting. 8422 North River Road. March...

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