October 2013

October 8, 2013

MINUTES OF THE BROOKNEAL TOWN COUNCIL


7:00 PM – The regular meeting of the Brookneal Town Council

The municipal government of the Town of Brookneal met with the following members present:

Phyllis Campbell, Mayor
James Nowlin, Vice Mayor
Richard Adams, Robert Jean, Barbara Laprade, Mark Wilkes, and J. B. David, Jr., Council Members
Russell Thurston, Town Manager
Bobbie Waller, Clerk/Treasurer
Mike Crews, Public Works Director
Richard Baldwin, Chief of Police


INVOCATION AND PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG


APPROVAL OF AGENDA

Upon motion by Robert Jean, seconded by Mark Wilkes, and unanimously carried, Council approved the agenda for the October 8, 2013, regular meeting of the Brookneal Town Council.


MINUTES

Upon motion by Barbara Laprade, seconded by Robert Jean, and unanimously carried, Council approved the September 10, 2013, Town Council meeting minutes. 


TREASURER’S REPORT

Mayor Campbell asked that the October 2013 treasurer’s report be filed for audit.


PRESENTATION AND APPROVAL OF INVOICES

Be it resolved that motion was made by James Nowlin, seconded by Richard Adams, and unanimously carried, authorizing the payment of the invoices for the period of September 10, 2013 to October 8, 2013, in the amount of $25,810.60.


PRESENTATION BY HURT & PROFFITT ON PHASE 3 OF THE DOWNTOWN PROJECT
  
Brian Cossman of Hurt & Proffitt appeared before Council to discuss some more plans for Phase 3 of the downtown project.  He said there are 4 priorities for the project.  They include 1) continuation of Rush Street down to Lusardi 2) Main Street (south end) to continue the sidewalk to Food Lion 3) Main Street (north end) at the railroad tracks to get better crosswalks for pedestrian traffic 4) Main Street at the intersection of Smith Street.  He outlined some ideas and changes for each area in his presentation. 


PUBLIC COMMENT

Gene Moorefield of the Golden Skillet Restaurant on Rush Street expressed his concern that he had voiced several months ago concerning the new street lights that are not working on Rush Street.  Mr. Thurston said that the Town would investigate the problem with the street lights and get it corrected. 


POLICE REPORT

Chief Ricky Baldwin presented the police report to the Council for September 2013.  He said of the 89 calls for service in September, 72 calls were answered by the Brookneal Police Department.  


PUBLIC WORKS REPORT

Public Works Director Mike Crews said that Town employee Gerald Millner retired in September and Lacy Little informed him that he will be retiring in January 2014.  He said he is currently advertising for a job opening in the public works department.  He said he did switch analytical testing labs for the water and wastewater testing from B&B Labs to Willoughby Associates in Lynchburg.  He said they are having problems with one of the finished water pumps at the water treatment plant, and a representative from Flowserve will be coming to try to repair the pump this week.  
 

TOWN MANAGER REPORT

Town Manager Russell Thurston said that the Partner Appreciation Luncheon on October 3, 2013, was a success.  He reminded everyone of the joint dinner meeting between Altavista, Brookneal, and Campbell County this Thursday at 6:30 p.m.   He said that he has completed and submitted the application to VDOT for the Christmas parade in December.  He said that there is some equipment that the Town needs to work on the street lights that currently we don’t have.  He said they were trying to be mindful of taxpayer money in renting that equipment.  He said they would work on getting the lights fixed. 

Mr. Thurston also said that he attended a meeting last week at the sheriff’s office concerning using inmates to clean up properties.  He said that Campbell County is the only county in the region not using the program.  He said he received a court order from the circuit court judge this past Friday that grants Brookneal the authority to pick up inmates at the jail.  He said there are some details that need to be worked out, but he said in the near future that the Town will be able to use inmates to clean up properties in the town.  He said that he is going to need a vehicle to transport them, and he and the police chief are talking about re-purposing the Ford explorer vehicle for other uses.  Chief Baldwin said these inmates are going to be low risk inmates who may have driving offenses or very little time left to serve.  Mr. Thurston said they would have to be supervised by Town staff.      


COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATIONS

Finance and Planning Committee chairperson Richard Adams said that he has some information on some long term planning tools for the town manager. 

Physical Development Committee chairperson James Nowlin said that he wants his committee to work on getting a list of the street lights that are not working and having them called in to Dominion Virginia Power. 


ITEMS FROM TOWN COUNCIL

Councilperson Barbara Laprade said that she has been looking at Halifax County’s campaign to buy local.  She said that she is going to identify things that are unique to Brookneal and start
some kind of campaign to encourage people to buy in Brookneal.     

Councilperson David said that he has had some complaints about buzzards, and he wondered if the town had heard anything about them being a problem.

Clerk/Treasurer Bobbie Waller said that the Citipak upgrade is going to be completed by the next Council meeting in November.  She said that she has been checking on credit card machines.  She said that she had been checking with other towns including the Town of Halifax who use a service called Payment Us.  She said that Town of Hurt, Town of Altavista, Campbell County and Pittsylvania County use a service called Official Payments.  She said that she thought this would be a better option than a credit card machine.  She said she would check on these companies and bring back more details at the next Council meeting. 

Chief Ricky Baldwin said that every month he gets 4 or 5 complaints about one of our landlords here in Town taking deposits and making some false promises.  He said he knew it was a civil thing, but he wondered if there was anything the town could do by putting pressure on him or taking civil action against him. 
 

ADJOURNMENT

Upon motion from Robert Jean, seconded by Mark Wilkes, and unanimously carried, Mayor Campbell announced that the October 8, 2013, meeting was adjourned. 



___________________________        ____________________________
Bobbie A. Waller                Phyllis L. Campbell
Clerk/Treasurer                Mayor