February 14, 2017
MINUTES OF THE BROOKNEAL TOWN COUNCIL
7:00 PM – The regular meeting of the Brookneal Town Council
The municipal government of the Town of Brookneal met with the following members present:
Phyllis Campbell, Mayor
James Nowlin, Vice Mayor
Richard Adams, Robert Jean, Barbara Laprade, and Joseph B. David, Jr., Council Members
Russell Thurston, Town Manager
Bobbie Waller, Clerk/Treasurer
Mike Crews, Public Works Director
Richard Baldwin, Chief of Police
Absent: Mark Wilkes
INVOCATION AND PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG
INTRODUCTION OF NEW POLICE OFFICER
Chief Richard Baldwin introduced Wayne Duff as a new police officer hired by the Town of Brookneal.
APPROVAL OF AGENDA
Upon motion by Richard Adams, seconded by Robert Jean, and unanimously carried, Council approved the agenda for the February 14, 2017, regular meeting of the Brookneal Town Council.
MINUTES
Upon motion by Joseph David, seconded by Barbara Laprade, and unanimously carried, Council approved the minutes for the January 10, 2017, Town Council meeting.
TREASURER’S REPORT
Mayor Campbell asked that the February 2017 treasurer’s report be filed for audit.
PRESENTATION AND APPROVAL OF INVOICES
Be it resolved that motion was made by James Nowlin, seconded by Joseph B. David, Jr., and unanimously carried, authorizing the payment of the invoices for the period of
January 11, 2017 to February 14, 2017, in the amount of $26,213.27.
COMMUNITY BUILDING REQUESTS
Mayor Phyllis Campbell told the Council that Nona Puckett called her concerning the community building. She said that Falling River Baptist Church and Brookneal Baptist Church sponsor a free community breakfast one Saturday a month that is presently being held at the Brookneal Fire Department. She said that the fire department feels like there may be other places to have this event. She said Nona’s request was for use of the community building once a month for this event.
Upon motion by James Nowlin, seconded by Joseph David, and unanimously carried, the Council approved the use of the community building once a month at no charge to the Falling River Baptist Church and the Brookneal Baptist Church for their free community breakfast.
Clerk/Treasurer Bobbie Waller told the Council Jerry Stanfield of Childrey Baptist Church had requested use of the community building for a 2 day bible school on July 11 and 12, 2017 during daytime hours.
Upon motion by Joseph David, seconded by Richard Adams, and unanimously carried, the Council approved the use of the community building at no charge to Childrey Baptist Church on July 11 and 12, 2017 for a community vacation bible school.
REGION 2000 PRESENTATION
Gary Christie, of the Region 2000 Local Government Council, talked to the Council to update them about the work of the Region 2000. He said the Local Government Council is the planning district commission for Lynchburg and the surrounding counties. He said they have always done transportation, and they will continue to do transportation; he said their project for the New Year is a rural long range transportation plan. He said they just finished one for the urbanized areas. He said they are working with VDOT on “spot scale” transportation planning. He said they recently completed their economic development strategy. He talked about the Central Virginia Training Center which is slated for closing. He said that parts of the training center could be used for other purposes. He said there are hundreds of buildings there; some of which are not in use at the present time because they have such a limited number of patients. He said they worked with Amherst County to hire a legislative liaison to work with the General Assembly. He said they want to hire engineers to look at that site to determine which facilities are useable and which ones are not and to come up with a plan to market that site so that it could be put to its highest and best use. He said it has a great deal of potential for job creation.
Mr. Christie said the annual Region 2000 dinner will be on April 20, 2017 at the Kirkley Hotel in Lynchburg.
POLICE REPORT
Chief Richard Baldwin presented the police report for January 2017. He said of the 64 calls for service, 52 were answered by the Brookneal Police Department. He said that he got word last week that the Town was approved for another police vehicle grant through USDA; he said another Chevrolet Tahoe would be purchased with this grant.
PUBLIC WORKS REPORT
Public Works Director Mike Crews said the burn ban for Campbell County is in effect from 4 pm to midnight from February 15 until April 30, 2017. Mr. Crews said that the Dixie boys have been able to get some free work done to the road at the ballpark.
TOWN MANAGER REPORT
Town Manager Russell Thurston said that the budget meetings have begun and the next meeting will be February 22, 2017. He said that since it will be a while before the Town knows what the county funding will be, they would work on several different budget scenarios in case the county funding is cut again.
Mr. Thurston said that the grant from USDA for another police vehicle is $32,000, and it is a 75/25 matching grant. He said the water study is complete (copies are in the mail); he said that they will have to decide what changes will have to be made to the Town water system to make sure that the water turns over as it needs to. He said the sewer study is also coming to completion. He said that he and Chief Baldwin are working on some very stubborn ordinance violations. He said it is looking like they will be facing some court action at this point.
PROPOSED CHANGES TO THE PERSONNEL MANUAL REGARDING ANNUAL LEAVE AND OVERTIME
Mr. Richard Adams said that Mr. Thurston had proposed some changes to the personnel manual in December 2016. He said that the first one is concerning full time hourly employees. If they are required by their supervisor/manager to work on an official town holiday or if they are on annual leave and are called in to work, they will be compensated at the rate of time and one half their normal rate with the proposed change. He said that the overtime has to be approved, and the work has to be required. He said the second proposed change is concerning new full time employees and annual leave. He said that as the personnel manual stands, no annual leave is acquired until a full year of employment has taken place. The proposed change is for new employees to acquire 4 hours of annual leave per month after the first full month of employment during the first year of employment. He said that the finance and planning committee has recommended these changes. He made a motion to implement these changes. The motion received a second from Robert Jean, and was unanimously carried.
REQUEST FOR TRANSFERS OF APPROPRIATION
Upon motion by Richard Adams seconded by Robert Jean, and unanimously carried, the Council voted to approve the following transfers of appropriation.
REQUEST FOR TRANSFERS OF APPROPRIATION
To: Brookneal Town Council
Date: February 14, 2017
Open APPROPRIATION TRANSFERS REQUESTED for FY2017
COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATIONS
There were no committee recommendations.
ITEMS FROM TOWN COUNCIL
Councilperson David said that he talked with Campbell County about setting up a procurement system with the Special Logistics Agency where the Town and County can get surplus military equipment. He said if they get that set up, he would check on getting some water storage containers for the fire department.
ADJOURNMENT
Upon motion by Barbara Laprade, seconded by Robert Jean, and unanimously carried, Mayor Campbell announced that the February 14, 2017, Council meeting was adjourned.
___________________________ ____________________________
Bobbie A. Waller Phyllis Campbell
Clerk/Treasurer Mayor
