P.O. Box 450/215 Main Street Brookneal, VA 24528

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November 8, 2016

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, Joseph B. David, Jr., and Mark Wilkes, 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

AIRPORT AUTHORITY

Mr. Richard Adams said that the Brookneal Campbell County Airport Authority was created about 30 years ago, and was primarily put in as an economic development tool to promote the county and the Town.  He said after the demise of the Burlington plant in town, the use of the airport dropped off dramatically.  He said in the last several months there have been changes to the board, resulting in several new appointments, one of which was the appointment of Allen McElroy several months ago.  He said last month they received a letter of resignation from Allen McElroy.  He said that a replacement has been found, and he introduced Mary Westling who was appointed last month as the airport manager. 

Councilperson Adams made a motion to appoint Ms. Westling to fill the vacancy on the board left by Mr. McElroy.  The motion received a second from Vice Mayor James Nowlin, and was unanimously carried. 

Ms. Westling told the Council that if anyone had any ideas of how to make the airport grow to please let her know.

 

 

APPROVAL OF AGENDA

 

Upon motion by Robert Jean, seconded by Mark Wilkes, and unanimously carried, Council approved the agenda for the November 8, 2016, regular meeting of the Brookneal Town Council with the following additions:  1)  Airport Authority   2)  Christmas Bonus for Town Employees.

MINUTES

Upon motion by Barbara Laprade, seconded by Robert Jean, and unanimously carried, Council approved the minutes for the October 11, 2016, Town Council meeting.   

TREASURER’S REPORT

Mayor Campbell asked that the November 2016 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
October 12, 2016 to November 8, 2016, in the amount of $14,709.29.

PUBLIC COMMENT 

Mr. Mack Elder and Mr. Clarence Jones, representing the Brookneal Volunteer Fire Department, were in attendance at the meeting.  Mr. Elder said they came to see if they could straighten out some things they had heard.  He said that when the fire at Dan River occurred, they were told the water tank behind the town office was empty.  He said since then they have heard there is water in the tank and there is not water in the tank, so they are trying to find out does the tank have water in it.  Public Works Director Mike Crews said that there has not been any water in the downtown tank going on 2 years.  He said it was reported to Michael Colbert who was the Fire Chief at the time.  He said the tank was taken offline due to the fact that they have been trying to get control of the TTHMs (total trihalomethanes) which the Town is mandated by the Office of Drinking Water to stay in compliance.  He said that he and Town Manager Thurston have been to numerous meetings in regards to the control of the TTHMs.  He said that water in the system and water for fighting fires is the least concern of the Office of Drinking Water; he said they are concerned about controlling the levels of the TTHMs.  He said that the downtown tank was taken offline to help with the aging amount of water in the system.  He said that a study was done last year and that the average age of water in the system was 28 days; he said that that does not help with the TTHMs.  He said that there is not enough turn over in the distribution system.  He said the downtown tank was taken offline (it holds 75,000 and the Hunter Road tank holds 250,000 gallons) and the level of the Hunter Road tank was cut down.  He said that the Town is still working to find a component to control the amount of TTHMs in the water.  He said the test taken in October was way over; he said that he had just reported in the October meeting that the Town had not had any overages in about a year and a half. He said the Town is working with the engineering firm Hurt & Proffitt to devise a plan to get control of the TTHMs before the water leaves the water treatment plant.

Mr. Crews said that the fire department can pull water off of any fire hydrant in Town, and that all of the hydrants are pulling off of the Hunter Road tank.  He said that if the Hunter Road tank is full they only have 250,000 gallons of water.  He said that he talked with then current fire chief Michael Colbert when they took the downtown tank offline and told him that the fire department needed to have a contingency plan to go to the river or another source of water when the time comes to fight fires.  He said the Town has certain criteria that they have to meet, and they have to supply the businesses and the nursing home with water.  He said that the water plant can only pump and filter 245 gallons of water per minute per the Health Department regulations.  He said that you can have too many trucks pulling off the system at one time (off of too many hydrants), and it could collapse the entire water system and do detrimental damage to the Town’s water lines.

Mr. Thurston noted that the main issue is that the demand for the Town’s water is very low; we do not have the industries pulling water the way they did 10 years ago.  He said that the water in the system has to be turned over every 3 or 4 days to keep in compliance with the health department regulations.  He said they could not fill this downtown tank up just to dump it every few days to have in case of a fire; it would be too costly.

Mr. Crews noted that if the fire department trucks are spraying 3000 gallons a minute from their trucks and the water treatment plant can only pump and filter 245 gallons of water a minute, the Town cannot keep up no matter what they do.     

Councilperson Adams said that he has asked several members of the fire department about meeting with him to put together a plan for a major fire; he said he had not heard anything back from the fire department concerning his request.  He said representatives from the town need to meet with representatives of the fire department and see if they can all come up with a contingency plan until the town can make the adjustments to ensure the supply of water for the fire department.               

POLICE REPORT

Police Chief Richard Baldwin presented the police report for November 2016.  He said of the 81 calls for service, 55 were answered by the Brookneal police department.   He said that he and Mr. Thurston have gotten hopeful information on the USDA grant for another police vehicle.   

PUBLIC WORKS REPORT  

Public Works Director Mike Crews said the Christmas decorations would probably be going up early due to a shortage in manpower.  He said that Elliott Electric would be changing the new street lights to LED lights very soon.

TOWN MANAGER REPORT

Town Manager Russell Thurston said that he, Mike Crews, and Chief Baldwin will be going up to VDOT in Lynchburg on Thursday for a meeting concerning the Christmas parade which will be held on December 1, 2016.  He said the buzzard permit has been submitted for renewal.  He said the water study is about done, and he and Mr. Crews met with the engineer concerning the latest TTHM study results last week.  He said that he and Mr. Crews are going to be working with William Campbell on a possible “job shadowing” project for a work study class they are offering.      

CHRISTMAS BONUS FOR THE TOWN EMPLOYEES

Clerk/Treasurer Bobbie Waller passed out an informational sheet on the statistics of the Christmas bonus last year which was $250 net for all full time employees that had been here the entire calendar year, and a prorated bonus for those that have been here less than a year. 

Mayor Campbell proposed increasing the Christmas bonus from $250 net to $300 net for all full time employees.  After some discussion, a motion was made by Richard Adams to give a net $300 Christmas bonus to all full time Town employees who have been employed all calendar year in the Town of Brookneal.   The motion received a second from Barbara Laparade and was unanimously carried. 

REQUEST FOR TRANSFERS OF APPROPRIATION

Upon motion by Barbara Laprade, seconded by Mark Wilkes, and unanimously carried, the Council voted to approve the following transfers of appropriation.

REQUEST FOR TRANSFERS OF APPROPRIATION

To:       Brookneal Town Council

Date:    November 8, 2016

 Open APPROPRIATION TRANSFERS REQUESTED for FY2017

COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATIONS

There were no committee recommendations. 

ITEMS FROM TOWN COUNCIL

There were no items from Town Council members. 

ADJOURNMENT 

Upon motion by Robert Jean, seconded by Mark Wilkes, and unanimously carried, Mayor Campbell announced that the November 8, 2016, Council meeting was adjourned. 

___________________________                  ____________________________

Bobbie A. Waller                                              Phyllis Campbell

Clerk/Treasurer                                              Mayor