City Council

409 S. Main Street City of Harrisonburg Harrisonburg, VA 22801 Meeting Minutes - Final City Council Mayor Deanna R. Reed Vice-Mayor Richard A. Baugh Council Member Ted Byrd Council Member George Hirschmann Council Member Christopher B. Jones Tuesday, June 12, 2018 7:00 PM Council Chambers 1. Roll Call Present: 5- Mayor Deanna R. Reed, Vice-Mayor Richard Baugh, Council Member Ted Byrd, Council Member Christopher B. Jones and Council Member George Hirschmann Also Present: 3- City Manager Eric Campbell, City Clerk Ande Banks. and City Attorney Wesley Russ 2. Invocation Vice Mayor Baugh offered the invocation 3. Pledge of Allegiance Mayor Reed led the Pledge of Allegiance 4. Special Recognition 4.a. Proclamation recognizing June 11, 2018 through June 17, 2018 as Men’s Health Week Mayor Reed presented a Proclamation recognizing June 11 through June 17, 2018 as Men's Health Week. 4.b. Proclamation declaring June 2018 as Alzheimer’s & Brain Awareness Month Mayor Reed presented a Proclamation recognizing June 2018 as Alzheimer's and Brain Awareness Month. 4.c. Proclamation recognizing July 2018 as Park and Recreation Month Mayor Reed presented a Proclamation recognizing July 2018 as Park and Recreation Month and acknowledged the Parks and Recreation staff present. Brittany Clem, Marketing & Special Projects Coordinator, Harrisonburg Parks and Recreation, noted this years theme is A Lifetime of Discovery and provided a presentation on the different activities Parks and Recreation is hosting throughout the City of Harrisonburg Page 1 Printed on 6/27/2018 City Council Meeting Minutes - Final June 12, 2018 month of July which are listed in the Summer Activity Guide and online. 5. Consent Agenda (any item placed on the consent agenda shall be removed and taken up as a separate matter, if so requested by any member of Council, otherwise all items will be voted on with one (1) motion) A motion was made by Council Member Byrd, seconded by Vice Mayor Baugh, to approve the consent agenda as presented. The motion carried with a recorded roll call vote taken as follows: 5.a. Minutes from May 22, 2018 City Council meeting These minutes were approved on the Consent Agenda. 5.b. Consider a request from BB Nectar LLC to rezone from R-3, Medium Density Residential District to B-2C, General Business District Conditional one parcel located at 2105 Evelyn Byrd Avenue. This rezoning request was approved on second reading 5.c. Consider a supplemental appropriation for the Harrisonburg City School division in the amount of $89,403.96 This supplemental appropriation was approved on second reading 6. Public Hearings 6.a. Request public input on an unsolicited proposal from Momentum Earthworks, LLC for a Northend Greenway Shared Use Path and Blacks run Stream Restoration Wesley Russ, assistant city attorney, stated in July 2017 Council approved an interim agreement from Momentum Earthworks, LLC for a Northend Greenway Shared Use Path and Blacks Run Stream Restoration project and authorized staff to begin negotiations on a Comprehensive Agreement. Mr. Russ stated prior to entering into the finalized Comprehensive Agreement staff requested residents be given one last chance to share their thoughts at a public hearing. At 7:22 p.m., Mayor Reed closed the regular session and called the first public hearing to order. A notice appeared in the Daily News Record on Saturday, June 9, 2018. There being no one desiring to be heard, Mayor Reed closed the public hearing at 7:22 p.m., and the regular session reconvened. Mayor Reed stated there is no action needed at this time. City of Harrisonburg Page 2 Printed on 6/27/2018 City Council Meeting Minutes - Final June 12, 2018 This PH-Action Item was received and filed. 6.b. Consider a request from ILEX LLC for a special use permit within the R-2, Residential District to allow occupancy of not more than four (4) persons provided one (1) off-street parking space per tenant is provided on site at 257 Old South High Street. Adam Fletcher, director of Planning and Community Development, presented a Special Use Permit request from ILEX, LLC to allow up to four unrelated individuals to reside in a residential unit located at 257 Old South High Street. He stated this request had been reviewed and denied by council over a year ago but per Section 10-3-127(b) of the city code, an applicant must wait at least a year to reapply. Mr. Fletcher reviewed the property, the surrounding properties and an image of the current Comprehensive Plan Land Use Guide and noted there are two other properties in the area that have been approved for a similar special use permit. He stated the back yard of the property would be utilized for parking which is required and noted it was recommended to Planning Commission to also limit the property to ensure that all maneuvering of vehicles for egress shall occur on sight and no backing onto the public right-of-way would be allowed. He stated staff and the Planning Commission recommended unanimously to approve the request with the stated conditions. Council Member Byrd asked what the current zoning is and what is the current land use guide for this parcel and at what occupancy allowance. Mr. Fletcher stated it is currently zoned R-2 and currently planned as planned business with no planned occupancy. Council Member Byrd stated for future requests will the decision be based on the current land use guide or the proposed land use guide as there is another property that a decision will need to be made on but need to confirm if it will be made based on the current land use or the proposed land use guide. Further discussion took place regarding the land use. At 7:33 p.m., Mayor Reed closed the regular session and called the second public hearing to order. A notice appeared in the Daily News-Record on Tuesday, May 29, 2018 and Monday, June 4, 2018. Glenn Loucks, 1057 S. Dogwood Drive, applicant, stated the house is the last actual house on the street, and not sure why this property would have been included in the proposed land use guide as Planned Business zoning, as it matches other properties in the residential zoning, with student uses. He stated he agrees the warehouses in the area should be zoned as business and is requesting the special use permit request under the current zoning of R-2 be approved. At 7:36 p.m., Mayor Reed closed the public hearing and the regular session reconvened. City of Harrisonburg Page 3 Printed on 6/27/2018 City Council Meeting Minutes - Final June 12, 2018 Vice Mayor Baugh stated in an area like this where there is advocacy for change and it has been reviewed with a great deal of input, someone else may come up with another application in another area of town and try to use this property as an example . He stated this is the fourth application in this area in a little over a year, the action was taken initially to deny on this particular application, but there have been two applications since then that were approved, and we are being guided by the Planning Commission as they see the change in the land use guide that they are advocating . He stated in regard to the two other applications approved, he can make an argument that they are not consistent with neighborhood residential, they are more medium density and fit better with the proposed Comprehensive Plan. He stated he is not a fan of older houses being converted into this type of rental use, and we have had two other opportunities that we could have preserved these old houses as single -family units that aren't going to be allowed anywhere else. Council Member Byrd stated we need to be consistent on how this body approaches these requests, and if we review back in the early 90's the city used to require the land use guide to be amended for rezoning or special use requests. Vice Mayor Baugh stated he recalls this was only done for major developments. Council Member Byrd stated there is going to be an issue as he feels other requests are going to be submitted by others in other areas of the city in large quantities if this is approved. Vice Mayor Baugh stated as someone who has been a consistent advocate of being very skeptical of approving these types of special use permits, he has been convinced that this can be viewed as “are you going to be so adamant that you never approve them” or review on a case by case basis. He stated this request is consistent with what is already in the area, we will move the land use guide in this direction and we have already approved two requests. He stated this should not be used as an example to approve in other parts of the city. A motion was made by Vice Mayor Baugh, seconded by Council Member Jones, to approve the Special Use Permit Request as presented. The motion carried with a recorded roll call vote taken as follows: Yes: 5- Mayor Reed, Vice-Mayor Baugh, Council Member Byrd, Council Member Jones and Council Member Hirschmann No: 0 6.c. Consider amending and re-enacting Sections 10-3-118, 10-3-127 and 10-3-138 of the Harrisonburg City Code - Application Fees and Building of Zoning Appeals Board’s procedures Adam Fletcher, director of Planning and Community Development, presented the request to increase application fees for rezoning requests, special use permits, City of Harrisonburg Page 4 Printed on 6/27/2018 City Council Meeting Minutes - Final June 12, 2018 zoning ordinance amendments, comprehensive plan amendments, variances, and appeals to the Board of Zoning Appeals. He stated the last increases were in 2011, but each budget year staff reviewed the fees and this year staff discovered that the current application fees are not covering the advertising costs. He reviewed the fees to be increased, and noted the current fees costs the city an estimated $ 2500 in advertising fees not covered by the fees. He stated this will be the first time the fees will be broken down and will reflect the cost of advertising for each type of application . He stated in doing this, the city's interpretation is removed and replaced with what is stated directly in the state code. He stated staff and the Planning Commission recommended unanimously to approve the amendments. At 7:49 p.m. Mayor Reed closed the regular session and called the third public hearing to order. A Notice appeared in the Daily News Record on Tuesday, May 29, 2018 and Monday, June 4, 2018. There being no one desiring to be heard Mayor Reed closed the public hearing at 7:49 p.m. A motion was made by Vice Mayor Baugh, seconded by Council Member Hirschmann, to approve the ordinance amendments as presented. The motion carried with a recorded roll call vote taken as follows: 6.d. Consider amending and re-enacting Section 7-4-1 of the Harrisonburg City Code increasing water and sewer rates Mike Collins, director of Public Utilities, stated this is a three-step process: to identify revenue requirements, determine who should pay, and to revise the rate structure in accordance with steps one and two. He stated the Raw Water Supply Management Plan was presented to council some time ago, and in order to support that project, the fees must be increased. He stated we are moving from zero debt to $ 1.9M in 2022 and it was determined during this year’s budget process that an increase in revenue generation was needed in the amount of $627,000. He stated $624,000 in revenue was generated last year and the total of the incoming revenues should help reach debt funding for the project. He stated in determining who should pay the increased rates, a Cost of Services Study (COSS) was done by the American Waterworks Associations recommended methodology, and for city customers the utility approach was used and for rural customers the utility-based approach was used. He stated the COSS determined who should be paying for the project and reviewed those determinations and the steps taken to reach the recommendations. He reviewed the difference between a declining block rate structure and a uniform rate structure and noted the COSS recommended the uniform rate be used and the end result was a compromise with both rate structures. He stated in regard to sewer costs, a debt increase of $750,000 is anticipated based City of Harrisonburg Page 5 Printed on 6/27/2018 City Council Meeting Minutes - Final June 12, 2018 on HRRSA costs to increase the interceptor sizes, so rather than waiting five years down the line, he recommends we increase the fees slowly over the next few years to cover the debt service when needed. He stated most smaller users will see an increase in total utility costs of 2.9% and larger users around 7%. He stated the city still has fairly competitive and less expensive water and sewer rates. Council Member Byrd asked if Mr. Collins has seen the new Comprehensive Plan since future water needs allocations are based on changes in proposed land use and how will this impact his anticipated debt service requirements. Mr. Collins stated they always estimate the maximum usage based on zoning for future needs. Vice Mayor Baugh stated he doesn’t think any projects were missed, and doesn’t see anything else coming down the pike. Council Member Byrd stated it is all interconnected and the proposed Comprehensive Plan should be taken into considered. At 8:01 p.m. Mayor Reed closed the regular session and called the fourth public hearing to order. A Notice appeared in the Daily News Record on Saturday, June 2, 2018 and Saturday, June 9, 2018 There being no one desiring to be heard Mayor Reed closed the public hearing at 8:01 p.m. A motion was made by Council Member Byrd, seconded by Vice Mayor Baugh, to approve the ordinance amendments as presented. The motion carried with a recorded roll call vote taken as follows: 7. Regular Items 7.a. Consider accepting a grant award for the Police Department from the Department of Criminal Justice Services in the amount of $11,815 Chief Steve Sellers, interim police chief for Harrisonburg Police Department, provided a summary of the recently awarded BYRNE Justice Assistance Grant, to enhance recruitment efforts in the amount of $11,814.00 and represents a small piece of a larger plan to enhance HPD’s efforts towards recruiting highly qualified and diverse candidates for police officer positions. He stated the funds are dedicated in two components, technology and monitors to enhance the booth display for job fairs, military bases and colleges, and professional services to develop and produce four high quality recruitment videos to both use on public service announcements, booth displays and social media outlets. He stated this grant paired with some aggressive strategies to recruit new officers will City of Harrisonburg Page 6 Printed on 6/27/2018 City Council Meeting Minutes - Final June 12, 2018 help ensure the vacancies are filled with high quality, diverse police officer candidates. Council Member Jones stated since Chief Sellers has been with the HPD, he has heard nothing but good things from the HPD team and he wanted to publicly thank him in person for all the hard work he has done with the department. He stated the only complaint is that they don't want him to leave. Mayor Reed asked how many open positions are there. Chief Sellers stated there are currently nine vacancies as of today. This Action Item was received and filed. 7.b. Consider adopting 6 Resolutions of Support for Smart Scale Grant Programs Tom Hartman, assistant director of Public Works stated there are six resolutions for consideration for transportation improvement projects for Smart Scale Grant Funding through VDOT. He reviewed the following projects: Mt. Clinton Pike Improvements; Erickson Avenue Phase IV; Carlton Street Improvements; University Boulevard /Evelyn Byrd Avenue Improvements; Martin Luther King, Jr. Way Extension; and East Market Street and Exit 247 Improvements. A motion was made by Council Member Jones, seconded by Council Member Hirschmann, to approve the resolutions as presented. The motion carried with a recorded roll call vote taken as follows: Yes: 5- Mayor Reed, Vice-Mayor Baugh, Council Member Byrd, Council Member Jones and Council Member Hirschmann No: 0 7.c. Consider removal of delinquent real estate taxes for years 1997/1998 and personal property taxes for year 2012 Jeff Shafer, Treasurer, requested approval to advertise delinquent real estate taxes for the years 2015-16 and 2016-17. He stated this is done every year as a collection tool, delinquent notices are sent out in August, with 30 days to pay, and if not paid an advertisement is placed in the newspaper and has been very effective. He noted they only advertise those that are 2-3 years old. A motion was made by Vice Mayor Baugh, seconded by Council Member Hirschmann, to approve the request as presented. The motion carried with a recorded roll call vote taken as follows: Yes: 5- Mayor Reed, Vice-Mayor Baugh, Council Member Byrd, Council Member Jones and Council Member Hirschmann No: 0 City of Harrisonburg Page 7 Printed on 6/27/2018 City Council Meeting Minutes - Final June 12, 2018 7.d. Consider a request to advertise delinquent real estate taxes for years 2015/2016 & 2016/2017 Jeff Shafer, Treasurer, requested approval to advertise delinquent real estate taxes for the years 2015-16 and 2016-17. He stated this is done every year as a collection tool, delinquent notices are sent out in August, with 30 days to pay, and if not paid an ad is placed in newspaper and is very effective. He noted they only advertise those that are 2-3 years old. A motion was made by Vice Mayor Baugh, seconded by Council Member Hirschmann, to approve the request as presented. The motion carried with a recorded roll call vote taken as follows: Yes: 5- Mayor Reed, Vice-Mayor Baugh, Council Member Byrd, Council Member Jones and Council Member Hirschmann No: 0 7.e. Consider request to write off delinquent utility accounts Sherri Sherman, program manager, Public Utilities, requested approval to write off 150 accounts for the year 2016. She stated the total value of those accounts is $22,737.29 which is .13% of what was billed for the year. She stated all efforts and resources have been exhausted and all accounts have been reviewed with the Finance, Human Resources and Real Estate departments for any additional collection resources. A motion was made by Vice Mayor Baugh, seconded by Council Member Byrd, to approve the request as presented. The motion carried with a recorded roll call vote taken as follows: Yes: 5- Mayor Reed, Vice-Mayor Baugh, Council Member Byrd, Council Member Jones and Council Member Hirschmann No: 0 7.f. Consider approving proposed amendments to Title 7, Chapter 3, “Sewer System,” to bring Harrisonburg City Code in line with Harrisonburg-Rockingham Regional Sewer Authority (HRRSA) Operating Rules and Regulations. Wesley Russ, stated when the city decided to take part in the Regional Sewer Authority (HRRSA), part of the arrangement included that the localities participating in the authority would adopt and amend ordinances to ensure that HRRSA would have the authority to do a lot of the regulatory enforcement work. He stated the proposed amendments to Title 7 Section 3 Sewer Systems is to ensure HRRSA’s updated rules and regulations match our ordinance. A motion was made by Council Member Hirschmann, seconded by Council Member Byrd, to approve the request as presented. The motion carried with a recorded roll call vote taken as follows: Yes: 5- Mayor Reed, Vice-Mayor Baugh, Council Member Byrd, Council Member Jones and Council Member Hirschmann City of Harrisonburg Page 8 Printed on 6/27/2018 City Council Meeting Minutes - Final June 12, 2018 No: 0 8. Special Event Application Requests 8.a. Consider an event application request for EMU Homecoming on Saturday, October 13, 2018 Erin Smith, events manager for Harrisonburg Downtown Renaissance, presented a special events application for Eastern Mennonite University (EMU) Homecoming to be held Saturday, October 13, 2018 from 3:00 pm to 7:00 pm. She stated the event organizer is requesting the closure of Park Road from Mt. Clinton Pike to Parkwood Drive to ensure the safety of the anticipated 1,500 attendees and will require some Public Works support and some public transportation routes may be affected. A motion was made by Council Member Jones, seconded by Vice Mayor Baugh, to approve the special event application as presented. The motion carried with a unanimous voice vote. 8.b. Consider the event application request for First Night Harrisonburg on Monday, December 31, 2018 Erin Smith, events manager for Harrisonburg Downtown Renaissance, presented a special events application for the 28th Annual First Night Harrisonburg to be held Monday, December 31, 2018 from 6:00 pm to 12:00 am. She stated it is anticipated to have between 2,500 - 4,000 participants, requires the closure of several streets downtown and requires Public Works, Harrisonburg Police Department (HPD) and Harrisonburg Fire Department (HFD) support. FA motion was made by Council Member Jones, seconded by Vice Mayor Baugh, to approve the special event application as presented. The motion carried with a unanimous voice vote. 8.c. Consider an event application request for the Holiday Parade on Friday, December 7, 2018 Erin Smith, events manager for Harrisonburg Downtown Renaissance, presented a special events application for the Holiday Parade to be held Friday, December 7, 2018 from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm. She stated this is an annual event organized by the city and 6,000 participants and spectators are anticipated. She stated the event requires the closure of Main Street and Court Square, utilizes the City Hall parking lot, and will require support from Public Works, HPD and HFD. A motion was made by Council Member Jones, seconded by Vice Mayor Baugh, to approve the special event application as presented. The motion carried with a unanimous voice vote. 8.d. Consider an event application request for the annual Veterans Parade on Sunday, November 11, 2018. Erin Smith, events manager for Harrisonburg Downtown Renaissance, presented a special events application for the 16th Annual Veterans Parade to be held Sunday, City of Harrisonburg Page 9 Printed on 6/27/2018 City Council Meeting Minutes - Final June 12, 2018 November 11, 2018 from 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm. She stated 1,500 participants and spectators are anticipated, will require the closure of Main Street and Court Square, will utilize the City Hall parking lot, and will require support from Public Works, HPD and HFD. A motion was made by Council Member Jones, seconded by Vice Mayor Baugh, to approve the special event application as presented. The motion carried with a unanimous voice vote. 8.e. Consider an event application request for the Jingle Dash on Friday, December 7, 2018 from 6:15pm-6:50pm. Erin Smith, events manager for Harrisonburg Downtown Renaissance, presented a special events application for Jingle Dash to be held Friday, December 7, 2018 from 6:15 pm to 6:50 pm. She stated this will be the first Jingle Dash Fun Run organized by the ARC of Harrisonburg and Rockingham County as a fundraising event. She stated the event would utilize the existing Holiday Parade street closures and would begin and end prior to the start of the parade and will share city staff and resources with the Holiday Parade. A motion was made by Council Member Jones, seconded by Vice Mayor Baugh, to approve the special event application as presented. The motion carried with a unanimous voice vote. 8.f. Consider an event application request for the 5th annual Rocktown Turkey Trot in downtown Harrisonburg on Thursday, November 22, 2018 Erin Smith, events manager for Harrisonburg Downtown Renaissance, presented a special events application for the 5th Annual Rocktown Turkey Trot and Kids Dash to be held Thursday, November 22, 2018 from 8:00 am to 10:00 am, organized by Virginia Momentum. She stated 1,500 participants and spectators are anticipated, will require several street closures downtown, and will require support from Public Works and HPD. She stated the Special Events Committee has held several meetings this year to address any remaining city staff and organizer concerns about this event, in particular city staffing and course safety, and would be happy to share details of these discussions, but both HPD and Public Works met with the event organizer, reached an agreement and formulated a contingency plan in the event that city staff volunteer shifts are not filled. She stated the event organizer has made adjustments to the race route to further increase course safety and improve traffic flow at the request of HPD and HFD. She stated the event organizer and Cpl. Wayne Westfall with HPD are present for any questions. Council Member Byrd asked if there will be a parade for the fourth of July. Council Member Jones and Ms. Smith stated there will not be a parade. Council Member Byrd stated since we have a National Championship team, JMU Women’s Lacrosse City of Harrisonburg Page 10 Printed on 6/27/2018 City Council Meeting Minutes - Final June 12, 2018 team, we should have some way to honor them. Mayor Reed stated she has had some discussions regarding that, and feels we definitely need to honor them in some way, and are looking into doing something in August when the Block Party in the Burg is held. Council Member Jones stated he encourages the Mayor to do something later in September when all the students are back. A motion was made by Council Member Jones, seconded by Vice Mayor Baugh, to approve the special event application as presented. The motion carried with a unanimous voice vote. 9. Supplementals 9.a. Consider a supplemental appropriation for the Fire and Public Utilities Departments in the amount of $578,000 Ande Banks, deputy city manager, presented a supplemental appropriation to accommodate a $480,000 grant from the state to rebuild the burn training building for HFD in partnership with Rockingham County and a supplemental appropriation for the state grant from the Department of Health associated with bringing back the fluoride equipment in order for council to decide if the city water is to be fluoridated. A motion was made by Council Member Byrd, seconded by Council Member Jones, to approve the supplemental appropriation as presented. The motion carried with a recorded roll call vote taken as follows: Yes: 5- Mayor Reed, Vice-Mayor Baugh, Council Member Byrd, Council Member Jones and Council Member Hirschmann No: 0 9.b. Consider a supplemental appropriation for Central Garage in the amount of $30,000 Ande Banks, deputy city manager, stated the Central Garage handles a parts department that is subcontracted externally with NAPA, the contract was renewed in June 2017 and because it was renewed at the end of a fiscal year, it created some accounting issues. He stated this supplemental appropriation would take fund balance from the Central Garage’s fund and appropriate to NAPA’s contract. A motion was made by Council Member Byrd, seconded by Vice Mayor Baugh, to approve the supplemental appropriation as presented. The motion carried with a recorded roll call vote taken as follows: Yes: 5- Mayor Reed, Vice-Mayor Baugh, Council Member Byrd, Council Member Jones and Council Member Hirschmann No: 0 10. Other Matters 10.a. Comments from the public, limited to five minutes, on matters not on the regular agenda. (Name and address are required) Cindy Carr, owner of a business located at 100 Waterman Drive, stated like a lot of the city they had problems with the recent rains. She stated she realizes that when City of Harrisonburg Page 11 Printed on 6/27/2018 City Council Meeting Minutes - Final June 12, 2018 you have five days of rain there will be flooding, and this has not been a once and done event. She stated she has been on Waterman Drive in the same building since 1983 and many times has had to roll up her pants and take off her shoes to get to her car. She stated there have been a lot of improvements done over the years that seemed to have fixed the problem until just a couple of years ago. She stated she is aware of the extensive work done by city staff to find out what needs to be done to reduce the flooding problems, and has spoken with Mr. Banks and wants to know what responsibility she has and how can she help keep our drain system clean and work on the runoff from the developments that are affecting Waterman Drive. She stated if she needs to talk to neighbors on Waterman Drive to get permission to use private property to do whatever needs to be done, as many of them have had severe flooding damage as well, she will. She stated we have businesses and homeowners that need the city’s help, they need money, council’s wisdom, a temporary plan, a permanent plan and to be told how the residents can help. She stated she will not be able to stay in the city if she has to go through much more of what she experienced in the last ten days, she cannot rebuild time and time again. Council Member Jones asked Ms. Carr if she had the same problem last year. Ms. Carr stated she did not, it reached the door several times but did not flood like it just did. Karen and Steve Bazzle, owners of Finders Keepers, stated it is frustrating as a business owner as this has happened several times. She provided photographs to council showing the recent flooding of their business and stated they are on the low end of Waterman and water just came pouring in from the loading dock door and the warehouse door. Mr. Bazzle stated last year the quarry across the road from their business, that pumps out full time, filled the ditch regularly and caused flooding if any significant rain fell. He stated Mr. Crawford did some work on the ditch, placing a larger culvert, which fixed the problem from the quarry but all the water this time came down from Waterman Drive, it had no place to go. Mrs. Bazzle stated it doesn’t have to be a significant rain fall to be flooded out, and they can't stay in business with these issues. She stated they don't know where to go at this point and if there is any kind of help available or if there is something they can do they would like to hear it. Mr. Bazzle stated Mr. Banks came out and took some notes and advised them he would be in touch with solutions. Mrs. Bazzle stated their hands are tied, the business was closed for 1.5 days, they have been up day and night to clean up, it was devastating. Pamayotis “Poti” Giannakaouros, stated he was busy getting video at James Place, many have walked the area and tried to map where the water was coming from because they are facing unprecedented floods every day. He stated he will be preparing the data collected, and is interested in hearing the stories told so that hopefully a picture of what is happening can be created. He stated, in other matters, the new tall grass and weeds ordinance has been in place for a while and it was made very clear by Council Member Jones that staff was not to accept anonymous complaints and he has received a copy of the first 24 complaints filed this season, and would like to report on those at some point. He stated he has one more piece of data that he will be sharing in regard to crime reports, and it shows a fantastic City of Harrisonburg Page 12 Printed on 6/27/2018 City Council Meeting Minutes - Final June 12, 2018 decline. He asked how to interpret that is not exactly clear but he has new incarceration data broken down in a finer grain, and also shows striking numbers with Harrisonburg declining dramatically in the past year, but we still need to bring in data on what is happening in Augusta County. 10.b. City Council and Staff Council Member Jones stated he feels awful of the damage done to Finders Keepers, and the entire area, it is overwhelming the amount of water that collects there. He stated council and staff will do their best to help and work with everyone effected. Vice Mayor Baugh stated the Planning Commission will have four items under new business, one public utility application and three rezoning requests, all of which are coming with favorable recommendation from staff. He stated there will be a presentation from JMU on their updated Master Plan as well. Council Member Byrd stated the Carrs’ and the Bazzles’ bring a good point to staff, that we do have a stormwater fund tax and staff needs to examine how best to use those funds and still meet our MS4 requirements. He stated it seems as though the funds are being directed into building new projects at a cost of about $ 8,000 per pound, versus buying credits annually at a cheaper rate. He stated there may be a way to improve our existing stormwater infrastructure and still meet the MS 4 requirements. He requests council members look into alternatives. Council Member Hirschmann stated rainfall totals in the area were through the roof and he agrees it might be time to take a look and see what we can be done. Eric Campbell, city manager, stated he sympathizes with those that have had damage from the flood, and wants to assure everyone that staff is feverishly working to try to resolve any issues. He stated unfortunately many of the issues were not because of the system, but due to the amount of rain fall, but there are things that we can do to tweak and improve upon. He stated to be realistic however, if we receive that amount of rain again it will create problems within the city. He stated as of June 8, 2018, we received a total of 67 applicants for the position from 21 different states with Virginia leading the way with 28 applicants, and more than 90% indicated they have a BA degree or higher. He stated they will likely schedule interviews in the beginning of July. He asked Mr. Hartman to speak about the update of the Garbers Church Road Shared Use Path project. Mr. Hartman stated the Parks and Recreation Department and the Golf Course were very innovative in breaking down some preconceived notions of working on and within the golf course, and have been able to find a southern route that very closely mimics the original path, from the pocket park in Hillandale to Garbers Church Road, however the realignment stays completely on the City of Harrisonburg Page 13 Printed on 6/27/2018 City Council Meeting Minutes - Final June 12, 2018 golf course. He stated it will require Public Works to work very closely with the Parks and Recreation department and the Golf Course to relocate cart paths, create buffer areas, work closely with the Pro to determine the high safety concern areas so safety netting can be placed, and then work with the school board to enter on to the new Bluestone Elementary property to make the final push from the driving range to connect to the existing planned path. He shared the information on where the path goes out of Hillandale Park to Wyndham Circle. He provided additional update on internal processes. Mayor Reed stated Saturday, June 16, 2018 is the African American Festival at Ralph Sampson Park from 12:00 pm to 6:00 pm; School Is Out for Summer Pool Party will be held on Saturday, June 16, 2018; and the World’s Largest Swimming Lesson will be held on Thursday, June 21, 2016. 11. Adjournment At 9:05 p.m., there being no further business and on motion adopted, the meeting was adjourned. ________________________ ________________________ DEPUTY CITY CLERK MAYOR City of Harrisonburg Page 14 Printed on 6/27/2018