March Council Meeting Minutes

TOWN OF CLINCHCO

COUNCIL MEETING

MINUTES OF MEETING ON MARCH 23, 2017

MEMBERS PRESENT: Mayor Jarvis Deel (present but tied up with People Inc.), Vice Mayor Ralph Sutherland, Member Stearl Branham, Member Hurbert “Poly” Branham, Member Virginia White, Ralph “Pickle” Mock, Trevor Counts

MEMBERS ABSENT: 

TOWN CLERK: Tina Bartley (Absent)

TOWN ATTORNEY:  Susan Wood

Call to Order & Welcome by Vice Mayor

Vice Mayor Ralph Sutherland welcomed everyone and called the meeting to order and asked for a moment of silence.

Approval of Minutes

Vice Mayor Ralph Sutherland asked if everyone has read the minutes; members stated no, give us just a minute to look over them.  Ralph stated when you read the minutes just let him know and they would move on.  Poly Branham made a motion to approve the minutes; Stearl Branham seconded the motion; a vote was taken and all members were in favor.

Approval of Treasurers Reports

Vice Mayor Ralph Sutherland asked if everyone has read the treasurers report; Trevor Counts stated, Ralph you probably don’t know but it says here about Triple T February Bill $306.15 does that mean with the gas and everything or what, I know you don’t know so.  Has anybody else looked that far; Poly stated he saw it, I didn’t know what it was for so.  Ralph asked what was they looking at; Trevor stated treasurers report right there where it say Triple T, 2/22/2017 $306.15, what is that; you have no idea what that includes do you; Randy Moore stated its everything you get; Trevor Counts stated well, what do you do about that now; Mayor Jarvis Deel stated that is the Police department gas, our gas and snacks and stuff that we have had for these special hearings.  Trevor stated special who; Mayor Deel stated special meetings, I had asked them to start putting the Police Department separate so we can keep that separate.  Trevor counts stated that is what I was asking about, ok; does everyone understand Jarvis; Poly stated yes.  Don Hill stated there should be a Triple T file in there where you can go look at it there should be an invoice in there.  Ralph asked for a motion to accept the treasurers report; Ralph Mock made a motion to accept the treasurers report; Virginia White seconded the motion; a vote was taken and all members were in favor.

Agenda:

Vice Mayor Ralph Sutherland asked if anyone has anything they want to add to the agenda.  No additions were made; I will ask for the approval of the agenda; Stearl Branham made a motion to approve the agenda; Poly Branham seconded the motion; a vote was taken and all members were in favor.

Old Business:

Town Website:

Vice Mayor Ralph Sutherland stated I think it is up and running.  The address is clinchcova.net.  Trevor Counts asked if everyone listened to this, the website. 

Update on the recycle bin:

Vice Mayor Ralph Sutherland stated as an update on the recycle bin, I don’t know anything about it.  Virginia White stated I can tell you he went up there yesterday to see about putting it up there at the fire dept.  Randy Moore stated it is sitting up there at the fire dept, it is sitting there it isn’t ready to be used; it doesn’t have any steps or anything to it.  Ralph stated ok, everyone is updated then.

Volunteers:

Vice Mayor Ralph Sutherland stated going on to the volunteers.  Susan stated the ones that came for spring break I am assuming, but I have no information.  Randy stated they painted the shelter; Trevor Counts stated they painted something or another, Tina….I call her drake all the time but it is Sandra they done something up Sandra’s; Ralph Mock stated they did Sister Bernie’s drive way.  Trevor stated yeah, they did say they done a good job on the center.  I don’t know what else they done, Ralph that is all I know.  Cause it rained and real cold and that was about all they could do.

New Business:

Resolution:

Vice Mayor Ralph stated moving on to new business the resolution; Susan stated that’s the resolution that Jarvis needs you all to vote on.  Mayor Jarvis Deel stated that is what we are trying to do right now, if you all just want to skip over it, if you want to.  I don’t have a resolution to present to you right now.  Randy Moore stated to come back to it.  Ralph Sutherland stated, ok.

Closed Session:

Don Hill asked if the two was related and they needed to go into closed session, Susan stated yeah, we will need to go into closed session, just read that right here.  Randy stated well since they don’t know yet you might as well go to the fire department.  Susan agreed.  Vice Mayor Ralph Sutherland stated that is what I started to say, that way we can let Jarvis sit in.  Susan stated sounds good to me; I don’t know anything about the fire department though.  If you don’t then I don’t either.  Ralph Sutherland stated I don’t either.

Fire Department:

Mayor Jarvis Deel stated on the Fire Department they are in the flood plain up here and actually the fire chief has worked with Morgan Giffith office to get a grant to get them a building built if we can get them some land to build it on.  We ain’t going to be paying for no land we have land here in town through Forest Land and actually they asked for the land on the hill where the old slate dump use to be they would have plenty room to build it up there and it would be out of the flood plain.  That way it would give them room for training and all that too. Virginia White asked if the town owned that up there; Randy and Jarvis both stated no, it’s well actually through the deed we do but you got to go through Forest Land to use it, you have to have a good plan through Forest Land to use it.  It is in our Corporation Limits.  Randy stated yeah, it’s in our corporation limits but we don’t own it.  Ralph Sutherland stated they won’t let you, I tried to get a flea market up there and they said absolutely not they are responsible if anything happens regardless.  Randy stated we tried to put the ball field up there.  Mayor Deel stated we are going to have to try and get them up out of the flood plain somewhere even if it is up here at this lot.  Ralph Sutherland agreed.  The only thing about this lot here is he would have to change the grant from a single building to a two story.  Ralph Sutherland asked if this right here is not considered in the flood zone too.  Mayor Deel stated not enough to knock it out because it stops right there at the post office see.  Poly asked if we here are in the flood zone. 

Advertise for housing members:

Trevor asked Mayor Deel on this uh, we got to make a motion about… on the housing board we need to advertise it in the paper or ever what we have to do to see if we can get some more people we need at least; Susan stated shall have 8; Trevor Counts stated well 8 in all, we need to try to find out about Frankie and……Mayor Deel stated that Frankie called the other day she is supposed to be giving a letter of resignation I recon.  Trevor asked ok, Edna is in Florida what about her; we need to do something another because sometimes we don’t have enough people here and we need a couple more people to join and how about we go about doing that.  Susan stated the Town Council appoints the housing board so you just need to figure out who you’re going to appoint.  Mayor Deel stated yeah, need to figure out who we are going to appoint and if you want to see if anyone is interested we can put it on our website and advertise it in the newspaper.  Trevor stated ok we need to run it in the paper and Mayor Deel added we can run it on our website.  Trevor stated ok.  Trevor stated do we need to come down and talk to Tina, it will be on her and I can come down tomorrow or what do we need to do;  Mayor Deel stated it will be on her, but you can come down and talk to her anyway.  If Virginia will remind me tomorrow we can go down and get those sandwiches.  Virginia stated Tina should have already went and got it.  Trevor stated we need to go ahead and get that going, so what do I do; make a motion; Stearl seconded the motion; Mayor Deel stated he seconded it; all in favor aye; Virginia White stated we already said aye once.  Mayor Deel stated ok then motion passed then, so that means we will run it in the newspaper and run it on our website.

Bridge Dedicated to Veterans:

Mayor Deel came in and stated I need to go over this; it is a list of the Veterans that Dennis Reedy got me for Clinchco that he could find so far.  Don Hill stated with regards to the list Jarvis has those are lists of Veterans of Foreign Wars, Jarvis; Mayor Deel stated yes.  Don asked so it doesn’t include the ones that are not; Mayor Deel stated this is World war I, World war II, & III, Vietnam and all of them.  Don stated ok, I would suggest and you and I have talked about this some and don’t know if we mentioned this in council, I think I did one night.  Rather than doing a monument type of thing let’s do a bridge and dedicate that bridge to these people.  We don’t have too many bridges here but we got one going let we got one going up mill creek I think that would be something a lot of people would want to see.  If you do a monument they will see it but not as much as if you had it on a main road like this.  That is my suggestion and you can take it as you need it.  Poly stated we got a bridge going up #9 we could probably use that one and it would probably be seen more than every other one of them.  Mayor Deel asked if it was the one going towards Tarpon.  Don stated yeah.  Ralph stated that would be a good one and it would be seen.  Poly stated it would get a lot more there than the one going across brick flats you would have to turn in there would be the problem.  Mayor Deel asked Ralph Mock the where he worked for the state did he think they would put all these names on one sign; Ralph Mock stated yeah something like that, yeah.  Mayor Deel stated and I know they will be able to see it with all of these names.  Don stated that Poly made the best suggestion.  Stearl Branham made a motion to have the bridge going up to Tarpon to be dedicated to the Veterans; Trevor Counts seconded the motion; a vote was taken and all members were in favor.

People Incorporated:

Mayor Jarvis Deel stated that Maggie would like to say something to you all.  Maggie Costello stated that most of you have already heard about the map at the meeting we had a while ago.  This is a map of the conclusion of all of our hard work for the housing rehabilitation the CDBG grant application we are going to put through.  So this map is going to show you the three….we are trying to incorporate three things; housing, rehabilitation, and blight removal also infrastructure improvements and economic development opportunities.  This is the area that the management team made up of some of your town council, housing board members and citizens decided on that would encompass those three parts of rehab.  Basically I had a resolution for you guys and it had some really nice wording and I don’t remember exactly what it said but somehow the email didn’t make it to the town hall, but really I think all we need to do is get an approval of the submission of the grant application to DHCD and approving Jarvis as the designated person to do the submission online.  I don’t know how to phrase that, the resolution had it, I wish we had it we had a great example and I rewrote it just like the example had but I think an approval of the grant application submission with Jarvis Deel, Mayor as the appointee.  We need to make it legal that he can be the person to submit the grant.  Stearl Branham made the motion to give Jarvis the authority to sign off on whatever it is he needs to sign off on.  Maggie stated first let me ask if there are any questions; Poly stated he just wanted to know or understand what this was.  Maggie then explains the map to Poly.  Susan stated she would think that he would need to be designated as the person who has power to submit the grant would be the easiest way to do it.  Maggie states the resolution I will email to him tomorrow and he can have I guess the signature he needs on that but the language will be more appropriate on that. At this point it will be to approve the submission of the grant of the CDBG grant application to the Department of Housing and Community Development.  Ralph Mock then describes which one is Clifford Coleman’s house and they have been gone from here a long time and he didn’t know why they should have their house redone.  Maggie states this is what’s happening he was contacted and he said he had to move out of the house because of the condition of the house.  The last two grants did not address his housing situation and so he finally just said that’s it, I can’t leave here its unlivable I am out.  So he is put out and he is renting somewhere in Clintwood.  Trevor asked are you talking about….several council stated Clifford.  Trevor stated listen, his house did have a porch built on and he done a lot of work on his house I am pretty sure.  He did not move out because he had to move out he moved in with his mother because his mother was sick and took care of her and he got the home I think.  So he is living there it is not because he had to move out on count of his house.  Ralph Sutherland stated so this right here should be marked off right there.  Maggie stated well the housing board would have to decide and I think….we haven’t got anything signed by him yet.  Mayor Deel stated no I don’t have a thing signed by him.  Maggie stated I am fine with removing it…..it was part of our original pick.  Mayor Deel stated unless I mean you know it is just another eye sore you know it can be blighted.  Trevor stated that when Ralph Sutherland was in office they had volunteers go up and cut the weeds and he came down here and jumped all over Ralph and told Ralph that was his land.  Don Hill stated I don’t think he ever put an application on the other grant do you remember Ralph; Ralph Sutherland stated he didn’t remember.  Don stated sounds like he fed you a bunch of bull.  Mayor Deel stated no, he fed me a bunch of bull.  Poly asked if there was any way we could make him tear it down.  Mayor Deel stated if he would sign that paper for bight we could.  Maggie stated we can give him one to sign.  Don stated he won’t sign it he will know what is going on.  Maggie asked would it be the pleasure of the council to have that deemed as a possible blight removal only.  Council stated yes, and Maggie said she would change that on the map.  Also we will change Matthew Perrigan we can’t do any rehab on the house unless the owner.  Virginia stated he doesn’t own that does he.  Maggie stated he doesn’t yet but there is talk about…..Virginia stated the church owns that; Maggie agreed and stated right the church would have to agree to it.  That one might be taken off as well but that will be between now and Wednesday when that happens.  Don stated you will need a motion to change the status of that house.  Stearl Branham made the motion; Poly Branham seconded the motion; a vote was taken and all members were in favor.  Maggie stated you will need to make a motion to approve the application; Poly made a motion to update the map with the changes decided on and to appoint Jarvis Deel to submit the grant application; Trevor Counts seconded the motion; a vote was taken and all members were in favor.  Maggie thanked everyone and stated that she hopes they get the grant.  Mayor Deel stated if everyone will stop by tomorrow he will have the resolution and he can get everyone’s signature on it.  Council agreed they would come and sign the paper work.

Public Comments:

Vice Mayor Ralph Sutherland asked if there was any public comments; Don Hill stated that he had one; you know somebody is sitting here up here at this table that has become famous in both Dickenson County and Wise County and you see her picture on billboards and we should recognize our town attorney.  Her being a famous person and she will probably end up starting her own clothing line. 

Council Comments:

Mayor Jarvis Deel stated he had some comments; now this is a list of Dennis Reedy got for me it is a list of veterans of Clinchco that he could find so far.  We were talking about that veteran’s memorial so Dennis Reedy was kind enough to make this up for me.  He would look some more and see what he could find.  We also need to make a vote on paying the back taxes on that property up there that was deeded over to the town it is $308 and something.  The land beside Wayne and Linda Jackson it was deeded to the town in 2012.  Randy stated we bought it, yeah.  Mayor Deel stated we bought it; well there is back taxes on the property that is owed on it.  But once we do this it is tax exempt like the rest of our property.  Don asked how did it end up with taxes on it were the town bought it did nobody do a deed search on it to determine if it had taxes on it; Randy Moore stated he knew it had taxes on it.  It also had a lien on it when we bought it too.  The bank said they….well between me and him just us talking he said he didn’t see them renewing the lien you know when the lien run out he said he believed it would be a pretty safe thing and let the lien run out and which I am sure it has by now.  Don asked if it was a tax lien; Randy Moore stated no, it was a deed of trust lien.  Don asked why didn’t someone determine if it had taxes on it.  Randy Moore stated I knew they were taxes on it but I didn’t think no need in paying it you know they pulled the lien from it I figured it would not have no interest on it because we are tax exempt and when we did have to pay it we would only have to pay what they owed.  We knew that eventually we would have to pay the taxes.  Ralph asked how much it was; Mayor Deel stated it is $308.50 something like that.  Trevor Counts made a motion that we pay those taxes on the property that he is talking about.  Poly asked if they would give us a deed on it.  Mayor Deel stated oh we got the deed.  Ralph Mock seconded the motion; a vote was taken and all members were in favor.  Susan stated ok, we have the resolution and the closed session left; Mayor Deel stated well really she is hunting the resolution right now if she can find it here in the next few minutes, I am not going to hold everybody up; Susan asked if he could go ahead and tell us about the fire department (see above fire department section); Ralph Mock Suggest where the elementary school use to be  and I know it is in a flood zone but that looks it would be a good place to put the Fire Dept.  Poly stated that was in a flood zone wasn’t it.  Ralph Mock stated yeah.  Randy Moore stated how about the back side of the ball field up there; Mayor Deel stated that land would have to be built up out of the flood zone.  Ralph Mock suggested they could take that bank off there and build it up.  Vice Mayor Ralph Sutherland stated they could build that up with not a lot of trouble.  Mayor Deel stated actually that hill goes with that property over there, we have tried to get that land back from the school board for a long time now and they won’t give it up for some reason and actually they have also mentioned for it to be a place for consideration as a location for the school to be back down there other than back bone ridge.  Don Hill stated that is interesting.  Don Hill stated you know people who are in the mine business that have blasted they can drill holes in that mountain there beside of Triple T and absolutely shoot that dirt over there.  You guys have seen it done and I have to.  Then all you would have to do is go in there with a dozer and level it up, it takes 8 feet on the front to get it up out of the flood plain and the back of the school it is out of the flood plain.  Ralph Sutherland agreed.  Stearl stated if they would take that dam out right there it would be out of the flood zone completely.  Mayor Deel stated no, no it wouldn’t that would just bring the flood plain down about 3 foot.  Randy Moore stated water don’t even run down there.  Stearl stated I know, but they don’t live here like we do.  Mayor Deel stated I have put a call in yesterday again to the core of engineers about trying to get the dam removed.  Ralph Sutherland stated I got paper work up there at the house about it.  Mayor Deel stated they want to say VDOT did it.  Stearl stated nope.  Mayor Deel stated I talked to VDOT and they said they didn’t do it.  I am back to the Core of Engineers now and so far I am two days in waiting on his phone call right now.  Ralph Sutherland stated VDOT is the ones that put it in I have got the project number on it up at the house where I got from the state department, those fellers came in here and I went down there with them and we went and looked at it and they were going to get a grant to take it out and they find out all that information and I have the project number and everything.  Mayor Deel stated I need you to get me that cause that will help a lot if I had the project number.  Ralph Sutherland stated I have got several different emails with them and I will try and think to get it or you call and remind me. Poly stated he had one thing to add I want to know Jarvis about the bin they brought up there at Hay’s.  If they aren’t going to use it why don’t you move it.  Jarvis stated I can have it moved again have they ever finished throwing that building in it; no, how long you going to let it sit there I mean it is right there in the way for people that go in and out of there for the church.  Somebody is going to hit it and hurt their car.  You need to ask him if he is going to use it and if not move it.  Jarvis Deel stated he will ask and the reason they put it back up there is because they was going to get that old building for Ms. Duty and put in the can up there.  I had it moved down here and I told him I ought to make you haul it back down here since I had already had it moved once, but he told me if I put it back up there he would get that building pick up and that way they can get rid of it.  Poly stated it has been sitting there for over a week probably two weeks.  Mayor Deel stated I will tell him he needs to get on the ball so they can dump it out and get it back down here or something.  Poly asked Mayor Deel if he ever found out what they fined him.  Mayor Deel stated I really don’t know I believe just court cost, I don’t know you and him talked about it in here I don’t know.  Poly stated he said he would have to pay a big fine.  Mayor Deel stated he said the same to me.

Adjournment

Poly Branham made a motion to adjourn; Stearl Branham seconded the motion; a vote was taken and all members were in favor.