At a Regular Meeting of the King George County Board of Supervisors, Held on Tuesday, the 17Th Day of November, 2020 at 6:30 P.M
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County Business VIRGINIA: At a regular meeting of the King George County Board of Supervisors, held on Tuesday, the 17th day of November, 2020 at 6:30 p.m. in the Auditorium of King George High School at 10100 Foxes Way, King George, Virginia: PRESENT: Cathy Binder, Chairman Jeff Bueche, Member Annie Cupka, Vice-Chairman Richard Granger, Member Jeff Stonehill, Member Neiman C. Young, County Administrator Matt Britton, County Attorney *Several comments were submitted via letter and email to the Board of Supervisors concerning the Villages Public Hearing. Because of their volume, these comments are not included in this PDF version. Please contact the County Administrator’s Office to view these comments at 540- 775-9181. 0:00:00 Ms. Binder: Alright, I will call to order this regular meeting of the Board of Supervisors of King George County. Dr. Young, do we have any amendments to the agenda? 0:00:09 Dr. Young: Yes, Madam Chair, I recommend that the board move action items 11-04, 11-05, 11-06, 11-07, and the county Administrative report, which is 11-09 ahead of the public hearings, as noted in 11-03. 0:00:26 Ms. Binder: Thank you. Do I have a motion? 0:00:28 Mr. Granger: So moved. 0:00:30 Ms. Binder: Do I have a second? 0:00:30 Mr. Bueche: Second. 0:00:30 Ms. Binder: Any further discussion? 0:00:31 Ms. Cupka: Yes, Madam Chair. 0:00:32 Ms. Binder: Go ahead, Ms. Cupka. 0:00:33 Ms. Cupka: I note that I have a closed-session script here before me dated today, however, I don't see... Oh wait. Yep, I'm sorry, I just wanted to make sure. My apologies. My mistake. 0:00:47 Ms. Binder: It's all good. So we have a motion properly seconded. Any further discussion? All those in favor say aye. 0:00:53 All: Aye. 0:00:54 Ms. Binder: Any nays? Chair votes aye. Motion carries. The agenda has been amended. Next up is public comment. Comments will be limited to three minutes per person in order to afford everyone an opportunity to speak. If comments relate to a specific public hearing item, so if anybody is here for the three public hearing items, please do not come up at this time, there will be public comment during each of those public hearings. We ask that you offer those comments at the time of that public hearing. So if there is anyone that would like to speak on any other matter that is not in the three public hearing items, please come up at this time to the podium. 0:01:35 Kim Dodge: Kim Dodge, 6150 McCarthy Drive. I have three things, and first I will start off with budget '20-'21. I'm asking not to increase our property tax, don't know if that's in the plans, but some of us... I had to close my small business here in King George, and some of us aren't employed, and a lot of us do not work for the Navy base and we can work at home and we still get a paycheck, or we're not a public school teacher. So there are a lot of people struggling financially, and we can't get jobs to replace what happened to us. So I'm hoping that property taxes are not gonna be increased next year. Can you hear me? The next thing is the solar farm. I did not like the solar farm being put behind my neighborhood in Hopyard off of Port Conway. I supported the farmers behind there. Some of those farms were generational farms, had been in their... That land had been in their family for centuries, and then there was a lot of retiree people that had retired back there because they wanted the country. When you put up a solar farm, it ruins the view back there. Solar farms do not create jobs. Once they're built, you just have somebody come in there and maintain them. They're all computerized. Solar farms, you cannot store the electricity like coal and gas, and you cannot sell it on the grid. Recently in Hopyard, we were asked now to make a decision. I was against the solar farms being put back there, being approved, and now we're being asked, "Are we gonna get our electricity from the solar farm?" My vote is no because they're heavily taxpayer-subsidized. I'm fine with coal plants and gas-fired plants, and they can sell it on the grid and store it. They cannot... Solar farms can't sell this on the grid and store it. And I don't support things that are heavily taxpayer- subsidized. The last one is food trucks. We didn't know we were... It was wrong to have food trucks come with this covid-19. My question is, what can we do so we can have food trucks come to our developments? And we are not taking away from the restaurants here, we only have a few restaurants here, and most of us drive to Fredericksburg, or it's just a change or we would cook at home. And I also wanna know how come Chick-fil-A can come sell food here at the high school at times, and that's alright. And then the school bus has been giving out what they call free food for kids under 18 once a week. My understanding with my neighbors was that's not prepared food, it comes from the public schools. But nothing is free, taxpayers pay for it. But we are delivering food from a school bus in our neighborhood, too. So I'm really concerned about us not being allowed to have food trucks. We were told how to live, where we can worship, how to close everything down. Those were my three things, the increase in property tax next year, the solar farm I'm against, and that was the second solar farm, too, the first one was in the industrial park in King George, and it is behind Hopyard and Port Conway, and allowing food trucks in neighborhoods. 0:04:48 Ms. Binder: Thank you, Ms. Dodge. Would anybody else like to come to the podium? 0:05:00 Anne Maria Lovell: Hi, my name is Anna-Maria Lovell, I live in Presidential Lakes, and a long resident of King George. I wanna thank you for all the jobs you're doing, but most of all, I wanna thank the Sheriff's Department. I know the two previous sheriffs do an outstanding, outstanding job to the people in King George, and for that reason, we should support the police department in King George. And I hear too many times, they say they're gonna defund the police. No, we will never defund this police because these police help us. When I'm walking in my neighborhood, either dog bark at me or I am scared, I'll be able to call 911 and they always been there for me. And then I really thank you to all the police department. Thank you. 0:05:50 Ms. Binder: Thank you. Would anybody else. 0:06:04 Brandy McCusker: Hi, I'm Brandy McCusker, I'm a resident here in King George. I'm here to talk to you guys about a few things. I definitely agree with both of the ladies that just spoke, 100%. Putting solar power here in our county, I didn't see where any of us got a vote on that, which is why I'm here to talk tonight. I think that you guys are making some pretty big decisions without really talking about... Or talking to the people that it really matters to, the people of this county. That is a huge deal because you're definitely moving us in a different direction, and a direction that many of us are not okay with. And then to get to the schools, the schools need to be open, I understand that that meeting was last night, but you guys do hold the purse strings. You guys are still funding programs that our kids are not taking advantage of. Why do we have coaches that are still collecting paychecks? Why are the teachers still collecting their full paychecks? Let me tell you, I don't get to sit at home and do my job and still continue to get paid. I'll be darned if that's okay. That's not okay. And we're telling these children that that's alright, that they don't have a social life, that their immune systems are gonna suffer significantly because they're sitting at home instead of having the normal playtime and access to people to touch. There is nothing wrong with any of us. We are not gonna die from coronavirus. Y'all are absolutely insane if you are walking around scared to death. That is not living. This is America, land of the home and the free, you understand? We are allowed to breathe God's air. We don't have to muzzle ourselves, that is a control tactic. I am not okay with that. I will never tell my child that they have to mask their face. You're making them feel like little germs. You're making me feel like a germ. I'm not a germ, I'm a human being. I have rights, and they have been violated significantly, significantly.