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HomeMy Public PortalAbout1967_02_08 .1 6: MINUTES OF REGULAR MEETING OF LEESBURG TOWN COUNCIL, FEBRUARY 8, 1967. A regular meeting of the Leesburg Town Council was held in the Council Chambers, 12 W. Loudoun Street, Leesburg, Virginia on February 8, 1967. The meeting was called to order by the Mayor , with Councilman' Fishback offering the prayer. Those present were : Mayor Rollins, Councilmen C. A. English Cole, C. Maloy Fishback, Maurice R. Lowenbach, Jr. , Walter F. Murray, Robert A. Orr and John W. Pumphrey; also Town Manager James W. Ritter, Jr. and Town Attorney George M. Martin. The Minutes of the meeting of January 25, 1967 were approved as written. Mr. Henry Shields of Blue Ridge Aircraft Corp. addressed Council regard- ing the letter received by that Corporation today, cancelling their lease at Leesburg Municipal Airport. He said that they were waiting for final approval from the State Corporation Commission and the Federal Aviation Agency and, up to the time this letter was received , they were not aware that they had the approval of both of these agencies. He stated that a letter was received by them in December of 1966 from the Airport Commission, to which was attached a copy of a letter written in August stating that they had received this approval. He said this was the first they knew about this approval. A meeting of the Cor- poration members was held this past Sunday and they made plans to formalize the lease and get started, however, they wished to find out tonight about these ap- provals and what date the lease became effective. He also said that the Cor- poration has spent some $1500 or so in plans, blue prints, etc. He asked that . Council reconsider these points, along with the delay in receiving the letter giving them the approval of the two agencies, and arrive at some fair time as to when this rent payment should start. • Town Manager Ritter said that he imagined the letter he was referring to was the letter written to Blue Ridge on August 16th. He said that he (Mr. Ritter) had written Mr. Hammerly on August 15th, stating that both the FAA and SCC had approved the lease , and that a copy of Mr. Hammerly 's letter to Blue Ridge was dated August 16th. Mr. Ritter said that, under the terms of the lease, after the two governing bodies have approved the lease, it was to become operative on the 1st day of the next month following, and that insurance was to be provided immediately thereafter. The lease was not complied with and, under the Cancel- lation of Lease clause in the lease, he wrote the letter today, giving them fiv.e days ' notice that the lease would be cancelled as of February 13, 1967. Mr. Ritter said he had written Blue Ridge a letter on February 1, outlining the fact that the SCC and the FAA had approved the lease and advised them that their rent in the amount of $800.00 was forthcoming as of September 1, 1966, the date the lease became operative'. Not having heard anything from them since that letter, he then wrote the letter today, cancelling the lease. Mr. Shields said that Blue Ridge is ready to accept the lease and that they are proceeding with financial arrangements for T-hangars, that they have two possibilities but that money is tight. He asked that Council consider the lease to be operative as of January 1, 1967. Upon motion of Mayor Rollins, seconded by Councilman Fishback, Council voted unanimously that the Blue Ridge Aircraft Corp. lease be validated as of the 1st of January, 1967. Town Manager James W. Ritter reported that he had talked with Johnson and Williams today regarding the progress of the plans on the sewer plant. He said that the plans will not be completed until the last part of February and that it seems that every time he calls , it is a little bit longer. Back last June, when we met with the Water Control Board and the Health Department and they gave us permission to build a new plant , we asked Mr. Williams how long it would take to get these plans and he said about 3 months. It is now February and we still do not have them. Mr. Williams says we will have them by the end of February, together with specifications. The plans on the two interceptor lines were submitted to the Health Department in Richmond about a month ago and they have not been checked yet , it will probably only take one or two days to check them, but they are bogged down with work. Mr. Ritter said he talked to Mr. Davis and that they have approved the extension we requested until March 1st. Mr. Ritter also pointed out the fact that we also have to meet the dead- line of July 1 , 1967 by having all work under contract by that time in order to get the $446,000 from the Federal Government for this project. He said that this work could be split up into two separate advertisements, where we could 17 MINUTES OF FEBRUARY 8, 1967 MEETING. have the two interceptor plans approved and Mr. Davis would push them through the Water Control Board by mail ballot and then send them on to Charlottesville, where they have to obtain Federal approval. In this way, we could qualify for the Federal money under this phase of the project. In talking with Gordon Bennett last week, Mr. Martin and Mr. Ritter found that the bond market is lower now than it has been for the past 18 months. It is 3-5/8% average. Normally, you would advertise for bids and then sell the bonds, but. Mr. Bennett recommended that we sell the bonds as quickly as possible, then advertise for bids. Mr. Ritter said he did not know whether this would be wise, that he knew we would have to have about $200,000 more, and that he be- lieved the. main thing was to keep pushing the plans through so that they will be approved by the various State agencies. Mr. Bennett said that there would be $40,000,000 coming through his office for the bond market from various mu- nicipalities in the State. Everybody wants to sell bonds and this may have some influence on the interest rate, this will have some influence on the con- tractors ' bids also. He said that after March we are taking a chance. Mr. Ritter also reported that a "thank you" note had been received from Mrs. Lester Carr and family for the Council 's expression of sympathy at Mr. N Carr 's death. Cq C1/4/ Mayor Rollins said that the next Council meeting night would be changed L from February 22nd to February 23rd at 7 :30 P.M. and asked Mr. Ritter to see that this is published in the paper and Mr. Orrison to announce it on the radio. The Mayor also complimented the Police Department, stating that there were a couple of times recently when the force distinguished itself , one of them concerning the recent VEPCO robberyy - the FBI investigator said he thought we had one of the best forces he knew of. Mayor Rollins said he thought these things were worthy of commendation. Mayor Rollins appointed Councilmen Murray and Pumphrey to work along with Mr. Ritter on Airport matters until September of this year, when the new Council will organize, and he will appoint a committee at that time to have jurisdiction over Airport matters. Councilman Cole asked Mr. Ritter about the water bills, stating that he did not see how a man could go six months without paying anything on his bill. Mr. Ritter reported that they had recently cut off some users for non-payment of bills and, that a good many of them had come in and paid. Mr: Cole said that he didn 't think the receivables should exceed 10% of the metered sales and that they are now up to 20%. He said that if this/allowed to continue, rates will have to be raised. Upon motion of Councilman Pumphrey, seconded by Councilman Cole, the fol- lowing resolution was placed on the , floor for discussion: BE IT RESOLVED by the Town Council of the Town of Leesburg, that the following appropriations be made : (a) 835.00 - Walter L. Phillips, for preparation of plat, N property of Mrs. Edna Mentzer , corner of Wood- berry & Edwards Ferry Road. General Fund - Capital Outlay , Engineering. (b) r 57.90 - Barber & Ross for repairs to windows in Airport Office Building. Airport Fund. Mr. Ritter explained that the windows at the Airport Office Building were broken, possibly because they were not installed properly, although Mr. Lowe . reported that it was possible that the ones on the runway side were broken by blast damage. At any rate, they were adjudgd to be in need of repair. Council then-voted unanimously to adopt the above resolution. Upon motion of Councilman Pumphrey, seconded by Councilman Orr , the fol- lowing resolution was placed on the floor for discussion: BE IT RESOLVED by the Town Council of the Town of Leesburg, that the Town Manager be authorized to collect rent from the two houses on the Dunn property, upon settlement of the purchase of this property, and to see that the two houses are sufficiently covered with fire insurance. 18 MINUTES OF FEBRUARY 8, 1967 MEETING. Mr. Ritter reported on the condition of the property, etc. He said he had inspected the two houses on Monday morning and that , structurally, they are in very good shape, that they look better on the inside than they do on the outside. He reported that the Town will get $310.00 a month in rent from these two properties, there are three apartments in one and the other house is a duplex with two families occupying it. He said he placed insurance on each of the houses in the amount of $15,000.00 and that they are covered under an existing policy from the liability standpoint. He said that the Town will get the water bills on each property. He also reported that Mrs. Weinstein, the former owner , had furnished fuel oil for the two upstairs apartments and that ne has written to her about this. The Town will pay for the lights in the hallway, otherwise , the tenants furnish utilities themselves. Councilman Lowenbach said he thought there should be formal leases drawn up for each ten- ant. Mayor Rollins asked Councilman Orr to take up this matter with: his com- mittee and then transmit to Town Attorney George Martin the amount of rent and the terms of the lease on each property, and then to present it at the next Council meeting. The resolution, as written, was then unanimously adopted. Upon motion of Councilman Pumphrey, seconded by Councilman Orr, the fol- lowing resolution was unanimously adopted, after explanation by Mr. Ritter that he considered this to be one of the best concrete and plant mix jobs in Lees- burg and that he believed the State would accept these streets since they had been plowing snow on them: BE IT RESOLVED by the Town Council of the Town of Leesburg, that the Performance Bond covering physical improvements in Exeter Subdivision, Section 2, be released. Upon motion of Mayor Rollins, seconded by Councilman Fishback, the follow- ing resolution was placed on the floor for discussion : BE IT RESOLVED, by the Council for the Town of Leesburg, Virginia, that the Town Manager be and he is hereby authorized to have in- serted in the Loudoun Times-Mirror , for publication on February • 16 and 23 , 1967, the following: PUBLIC NOTICE• Notice is hereby given that a Public Hearing will be held by the Council for the Town of Leesburg, Virginia, on March 8, 1967 at • 7 :30 P.M. in the Council Chambers, 12 West Loudoun Street , Lees- burg, Virginia to consider proposed amendments to the Leesburg Subdivision Ordinance. Said proposed amendments are to require Erosion and Sediment Con- trol Measures to be provided by subdividers of land. Copies of said proposed amendments may be viewed in the Town Mana- ger 's Office. At this hearing, all persons will be heard as to their views perti- nent to said proposed amendments. • By: Kenneth Rollins, Mayor Town of Leesburg, Virginia Councilman Fishback said that a good example of this problem is the new shopping center presently under construction. Mr. Forbes explained that this measure would provide that, before a preliminary plat is approved, the subdivider will have to sign a statement accepting these measures and his engineer will pre pare' the proper measures, to be approved by the Town Manager before accept- ) ance of the Performance Bond. This resolution was then unanimously adopted. Various aspects regarding the sale of bonds to finance the sewer program were discussed , with no action being taken. There being no further business to come before Council , the meeting was ad- journed at 8 :30 P.M. , with executive session following. Mayor Clerk the Council