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HomeMy Public PortalAbout2023_tcmin1003COUNCIL MEETING October 3, 2023 Council Chamber, 25 West Market Street, 7:00 p.m. Mayor Kelly Burk presiding. Council Members Present: Todd Cimino -Johnson, Zach Cummings, Kari Nacy, Vice Mayor Neil Steinberg, Patrick Wilt and Mayor Kelly Burk. Council Members Absent: Ara Bagdasarian Staff Present: Town Manager Kaj bender, Town Attorney Christopher Spera, Deputy Town Manager Keith Markel, Assistant Town Manager Kate Trask, Leesburg Chief of Police Thea Pirnat, Director of Community Development James David, Deputy Director of Utilities Brian Stone, Deputy Director of Public Works and Capital Projects Chris Kohr, Sustainability Manager Deb Moran and Clerk of Council Eileen Boeing. AGENDA ITEMS 1. CALL TO ORDER 2. INVOCATION was given by Vice Mayor Steinberg. 3. SALUTE TO THE FLAG was led by Mayor Burk 4. ROLL CALL Council Member Bagdasarian absent. 5. MINUTES a. None. 6. ADOPTING THE MEETING AGENDA MOTION2023-163 On a motion by Vice Mayor Steinberg, seconded by Council Member Nacy, the meeting agenda was moved for approval. The motion was approved by the following vote: Aye: Cimino -Johnson, Cummings, Nacy, Vice Mayor Steinberg, Wilt and Mayor Burk Nay: None Vote: 6-0-1 (Bagdasarian absent) 7. CERTIFICATES OF RECOGNITION a. None. 1 1 Page COUNCIL MEETING October 3, 2023 8. PRESENTATION OF PROCLAMATIONS a. Hispanic Heritage Month MOTION2023-164 On a motion by Council Member Cimino -Johnson, seconded by Council Member Cummings, the fallowing was proposed: I move to approve the Proclamation for Hispanic Heritage Month be presented at the October 3, 2023, Town Council Meeting. The motion was approved by the following vote: Aye: Cimino -Johnson, Cummings, Nacy, Vice Mayor Steinberg, Wilt and Mayor Burk Nay: None Vote: 6-0-1 (Bagdasarian absent) Mr. Oscar Torres accepted the proclamation. Both Mr. Torres and Leesburg Police Chief Thea Pimat made a few remarks. 9. PRESENTATIONS a. None. 10. REGIONAL COMMISSION REPORTS a. None. 11. PETITIONERS The Petitioner's Section opened at 7:06 p.m. There were no speakers wishing to address Council. The Petitioner's Section closed at 7:07 p.m. 12. APPROVAL OF THE CONSENT AGENDA MOTION 2023-165 On a motion by Council Member Cummings, seconded by Council Member Nary, the following consent agenda was proposed: a. Additional Engineering Design Services for Replacement ofthe Chemical Feed Systems at the Kenneth B. Rollins Water Treatment Plant RESOLUTION2023-138 Approving a Change Order in the amount of $74,300 to Stantec Consulting Services, Inc. for Final Engineering Design Services for Replacement of the Chemical Feed Systems at the Kenneth B. Rollins Water Treatment Plant 2IPage COUNCIL MEETING October 3, 2023 b. Town Manager's Employment Contract MOTION Motion to Approve a 5% Pay Increase for the Town Manager Effective October 4, 2023, as Additional Compensation in Accordance with the Town Manager's Contract The Consent Agenda was approved by the following vote: Aye: Cimino -Johnson, Cummings, Nacy, Vice Mayor Steinberg, Wilt and Mayor Burk Nay: None Vote: 6-0-1 (Bagdasarian absent) 13. RESOLUTIONS /ORDINANCES / MOTIONS a. Voting Member for the 2023 Virginia Municipal League (VML) Business Session Mayor Burk was selected as the voting member for the 2023 Virginia Municipal League Business Session and Council Member Cimino -Johnson was selected as the altemate voting member. MOTION2023-166 On a motion by Vice Mayor Steinberg, seconded by Council Member Cummings, the following was proposed: RESOLUTION2023-139 Designating a Voting Member and Alternate for the 2023 Municipal League Business Session The motion was approved by the following vote: Aye: Cimino -Johnson, Cummings, Nary, Vice Mayor Steinberg, Wilt and Mayor Burk Nay: None Vote: 6-0-1 (Bagdasarian absent) 14. PUBLIC HEARINGS a. None. 15. UNFINISHED BUSINESS a. None. 16. NEW BUSINESS a. None. 17. DISCUSSION a. 2023 Sustainability Progress Report Ms. Deb Moran presented Council with the annual Sustainability Progress Report. Ms. Moran reviewed the Town's previous sustainability accomplishments, recent sustainability efforts by the Town, the formation of a staff Sustainability Committee and outlined the Town's next steps moving forward. Short-term goals 3IPage COUNCIL MEETING October 3, 2023 include developing an energy efficiency conservation strategy and installing electric vehicle charging stations. Long-term goals include development and implementation of a Govemment Operations Plan and a Community Plan. Ms. Moran said the next Annual Sustainability Report will be presented to Council in January 2025. Council and staff discussed the report. No additional action is required for this item. b. Community Composting Ms. Deb Moran reviewed the Town's current composting efforts. She shared the Environmental Advisory Commission's (EAC) recommendations for Council to support Food Waste Drop Off Sites and to create a demonstration event to further educate residents on backyard food waste composting. Council and staff discussed composting and the EAC's recommendations. It was the consensus of Council to have staff move forward with the EAC's recommendations and develop a pilot program for food waste drop off sites and an educational program on composting for residents. c. Solar Panels on Public Property Ms. Deb Moran reviewed the benefits of solar power and some of the better options to install solar panels in Town including the Airport. Ms. Moran also reviewed the EAC's recommendation for the Town to pursue large-scale solar projects that don't require an upfront investment from the Town. Council and staff discussed the potential locations for solar panels and the differences between ground -mounted and roof -mounted panels. It was the consensus of Council to have staff continue to investigate more specific larger projects and return to Council with specific recommendations and details. d. Town Recycling Program Update Mr. Chris Kohr reviewed the current recycling contract with Patriot Disposal and fluctuations in the recycling commodities market. Staff recommends continuing to work with the Environmental Advisory Commission (EAC) on educational opportunities on what is recyclable, explore the use of third -party Web -based platforms centered around recycling, initiating another tagging campaign for resident awareness and contamination reduction and request another audit of the Town's recyclable material to gauge if any progress has been made through existing efforts. Council and staff discussed the Town's current recycling program and potential opportunities for improvement. No additional action is required for this item. 41 Page COUNCIL MEETING October 3, 2023 18. COUNCIL DISCLOSURES AND COMMENTS / ADDITIONS TO FUTURE MEETINGS a. Proclamation Re uq ests A proclamation request was received from Mr. Tyler Peak for Domestic Violence Awareness Month to be proclaimed at the October 24, 2023, Council Meeting. It was the consensus of Council to add this proclamation to the October 24, 2023, Council Meeting agenda. c. Future Council Meetings and Agenda Topics Council Member Cummings asked if the Town should reach out to the County to request additional funding for the Purple Bin Program. Mayor Burk noted it was her understanding that the County was redirecting money available for this program to a new second entrance at the County landfill. No further action is required for this item. 18. MAYOR DISCLOSURES AND COMMENTS / ADDITIONS TO FUTURE MEETINGS Mayor Burk congratulated Loudoun Hunger Relief on their recent expansion on Miller Drive. Mayor Burk attended the "Meet the General Assembly Candidates," hosted by the Loudoun County Chamber of Commerce. Mayor Burk thanked Town staff for another excellent Airshow at the Airport. Mayor Burk thanked Dena Bistro for inviting her to participate in their Octoberfest. Mayor Burk congratulated the BURG Family Reunion on their well -attended picnic get-together. Mayor Burk noted the local PTAs from four different schools would be holding a forum at Harper Park Middle School for School Board Candidates from Catoctin and Leesburg. Mayor Burk shared the Coalitions of Loudoun Towns (COLT) would be holding a debate at Ida Lee for candidates running for the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors Chair. Mayor Burk noted some of the Council Members would be attending the Virginia Municipal League (VML) Conference over the upcoming weekend. Mayor Burk thanked everybody for all their hard work and everything they've been able to accomplish. 19. TOWN MANAGER COMMENTS a. None. 20. CLOSED SESSION a. None. 5 [Page COUNCIL MEETING October 3, 2023 21. ADJOURNMENT On a motion by Vice Mayor Steinberg, seconded by Council Member Cummings, the meeting was adjourned at 735 p.m. Kelly Bk Town of Leesburg ATTEST: Clerk of Council 2023_tonin1003 6 1 Page October 3, 2023 — Leesburg Town Council Work Session (Note: This is a transcript prepared by a Town contractor based on the video of the meeting. It may not be entirely accurate. For greater accuracy, we encourage you to review the video of the meeting that is on the Town's Web site — www.leesburava.nov or refer to the approved Council meeting minutes. Council meeting videos are retained for three calendar years after a meeting per Library of Virginia Records Retention guidelines.) Mayor Kelly Burk: I would like to call to order today's October 3'°, 2023 Town Council meeting. If anyone in the room needs hearing assistance, please see the Clerk. Council Member Vice Mayor Steinberg will be giving the invocation. Followed by, I will be giving a pledge of allegiance. Vice Mayor Neil Steinberg: Thank you. Just a moment of silence, please, for a reflection before we get started with Town business. [silence] Thank you. Mayor Burk: Would you all join me in standing? I pledge allegiance - All: -to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Mayor Burk: Let the record reflect that everyone is present tonight with the exception of Mr. Bagdasarian. We don't need a motion because Council Member Nacy is here. There is no minutes to approve. Do I have a motion to adopt the meeting agenda? Vice Mayor Steinberg: So moved. Mayor Burk: Vice Mayor Steinberg. Second? Council Member Kari Nacy: Second. Mayor Burk: Council Member Nacy. Any additions or deletions? All right. All in favor, indicate by saying aye. Members: Aye. Mayor Burk: Nay? That's 6-0-1. Proclamation. We do have a proclamation tonight, and it is Hispanic Heritage Month. I would like to read it into the record at this point. Then Oscar Torres is going to come down on the floor and join us, and I will give this to him at that paint. The proclamation is for Hispanic Heritage Month. Whereas September 151° through October 15'h is National Hispanic Heritage Month, and we celebrate the many ways Hispanic Americans have helped shape our community. Whereas the National Hispanic Heritage Month 2023 observation theme is Latinos: Driving Prosperity, Power, and Progress in America. The theme recognizes the important role the Hispanic community plays in moving the country forward. Whereas National Hispanic Heritage Month was created to showcase and highlight Hispanic contributions throughout our nation. and whereas the Town of Leesburg's growing Hispanic population is strong and vibrant, and a key part of the fabric of its community. Whereas the Hispanic population has had a profound and positive influence through its strong commitment to family, faith, hard work, and service. Whereas we welcome Oscar Torres, a key figure in organizing the Leesburg Police Department Annual Fiesta Latina as accepting this proclamation on behalf of the Hispanic community. Therefore, the Mayor and the Town Council of Leesburg, Virginia, hereby proclaims September 15'^ through August 15th, 2023, as Hispanic Heritage Month, and encourages all residents to join in recognizing and preserving the contributions made by the Hispanic Americans, proclaimed this 3'" date of October 2023. We don't have to have a vote on this. We do. Okay. Do I have a motion to accept this? Council Member Todd Cimino -Johnson: So moved. Page 1lOctober 3, 2023 Mayor Burk: So moved by Council Member Cimino -Johnson. Second? Council Member Cummings: Second. Mayor Burk: Seconded by Council Member Cummings. All in favor? Members: Aye. Mayor Burk: Opposed. That passes 6-0-1. I'm going to go down on the floor, and I would like to ask Mr. Torres to come join me. Thank you. Hello, and thank you. Thank you very much for being here today. Would you mind sharing with us what you do with the Police Department in regard to our festival that we have every year, and how it came about? If you have that information. Because I think you're instrumental in making it happen if I understand correctly. Oscar Torres: Thank you. Thank you everybody. I'm very happy to hear and enjoy this meeting with everybody. First of all, I want to say thank you, the Police Department of Leesburg for let me work with them and introduce the Latino. We always be happy to work with them and be close to them. This event, like the soccer tournament that helps everybody to know them and they know to us. I'm very happy to work with them, and I hope next year, we can make this one bigger. Mayor Burk: Bigger than this one. Oscar Torres: Exactly. Mayor Burk: Bigger than this year too. Oh, that's fabulous. Thank you. Oscar Torres: Thank you. Mayor Burk: Chief, would you like to come up and say a few words? Thea Pirnat: Yes. I appreciate everything that Oscar Torres has done with Leesburg Police Department, with our relationships with the community. He is a very key component of getting us the Fiesta Latina. He brings in all our soccer teams and compete in the tournament, which is what draws our crowd. It gives us an opportunity to have that positive interaction with the community members. We partner with other companies. Loudoun Soccer comes out and offers scholarships, the libraries come out. It's a good opportunity for us to share services available to a community that we don't always have that kind of interaction with. We just thank him for everything that he does for us. We look forward to future events with him as he continues to support us and what we do. Mayor Burk: Thank you. Thank you very much. I've got two proclamations for you, one is in English and one is in Spanish. Thank you very much. Appreciate all that you do. [applause] Can we get a picture? All right. Thank you. All right. We have no presentations and regional commission reports at this point. That brings us to our petitioner section, and one of the first orders of business is to hear from the public. All members of the public are welcome to address the Council on any item matter or issue. Please, identify yourself, and if comfortable doing so, give your address for the taped record. Any public speaker will be requested to state their name and spell it for the purpose of closed captioning. In the interest of fairness, we ask that you observe the three -minute time limit. The green light on the timer will turn yellow when you have one minute remaining. At that time, we would appreciate you summing up and yielding the floor when the bell indicates your time has expired. Under the rules of orders adopted by this Council, the time limit applies to all. There is nobody that has signed up to speak tonight. Is there anybody in the audience that didn't get a chance to sign up that would like to have the opportunity to speak at this point? Seeing nobody, I will close the petitioner section. Put that up there. Our next item is the consent agenda. [clears throat] Excuse me. I'l l read the two items that we have on the consent agenda. It is approval of the consent agenda. 12A is the Additional Engineering Design Services for Replacement Page 2lOctober 3, 2023 of the Chemical Feed System at the Kenneth B Rollins Water Treatment Plant, and B is the Town Manager's Employment Contract. Do I have a motion? Council Member Zech Cummings: So moved. Mayor Burk: Council Member Cummings. Second? Council Member Nacy: Second. Mayor Burk: Council Member Nacy. All in favor indicate by saying aye? Members: Aye. Mayor Burk: Opposed. That passes 6-0-1, with Mr. Bagdasarian not being here. Our next item on the agenda is for Voting Member for the 2023 Virginia Municipal League Business Session. In the past, we have designated the Mayor is generally the designated voting member and we have an alternate that we send up also. Well, there's only two of us going. Is there a motion for me to become the voting member and the alternate would be Council Member Cimino -Johnson? Vice Mayor Steinberg: Madam Mayor, do we need to name who's who in the motion? Mayor Burk: Yes. Vice Mayor Steinberg: Okay. 1 '11 make a motion to appoint Mayor Burk as the voting member and Council Cimino -Johnson as the alternate. Mayor Burk: All right, is there a second? Council Member Cummings: Second. Mayor Burk: Second. Any discussion? You ready to be an alternate? Council Member Cimino -Johnson: Sure Mayor Burk: All right. All in favor indicate by saying aye. Members: Aye. Mayor Burk: Opposed? That passes 6-0-1. We have no public hearing and we have no unfinished business. That will now take us, we are now out of the Town Council meeting and we are on the Town Council work session and we have a couple of items for discussion at this work session. The first one being the 2023 Sustainability Progress Report. Deb Moran: Hi, Mayor Burk: Hello. Deb Moran: Hi, for those of you I haven't had a chance to meet yet. My name is Deb Moran, and I am the Sustainability Manager for the Town. I started in April, and I'm really excited to present to you our first kind of report of what we've seen and what's kind of happened. I'm just going to give you a quick introduction of what to expect when you read the full report. Talks a little bit about some previous Town accomplishments in recent efforts, and then our next steps moving forward. We plan to present an annual report to you once a year so you have an idea of the progress that's going on. We hope to present it every January, but instead of coming back to you in two months, I'll see you next January and have more information for you then. Right now the report is very much what we've accomplished in the first 120 days. Additional reports will include other measures that well be able to capture as well as some community -scale initiatives. This report that were presenting to you today is primarily government -based initiatives, government operations. Just to highlight some of the recent Page 3loctober 3, 2023 accomplishments or longstanding accomplishments. The Town has been a tree city since 1989, that's older than me. We've been really consistent in our efforts there. We've consistently have successful Keep Leesburg Beautiful events, our last one collecting over 1,000 pounds of trash. We've been slowly integrating both internal lights and streetlights to LED, doing great stream restoration work, transitioning some of our vehicles to electric vehicles, and then two newer things that we've accomplished as we became members of ICLEI, which is the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives and we've got Energy Cap, which is a software to help us manage our energy more efficiently. One of the primary things we needed to do when we got started though, was to start a sustainability committee. The folks on that board, I think you're familiar with, all of them are members of the committee and then myself. I didn't include my picture because you can see my face right here, but we met a couple of times to establish a vision and mission for what sustainability meant to the Town. Our vision is to effectively manage Town resources that meet the needs of all of our residents while minimizing the impact on the environment. One thing that we needed to do was be able to measure our impacts and what we were doing. We looked at a couple of different baseline metrics. The baselines that we prioritized were energy and transportation. The reason we prioritized these two was because when we looked at larger -scale audits and other organizations that have been managing sustainability for a long time, we see that energy and transportation have the biggest impact on our environment. We found the year with the most complete data, which was FY21, and created a baseline of our energy use. We use about 21 million kilowatt hours of energy every year, which is a very, very high number, but we offer a lot of services. You'll see in our pie chart that the majority of that energy goes to the water treatment plant and the wastewater treatment facility. Municipal building use is the next largest, and kind of see it go from there. We expect things like water treatment plant and wastewater treatment to have high energy costs because they require a lot of energy to do their work. That's actually not too abnormal to see in an organization, but our municipal buildings could use a little improvement. To understand where we should best apply our different types of reduction efforts, we also looked at average cost per kilowatt hour based on those sectors. You'll see that's the second chart next to it. That shows us basically if we took the bill and included peak charges, energy inefficiencies, meter numbers, what the actual cost per kilowatt hour was, and we see places like parks and the Airport having big opportunities for us to put reductions in place that might have a bigger cost savings impact. We'll look at those as high -priority areas moving forward. The next area we baselined was our fleet. We have 484 fleet assets and Chris is here, so he can speak more about what exactly is encompassed in the 484, but that's anything that's deemed large enough, so ride -on lawnmowers, trucks, SUVs, all sorts of things are included in there. We use about 136,000 gallons of fuel each year, which is pretty average for an organization that hasn't really done a lot of electrification. When we look at this we get excited about all the opportunities that we could have to be leaders in this type of effort. We wanted to combine those things to help it make more sense of where we should prioritize our efforts. We took our transportation baseline information and our energy baseline information, and we created an emissions inventory. This is making those two separate things become apples and oranges, making them both apples and apples, so we can compare them more effectively. Here we see again that our building and facilities take up a really big significant chunk of our opportunity for reduction with probably a less cost for implementation. Some of our next steps were going to be looking at short-term goals, which include developing an energy efficiency conservation strategy. We're really excited to do this because if we are able to achieve it, we're eligible for Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant funding through the Inflation Reduction Act. We've been pre - approved for our funding for that. We're also for confirming a place for our EV charging station, so they'll be coming relatively soon once we get everybody on the same page for where they go. Page 4lOctober 3, 2023 Then longer term, were looking at developing a government -wide plan for reduction, and then hopefully a community -wide plan for reduction. With that, I know I talked very fast, but 1' 11 open it for questions. Mayor Burk: Does anybody have any questions at this point? Vice Mayor? Vice Mayor Steinberg: Just one. The per kilowatt hour for the parks department is by far considerably higher than any of the other departments. Why is that? Deb Moran: We looked into it, its because they have a lot of individual meters. There's a meter for the sign out front, there's a meter for every pavilion, and so those would be opportunities to try to look at maybe small-scale solar installations that wouldn't require us to have a meter to be there. Backtracking, every meter that we have is a $6.59 a month fee to have just the meter there, so that's what drives up those costs. Vice Mayor Steinberg: There you go. Okay. Thank you. Mayor Burk: I was wondering, the percentage of total energy used by the sector, you do include 3% at the Airport. Are you including the planes and how much energy they use? Deb Moran: No, this is just the buildings. Mayor Burk: Just the building itself. At some point will that go into some consideration? Deb Moran: Yes. Capturing that, we can certainly look at ways to try to pull fuel use from planes. I'm not sure about the standards were pulling it, but I can look into it to see [inaudible]. Mayor Burk: I know there's some concern about the smaller planes using leaded gas. Is that something that well be looking at? I don't know what the possibilities are on all of that. Deb Moran: We can certainly look at figuring that out in the future. I know that we don't provide fuel for them, so I'd have to figure out where that's coming from and what metrics I can get in that way, but I can certainly look into it. Mayor Burk: I'm sure we can tell you. My last question on this is that I know that there was a company that came in that wanted to put chargers at the Airport and they were looking for locations. Do you know if they have found the locations? Are they ready to put those in? Deb Moran: I haven't been told about a company coming, but we are looking at charging stations right now for the Town garage, the Airport, Parks, and Ida Lee and there's one more location that I'm not-- The police station? Yes. Mayor Burk: These are for airplanes, electric airplanes. Deb Moran: Oh, no. For airplanes? What? No, I haven't been told about the airplane charging stations. Mayor Burk: I'm sure that someone can tell me that at some other point, not too far from now. Deb Moran: Airplane chargers? That's crazy. Mayor Burk: Yes. Anyway, thank you. I appreciate that. Vice Mayor Steinberg: Mayor Burk. Mayor Burk: Yes. Page 5loctober 3, 2023 Vice Mayor Steinberg: I was going to say [unintelligible]. It is a company called Beta and they are in a conversation with the Airport. I think they're fairly close to a decision on the location of the charger. Chris Spera: That's correct, Mr. Vice Mayor. The Town Attorneys Office is reviewing the proposed lease. We're working with the FAA on updating the Airport Plan, make sure they approve our location. That is underway. You are correct. Mayor Burk: All right. Thank you. That then takes us to, you have a busy night Deb Moran: Another one by me. Keep talking at you. Mayor Burk: Community composting. Deb Moran: You'll be tired of my voice in a couple of minutes. Don't worry. The next topic for tonight is community composting. This is one of my favorite. I started my career in sustainability talking trash. Anything that is trashy is something I love. Just going over quickly what composting is. Composting is the diversion of organic material generally thought of to be as food scraps or yard waste into a pile where microbes break it down and it creates an organic matter that is really, really healthy soil, and that soil is so healthy that it pulls emissions from the air, reduces erosion, and provides for generally better crops. We have some existing composting services in the Town, but these are all mostly related to yard waste. Every week between April and November, we collect or our contractor collects yard waste from homes. Last year that was 782 tons of material. Then our great Public Work staff also collects leaves and brush at about 1,000 tons a year. Those are all taken to be mulched or composted at local wineries or at the yard waste facility. Our next big opportunity for composting is for food waste. In 2022, the Town disposed of about 17,500 tons of municipal solid waste. That's everything. Based on EPA estimates, we think that about 3,800 tons of that is food waste. Then if we calculate that into cost, that means it costs us about $203,000 to throw that food away, which is equal to about 3,000 tons of carbon emissions or taking almost 9,000 cars off the road. Internal combustion engine cars, I should have wrote specifically on that slide. There are three main ways to do composting. The first and by far the most encouraged best practice is backyard composting. There's low to no cost to start a backyard composting program and it can be customized to any resident. It's really important to get community buy -in and people get really engaged in the process. It's really successful when people want to take part in it and they feel the ramifications of doing it wrong, so they make sure that they do it right. Cons of doing a backyard composting program are you have to have space requirements. If you do it wrong, there could be rodent issues and there's limited types of organic material that you can put in your backyard composting bin. In my backyard composting bin I can put in vegetable scraps and uncooked food waste, but if I want to put in cooked food waste, it would probably take a long time to break down and the squirrels would have a field day. The next best option or another option is to have a food waste drop-off site. These are growing in popularity around the region. These are four different sites, two in Maryland and two in Virginia. The idea of these sites is that it gives people the opportunity to separate their food waste, bring it to a centralized location, and then a vendor comes and collects it and composts all the material, and then gives that material back to the end users. These are very successful. They only get people who want to be involved in food waste getting involved in it. It limits contamination very significantly. These sites on average cost about $5,000 to build, and then are maintained for less than $1,000 a month depending on the size of the program. Then the last option would be to do a curbside collection program, which would be similar to the way that we collect trash and recycling. The pros for this program is it's really easy to give to everyone. We would have a vendor come out and do it and they could take it from there, and you could collect all types of organic material. It's not just going to be uncooked food scraps, it could be cooked food scraps, meats, bones, everything like that could go in that bin and it's very easy and clear to Page 6lOctober 3, 2023 understand. Unlike recycling where some plastics are accepted and some plastics aren't, either it's organic or it's not. That seems to be easier for people to get on. Cons to a program like this is it costs a lot of money, and we're not guaranteed any participation. We probably couldn't offset the cost of doing a program like this with our savings. Then multifamily properties probably wouldn't have access to a program like this as well. The EAC met on July 20111 and recommended two things. They wanted to support a food waste drop-off program and then create a demonstration site or a host site where they could teach people how to do backyard food waste composting. They were considering a program very similar to their rain barrel installation program for doing a program like that. Then staff recommends creating an educational campaign that would include different information, online resources for how to guides for food waste in residential backyard spaces, and then also to look at opportunities for food waste drop off, where might it make sense to do it, and where would not be a nuisance to do R. Again, I did it in five minutes. You could tell I was practicing. Mayor Burk: You're good. Keep it up. Deb Moran: Questions. Mayor Burk: Does anybody have any questions on this? Council Member Cimino -Johnson. Council Member Cimino -Johnson: Yes. Thank you for your presentations. My question is for the drop-off locations, how do you manage people throwing just regular trash in those cans and what happens if they do? Does it soil the whole thing, or can they pull it out and separate it and still save whatever's in there? Deb Moran: Yes. I talked to those four different municipalities who currently have those programs in place, and they said 95% of the time they don't have an issue with contamination. Then I reached out to their vendors to get an idea. Generally, it's those small-scale totters that you would have at your house where you put your trash or recycling in is what they have out there. They're able to pick trash out, and then as material gets composted, they can sift it and get out any other trash that's in there. Council Member Cimino -Johnson: Have you identified any areas in Town we would set up something like this if this is the recommendation? Deb Moran: We actually have one business in Town that has a food waste drop-off container. It's Neighbors Market. They're not getting a ton of use out of it now, but they don't broadly advertise. I think it's because they're paying for it with their own funds. That area being surrounded by residents, but having a space that's also business -oriented is going to be ideal. We don't want people driving out of their way to go and drop it off. We'd have to look a little bit more deeply if we want to go down the food waste route where our residents are and where they wouldn't be going out of their way to dispose of material. Council Member Cimino -Johnson: Right. Thank you. Mayor Burk: Council Member Cummings. Council Member Zach Cummings: Yes, thank you. Have you identified any funding opportunities to help with a drop-off program as discussed? Deb Moran: The funding opportunity that's available right now is through the EPA and it's a minimum of $250,000. I don't think that we would be up to that value with a smaller -scale program, but we are continually looking for different programs with Virginia Clean Cities to see if there's something there. Council Member Cummings: Perfect. Yes. One thing I'll say, I had a conversation with the President of the Farm Bureau recently about if there's a need for the nutrient -rich composted material. She said that the farmers in Western Loudoun would be happy to take as much of this product as we could give them. I definitely would support pushing to start even a pilot program to see how it works for a year or two and go from there. Page 7lOctober 3, 2023 Deb Moran: Yes. Council Member Cummings: Thank you. Mayor Burk: Vice Mayor. Vice Mayor Steinberg: Oh, thanks. If you're doing, there we go. If you're doing backyard composting, what is the option for homeowners for either raw or cooked animal -based products? Deb Moran: Animal -based products are probably not going to be the greatest idea for your backyard composting bin. That's just because it requires a lot of heat to break it down. Backyard composting can be, like I say, I'm a lazy composter, so it's a cold pile, and it doesn't take a long time. It takes a really, really long time for things to break down. Vice Mayor Steinberg: What's the recommendation then for the homeowners? How should they handle those? Are they simply going to go in the trash or lacking [crosstalk] Deb Moran: Yes. Lacking another alternative food -based material would be trash. Vice Mayor Steinberg: You learn something new. I wasn't aware that cooked plant -based food products don't break down as quickly. Is that what you said? Deb Moran: It depends on the particular product. If its a piece of spinach that's been sauteed, but then covered in tons of butter and delicious sauces and things, that changes so quickly, it will be broken down, versus also the odor control aspect If you're putting in a piece of raw spinach, it's not really going to attract too many creatures that you can't cover up the smelt If you have sauteed, and garlic and really flavorful smells, it will more likely attract rodents, which will detract from your compost pile_ ViceMayor Steinberg: When we're looking for cost savings, I'm looking at this figure of the number of tons, although, I'm not sure this applies to just leaves. I don't know if we've broken it down. Obviously, the leaf recycling program, do we simply pick all that up and deliver it to the county landfill, and then it gets mulched up there in that big mulch pile? Is that what happened? Deb Moran: For that first section on the slide, yes, that's the case. The curbside collection. The other collection is our looseleaf, which Chris and Renee's team take care of, and they take it to local wineries to be mulched. Vice Mayor Steinberg: I'm sorry. They take it to? Deb Moran: We mulch it, and it goes to local wineries and other local farms to be managed there. Vice Mayor Steinberg: Okay. When we speak of an educational process, and I recognize this becomes more difficult in HOAs where they have entirely different attitudes, but homeowners can of course take it upon themselves. They could actually mulch the leaves and grass clippings in place and just leave it as opposed to dragging it out to the curb and having it-- Do we have some idea of what that portion of our program costs us yet in terms of leaf pickup and all that? Deb Moran: I don't know what the leaf program costs, but I can work with Renee to get you some numbers for what that might be. The numbers that I referenced in this slide about the tons and the trashed amount, that's all just food waste related. All of the yard waste numbers are things that have been baked into our contract over time, like the collection of those. 1'11 have to ask Renee to pull those out, and then 1'11 have to connect with them on how much it costs for them. Vice Mayor Steinberg: Then looking for potential effect, were we to through education try to convince homeowners to keep their leaves in place, are there other-- You mentioned vineyards, for example, would they then suffer for a lack of compostable materials? Page BOctober 3, 2023 Deb Moran: I don't know that they would suffer, but I also don't know that we could effectively get all of our residents to mulch their leaves in place. Vice Mayor Steinberg: Agree. Yes. Deb Moran: There's a lot that falls onto roadways, and so we have to consider slips and slick roads and protecting the stormwater inlets. There would be a desire for us to continue doing that program for those other benefits, and I don't think that the vineyards are depending on it. Vice Mayor Steinberg: Okay. All right Thank you. Mayor Burk: Well, I was just out of my nieces birthday and the winery where we are thanked me for the composting material. They were very delighted for it. Deb Moran: That's cute. Mayor Burk: My husband and I did have a composting spot in our backyard and its not easy. It takes work. It takes a constant work, constant turning them over, and all that kind of stuff. The thought that we could possibly have it at a pilot program or we could try and see if we could get people to bring it and take care of it that way, I think that would be very desirable for us. These recommendations, do you want us to take any actions on these tonight? Do you want to find out if we would like to have this? Deb Moran: Yes. Mostly looking for guidance in what opportunities we should be exploring further because compost is a broad topic that I brought to you guys, so I'm just looking for some guidance on where to dig deeper. Mayor Burk: Well, I think that Mr. Cummings said that creating the educational campaign, that most certainly is useful, and it would enlighten a number of people. Then having the drop off site, maybe a pilot program to see how if we can make that work. Is there anybody that would like to make that motion that we accept the recommendations from the EAC? Chris Spero: We are in a work session. Mayor Burk: Oh, that's right. Darn it. Okay. Darn. I was trying to get us ahead. Okay. Do we have four people that would be interested in the recommendations from the EAC? Deb Moran: You got it. Mayor Burk: Okay. All right. There's four of us. Thank you on that. We can move forward, and 111 try to get not voting at the next meeting. Deb Moran: All right. Last time you'll have to hear me blather on. All right. Finally, were going to be talking solar panels on Town properties. Like 1 gave with composting, 1'11 just give a quick overview of how solar works. When we talk about solar, were talking about solar PV, which is photovoltaic panels. Basically, the sunlight hits the roof of a solar or hits solar wherever it's at and generates DC current power. It goes to an inverter installed near the solar panel, which converts the DC power into AC power, which is the type of electricity that supplies our homes. It will use up as much electricity in your house as possible, and then if it has extra, it will shoot it out to the grid. Unless you have a battery, then it'll shoot it into a battery, and then when you need energy, it will still pull from the grid. That's the type of solar that we are talking about. We looked at a lot of different locations for solar potential in the Town. These are all the ones that we gave a lot of investigation into. The Shop, Water Treatment Facility, utilities, Maintenance, Wastewater Treatment, Ida Lee, Town Hall, Garage, and the Airport. All of these potential locations have pros and cons and more investigation and things that are needed to really understand who would be willing to put solar there and how much we want to invest and what our costs would be. There are three main ways to procure solar. Page 91October 3, 2023 The first, and by far, often most popular is the power purchase agreement. The way a power purchase agreement works is basically we would lease property that we own to a solar contractor, and we would give it to them and say, "Build your solar panels." In response, we would sign a contract with them generally 30 years, that would lock us into purchasing that energy back. That's how they make their money, is on the purchase back of that solar. A lot of people get a little concerned about a 30 -year commitment for solar and their escalating fees, but it's a no -cost way to start solar in a program. Another option is energy performance service contracts or EPCs. The way that EPCs is a contractor comes in, looks at the property, make some recommendations, and provides us with detailed analysis of what they would want to do and their estimated payback period. The Town would pay upfront for that cost, but the cost savings for the project come from the savings that are guaranteed by the EPCs contract. If these guaranteed savings aren't reached, the contractor becomes liable and covers those costs. Then the third option is the easiest one to explain, it's just buying them and putting them up. To talk about some of the solar potential we have out there, I came up with a couple of different examples. We looked at the Airport a lot because there is a ton of potential over there. We looked at roof - mounted solar just on the buildings. You can see on the map, it's not maybe the largest, but we did a heat map with NVRC to figure out which roofs had the highest potential for solar. The darker red areas are where there's significant solar. Based on those one, two, three, four, five buildings at the Airport, we estimate that we could get 663,000 kilowatt hours of energy out, which is almost exactly what the Airport uses. Could he a kind of null program, they would pay for all their energy. The one thing to know is that the Airport is in NOVEC service territory, so any extra energy we were to produce we would not get any credit for since they don't offer a net metering option. The other opportunity at the Airport is to do a ground -mounted solar field, which were looking at a 5, 6 megawatt -sized system, so huge system, very similar to the one over at Dulles, but a lot of things come into play here, future development plans, glare analysis, what's the FAA going to say? If we wanted to look at something like that, that would be something that would be ideal for our power purchase agreement because 5 -megawatt systems are huge and have a lot of management involved and getting closer to inverters and things of that nature. There's two really great different potential options in this area. We also looked at Town Hall, I know this has been a really popular point of discussion. We looked at roof mounted and ground mounted like we did for the last one. 1' 11 just say there's too much shading here, so ground mount, its not worth it. We're not going to put anything on the ground in the middle of the city for solar, but the roof does have some potential. We looked at the parking garage in particular, and we saw 173,000 kilowatt hours annually, which is about a quarter of what Town Hall uses. Now, again, like everything, this has its own considerations. Our Public Works team has reached out to a vendor to determine if the area is structurally sound enough to support solar and in what configurations and in what ways, and to figure out what that is going to look like on the back end. They got a quote from that vendor to see how much it would be to really understand from an engineering point if solar could be there. It looks to us like it would be a good opportunity, but again, we just have to make sure it can support it. The EAC met again on the 20'^ and provided a whole bunch of recommendations. They recommended that we prioritize large-scale solar projects that don't require upfront investment and that Town staff recommend continuing to investigate opportunities for solar on large-scale opportunities and bring more very particular projects to you for further discussion. That's the last I ramble for a while. Mayor Burk: Okay. Thank you. Does anyone have any questions on this? Mr. Cummings? Council Member Cummings: No questions, just a quick comment. Thank you for putting this together. The one area where I would say my personal opinion, I would like to see us focus more on roof -mounted or building -mounted rather than ground -mounted, especially at the Airport. I don't think its the best use of green space, whether it's at an airport or somewhere else to put the solar panels. We have plenty of concrete that absorbs heat and contributes to CO2. I would like any future efforts to really focus on that roof -mounted rather than ground -mounted. Thank you_ Page10loctober 3, 2023 Mayor Burk: Council Member Cimino -Johnson. Council Member Cimino -Johnson: Thank you for your presentation. My one question is, any idea on cost at the Airport because you said it offset what we use there, with the space, but any idea what that system would cost if we directly buy it? Deb Moran: I did not get direct buy numbers for it, no, but I can certainly look at people to do that. When we engaged people on confirming the solar potential, they were mostly people who were looking to operate PPAs if you will. 111 have to get some numbers on a direct buy. Council Member Cimino -Johnson: Okay. Thank you. Mayor Burk: Anything else at this point? We have a recommendation to continue investigating opportunities for placing solar on public buildings and to prioritize large-scale opportunities for energy reduction savings in advance of a future Council work session. I'm not sure what that means. Deb Moran: Basically we want to come back to you with more specific larger projects that we've worked through all the details of and have a better understanding of scope and cost and what our payback periods would be because we're presenting generalized solar to you today. Mayor Burk: Okay. Does anybody have an issue of if they go back and investigate more opportunities? Anybody? Everybody okay with that? Then Council Member Cummings asked that it be focused on rooftops as opposed to-- Are there four people that would agree with Mr. Cummings that we shouldn't be looking at tearing down trees to put up solar things and that we can use rooftops much more? Vice Mayor Steinberg: I'm not necessarily adverse to the idea, but without all the information I don't know that I would say that we should completely eliminate it as an option if we found the right site for it. That's the only way I would want to look at it. Deb Moran: The site at the Airport, I'm not saying its a perfect location, but the area is not something that we can put anything else on right now. It's not trees, it's green space, but it's still green space, so point taken. There's not a ton of space for us to put ground -mounted solar anyways. Mayor Burk: All right. Well, thank you very much. We appreciate all the information. I think there's some opportunities here to start making some environmental impacts and we would really like to see that move forward. Thank you. We have the last one is Town Recycling Program. Chris Kohr: Good evening. My name's Christopher Kohr, I'm in Public Works. Part of me feels like Deb should be given this presentation, she's the expert on sustainability, but I'll do the best that I can to answer any questions you have afterwards. Discussion topics, we'll go over the status of our current contract. We'll discuss staff recommendations, including continued work with EAC, a possible tagging campaign with our contractor Patriot Disposal, and also Waste Management offered to do an audit for us semi-annually, so we can get some data on what is actually being recycled by Town residents, and then we'll go into next steps. Our current program, it's a seven-year contract. We're in the sixth year currently. Trash and recycling, just as a review, is collected once a week for residential and downtown, business areas are collected six days a week for trash, and Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday for recycling. Our Fiscal Year 24 contract for trash and recycling both is $3,866,042. Within that price is recycling services, which amounts to $909,565. The solid waste tip fee went up slightly by about $3 to $55 a ton. The recycling tip fee at our MRF location is increased by $5 per ton this year. Rate of 5115 per ton. We talked to Waste Management this week just to get an idea of what those increases were related to. Some of it's just market conditions, but there's also a slight drop in commodity market prices. Plastics has a pretty big drop of 75% and cardboard is 30% per Waste Management. Staff recommendations. We're going to recommend working continually with the EAC, including contamination reduction. They're in favor of Recycling Right campaign to just clean up that recycling stream so that what does go to that collection facility is a little bit more recycling and less refuse, and an outreach campaign, Page 11 lOctober 3, 2023 which would include social media, public education, and the like. We also talked about ReCollect, Recycle Coach. These are Web sites that are for the public to go to learn more about what should and should not be recycled. We're going to recommend using Patriot to do a tagging effort. We've done this in 21 when the contamination rate was over 20%. After the tagging campaign that dropped to about 10%. Right now, as we'll see in a minute, the contamination rate for an audit that was done in July was around 13%, so it's creeping up a little bit. We think that the tagging might be warranted at this point, and then again, use waste management to do audits so that we have the data coming in so we can make those decisions. This is the results of that audit that was done in July. As you can see at the bottom, 13% would be considered residue, which is items that are not specifically separated as recyclable material. There was a really cool-- oh, there it is. Thank you, Deb, for creating this. This is basically a pie chart of the previous chart. If you wanted to get a little bit more detail out of that. Current recycling dos and don'ts, just as an update not much has changed. Aluminum cans, sorry, steel, and tin, paper, and cardboard are the hottest commodities for the recyclers. They also accept all plastics but prefer one and two, and obviously glass, which the recycling that's done or what's done with the glass at this paint once it leaves the MRF station is it's taken to King George County Landfill and it's used as cover for their landfill. What's not acceptable, and these are things that either damage their equipment or are not recyclable or have a commodity value, hoses, chains, and batteries, plastic bags/films, solid food containers, Styrofoam, textiles, beddings, and pillows. Some of the challenges that we're seeing is reducing the amount of contamination in our recycling stream. Vvhat to do with glass? That's been a hot topic lately, and the EAC is working on a letter that will be presented to you all with some recommendations here shortly. I think you're voting on the next meeting. Paul Schaefer is in the audience with us. There was discussion about the landfill having a bulk location where you could build up a large volume of glass that would entice the true recyclers to come to Leesburg and it would offset the cost of having to haul it, but that's been delayed. I've been told as of yesterday that there is a second entrance to the landfill that pushed this out, so that is no longer on their radar for the near term. Then again, how effective can we make the educational campaign and educate the public on what should be part of that recycling stream? Renee talked about in January a map, which I included here, of the locations, including the one at the landfill that I know, Mayor, you take your glass to. There are six locations within Loudoun County, and from what I understand, the Board of Supervisors has made a recommendation for additional purple cans, but Leesburg is not one of them. We would recommend that we continue to work with them to try to locate one of the purple cans closer to our jurisdiction. Then Vice Mayor Steinberg, during the last time, you had asked about what actually gets recycled of the material that's brought. The information I was able to pull together was from the EPA website and the sources at the bottom if you can't explore. They actually have a lot of really good information on there. About 25% of the glass that's wasted gets actually recycled. Some of it is burned up in combustion with energy recovery and the balance is landfilled. Plastics is a little bit less at 9%. I just thought that would be informational and interesting for you. If you have any questions, 1'11 be happy to answer them. Mayor Burk: Thank you. Does anyone have any questions on this? Council Member Cimino- Johnsan? Council Member Cimino -Johnson: Yes. Thank you for your presentation. The one question I have is about plastics. You said they take all plastics? Chris Kohr: Yes. Council Member Cimino -Johnson: Even fives? Page 12IOctoher 3, 2023 Chris Kohr: They will take them, and it's the same answer that we gave in January. Basically, anything that does not have a commodity value ends up getting wasted, taken to the landfill. Right now, what I was told from Waste Management this past week is ones and twos are pretty much the only thing that have a value in the commodities market right now. Council Member Cimino -Johnson: Okay. Could that change very quickly, do you know? Chris Kohr: It can, yes, it does fluctuate over time. I think fives were included in that list in January, and right now at least are no longer part of that list. Deb Moran: Okay. Thank you. Chris Kohr: You're welcome. Mayor Burk: Vice Mayor? Vice Mayor Steinberg: Referencing glass, since everything is single stream, when the glass breaks and then becomes embedded in all kinds of things that are in the stream, does that mean that that entire stream is contaminated? Meaning cardboard, for example, is no longer acceptable as far as a recyclable material, and then it winds up either getting burned or going to the landfill? Is that the case? Chris Kohr: For example, if they palletize a lot of cardboard for commodities market for sale, if the buyer takes open that pallet and finds a bunch of embedded glass in that cardboard, they will consider that a contaminated load and they will actually reduce the price that they pay the MRF far that material. Vice Mayor Steinberg: Really then, at some point, we have to figure out how to deal with glass in a separate fashion as opposed to the single stream, which I think is going to be the case for a lot of these things. This 9% figure on plastics, are you saying that, in general, roughly 9% of the plastics in the end wind up in some form or fashion recycled? Chris Kohr: That's direct from the EPA website. That's nationwide, that's not just for Virginia. Vice Mayor Steinberg: When we talk about ones and twos, actually not all ones and twos are created equal, I understand. Its really the beverage bottles and laundry detergent bottles, things like that, because there are some container plastics that are marked one. Is that right? Chris Kohr: The pigmented containers have less value, but they still have some. The natural color or the lack of coloring is better. Vice Mayor Steinberg: Long term then, what are we hoping for here? I understand the idea of not scrapping, no pun intended, the recycling program altogether, but we also are painfully aware that a lot of it is not being recycled. Is our expectation that we're hoping for some magician to come up with a material that is not plastic for packaging at some point in time or are we at some point going to be faced with making hard choices on how we actually deal with this? That's what we're relying on the EAC for and you and so on. Is that basically what we're facing in the next couple of years? Chris Kohr: That's a good question that I will have to talk with the EAC to give you a clear answer on. I'm not an expert in this. Vice Mayor Steinberg: All right. Thank you. Chris Kohr: Yes, sir. Mayor Burk: At the Flower and Garden Show, I handed out those magnets that the EAC had put together on what not to recycle. I can't tell you how many people would take it and look at it and think, oh, I'm not supposed to recycle this. I didn't know that. Then they'd come back and ask about it and stuff. There's a lot that people don't realize is not supposed to be recycled. The more information we Page 13loctober 3, 2023 can get out about that, the better it would be for all of us. I just realized that I did not read that the Town has experienced an audio-visual issue that is preventing video from being displayed on the cable TV channels and Web sites. If you haven't seen us, it's not your TV, its our equipment here in Town. I apologize for not reading that out right away. Thank you very much. Is there anything at this point that we need to move on or is this continuing information? Chris Kohr: I think this is continuing information. Yes, ma'am. Mayor Burk: All right. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. That takes us to a proclamation request, I have one. It is from Tyler Peak, Laws Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Services. It is a proclamation for Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Do I —? Eileen Boeing: Just a consensus. Mayor Burk: Just a? Eileen Boeing: Four head nods. Mayor Burk: Okay. Are there four head nods that would like to bring this forward to the next meeting? I think that's just about everybody. Proclamation request. Council Member Cimino -Johnson. Council Member Cimino -Johnson: None. Mayor Burk: Not proclamations. Excuse me. Future Council meetings and agenda? Council Member Cimino -Johnson: I don't have anything. Mayor Burk: Mr. Cummings? Council Member Cummings: Just one quick question. Not to beat a dead horse, but as we're heading into budget time here and at the County level. Is there anything else we can do to try to entice, beg, ask the County on these purple cans for glass to try to work with them or are we just talking at a wall? Mayor Burk: I think you're talking at a wall because they've moved their money to move it aver to get the new entrance. It is my understanding when I talk to them that they're building a new entrance to the landfill. Am I correct on that? Anybody? That's where they're putting their money at this point, is what I was told. Council Member Cummings: All of it. Mayor Burk: Every single dime. Council Member Cummings: $4 billion worth of money? Mayor Burk: Every penny into that entrance. Council Member Cummings: All right. I' ll be quiet now. No, I have nothing else. Mayor Burk: All right. Mr. Wilt. Council Member Patrick Wilt: Nothing. Mayor Burk: Ms. Nacy? Council Member Nacy: I don't have anything. Mayor Burk: Vice Mayor. Page 14lOctober 3, 2023 Vice Mayor Steinberg: Nothing for future meetings. Just congratulations to the Town on another spectacular Air Show this past weekend. I'm sure you'll speak more on that and no disclosures. Mayor Burk: All right. I would like to congratulate the Loudoun Hunger Relief expansion. It is truly amazing to see what they have done. This is a service for people that really need help. It relies on dignity and understanding, and it is just an amazing expansion of what they've done. If you haven't had the opportunity to go over and see it, its on Miller Drive. There's lots of people that rely on it. It is a wonderful service that we have here in the County. On the 291h, I had the opportunity to participate in the Chamber, "Meet the General Assembly Candidates." I have to admit, I was skeptical at first because you had six minutes. But in those six minutes, you really did get to know the candidates, how prepared they were and what their issues were, so it was really very worthwhile. On the 301h, I did attend the Air Show that was, again, congratulations to our Town staff. It's amazing what they do and how they make it look so easy. They put so much work and effort into making these different events perfect. This was another Air Show that was just fabulous, and I was very impressed by all of it. I also want to thank the Diner Bistro for inviting me to participate in their Octoberfesl. We tried to get the Mayor of Munich involved, but they declined, maybe next year. Then I want to congratulate the BURG Family Reunion. They had their picnic get-together on the 30'h, and it was very well attended. It's a great organization, and I'm very proud to be part of it. On the 41h, I wanted to let everybody know that the local PTAs from four different schools will be holding a forum at Harper Park. That will be for the School Board Candidates from Catoctin and Leesburg. On the 51h, COLT is doing a debate for the Chair positions, the people running for Chair. That's at Ida Lee at seven o'clock. The Chair, Ms. Randall, will not be participating, but the other two will. Then some of us will be attending the VML conference this weekend. I want to thank everybody for all their hard work and everything that we've been able to accomplish, I look forward to continuing. Mr. Town Manager. Kaj Dentler: No comments. Mayor Burk: Is there a motion to adjourn? Vice Mayor Steinberg: So moved. Council Member Cummings: Second. Mayor Burk: All in favor? Members: Aye. Mayor Burk: Opposed? That's 6-0-1. Page 15lOctober 3, 2023