Strasburg Town Hall 174 West King Street Strasburg, Virginia. Thursday, May 24, :00 p.m. Richard Rich Orndorff, Mayor. Town Council Members:

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1 Town of Strasburg Town Council Work Session Strasburg Town Hall 174 West King Street Strasburg, Virginia Thursday, May 24, :00 p.m. Town Council Members: Richard Rich Orndorff, Mayor Kim Bishop Curtis Falkenstein John Hall, Jr. Donald Le Vine Seth Newman Barbara Plitt Scott Terndrup Jocelyn Vena Staff Contact: Wyatt Pearson, Town Manager

2 Final Agenda Please, silence all cellular devices. Thanks. *Town Council Work Sessions are used for general discussion on matters pertaining to the Town. Formal actions are taken during Town Council Meetings unless otherwise notified. Call to Order Mayor Orndorff Citizen comments on non-agenda items: Action Items: 1. Approval of Minutes: April 30 th, 2018, Council Work Sessions Contact: Amy Keller, Clerk of Council Support Materials: April 30 th, 2018, Work Session Minutes Discussion Items: 1. Arts and Tourism District Description: Council approved an Arts and Tourism District in This was discussed at the April 16, 2018, Work Session and staff was asked to come back with options. Staff Contact: Michelle Bixler, Economic Development and Marketing Manager Support Materials: Options 2. Suez AMI Description: Presentation by Suez Utility Service Group to provide the town a large scale replacement of current water meters with Advanced Meter Infrastructure (AMI). Staff Contact: Jay McKinley, Director of Public Works Old or unfinished business: New business: Closed Meeting: Pursuant to Code of Virginia Sec (A)(29) for the discussion of the award of a public contract involving the expenditure of public funds, including interviews of bidders or offerors, and discussion of the terms or scope of such contract, where discussion in an open session would adversely affect the bargaining position or negotiating strategy of the public body. The subject of the closed meeting is to discuss the fireworks contract with Extreme Pyrotechnics, LLC. Adjournment If you require any type of reasonable accommodation as a result of physical, sensory, or mental disability in order to participate in this meeting, please contact Amy Keller, Clerk of Council, at or akeller@strasburgva.com. Three days notice is required.

3 Page 1 of 4 MINUTES OF THE STRASBURG TOWN COUNCIL WORK SESSION HELD ON MONDAY, APRIL 30, 2018 AT 7:00 P.M. IN THE COUNCIL CHAMBERS OF THE STRASBURG TOWN HALL. PRESENT: Mayor Orndorff, Vice Mayor Terndrup and Council Members Bishop, Falkenstein, Hall, Le Vine, Newman, Plitt, and Vena. STAFF PRESENT: Town Manager Pearson, Director of Finance Mullins, Director of Public Works McKinley, Economic Development and Marketing Manager Bixler, Planning & Zoning Administrator Settle, and Clerk of Council Keller. Mayor Orndorff called the Work Session to order and reviewed the agenda. Citizen Comments: Public Hearing: Historic District Sign Ordinance Text Amendment The Public Hearing opened at 7:01 p.m. Being no speakers, the Public Hearing closed at 7:02 p.m. Action Item: Approval of Minutes: April 16 th, 2018 The minutes of the April 16 th, 2018, Work Session were approved as presented. Discussion Items: 1. Historic District Sign Ordinance Text Amendment P&Z Administrator Settle reviewed the Staff Report provided in the packet. The Ordinance Committee and the Planning Commission both reached a consensus to eliminate the 20 percent coverage. Both bodies also decided staff needs to redefine how to conduct the measurements of the lettering on window signs. Staff decided to break it out into several rectangular linear surfaces instead of the one main rectangular surface. He showed an example of the different way of measuring it from the current method. Staff does not recommend measuring each letter or surface. Attachment D shows how other localities measure the signs. Staff recommends to only change the 20 percent rule and use the 40 percent rule as it is in the rest of the town. He said there has been some concerns with wall signage language in the ordinance. Vice Mayor Terndrup said both the Ordinance and Planning Commission voted for both restrictions. He asked why a rectangle around each word and not each letter. P&Z Administrator Settle said this would take into account the dead-space between letter and take away some of the opaqueness. Vice Mayor Terndrup said the neither the Ordinance Committee nor the Planning Commission saw the staff report. It was unanimously voted to go along with both changes. Council Member Le Vine said he was confused by Attachments B and C and which was being proposed by staff. Staff is recommending measuring the way Attachment C shows and go to 40 percent coverage. Vice Mayor Terndrup said the major concern from the Ordinance Committee and the Planning Commission was the amount of white space between the letters and words. Council Member Le Vine disagrees with the door signage. He thinks if there is only one window, this is waived. He asked what happens if you have two windows with the way the ordinance is written. He wants to make sure the wording is as clear as possible. Staff realizes this wording also needs to be looked at. Council Member Le Vine thinks the entire ordinance should be looked at. Town Manager Pearson said a suggestion will be brought to the May Council meeting.

4 Page 2 of 4 Council Member Le Vine said ordinances can be confusing. He thinks steps should be added or give an example. Make it a step-by-step process. The way it is now is confusing. Town Manager Pearson said this could be added to the zoning application. Council Member Newman said he doesn t think this is changing anything except that you can block out 40 percent of the window. He thinks you could measure the sign letters very quickly with a roller measurer and then you wouldn t have to go with the 40 percent. He said it would still be a huge difference between the way he proposes measuring and Attachment B. He doesn t like the 40 percent as he doesn t think this is the intent of the ordinance. Council Member Bishop said it has been said that it historically has been done the way Attachment C is showing. Former Zoning Administrator Wharton told businesses to measure each individual letter. Town Manager Pearson said the way it is written now, it is a poor interpretation of how it should be done. Council Member Newman said the intent was to view the inside of the building and to measure the obstructed view. Council Member Bishop said she knows the sign in the pizza place was grandfathered in, but she thinks it looks very nice. She wants to know what the problem is with having signs in windows if it brings customers into the building. Council Member Falkenstein said his problem with this is that it is only one interpretation of how to use the space. He thinks it is restrictive as a business owner to use this form of measuring. He thinks to continue measuring the same way will just keep the problem. Mayor Orndorff said you could measure each word and this would allow for more wording. Council Member Newman discussed the BAKERY sign and the arch of the letters and how the tool he is talking about would help with this. Council Member Plitt said we are talking about the opacity of the lettering, but in the window, decorations fully covered the window. She thinks you should be able to use your window as you see it. David Lassiter, citizen, said not all windows are the same. How are you going to measure pictures or a logo? He said when you cover the window completely, are we only looking at the lettering being opaque or blinds, etc.? P&Z Administrator Settle said this is only signage. Staff will bring recommendations for the measuring and Council should call staff with suggestions. Vice Mayor Terndrup asked if you could have options for the businesses percent or the measuring of the lettering or the words. All of this will be considered in the new recommendations by staff. 2. Suez AMI Director of Public Works McKinley said Mr. Brown, representing Suez AMI, brought this to staff a month ago and they have vetted it internally and now have brought it to Council. Brad Brown, thanked the town for their business. Staff has actively looked at what it will take to make our water meter infrastructure better. He gave a PowerPoint presentation on the AMI Metering Asset Management. They project a six to eight percent increase in revenue due to broken meters. Council Member Newman asked how you would shut the meter off. It is a mechanical shut-off; it is a turn key. Council Member Newman said they mention towers and antennas; these would be on the Fort Hill and the Route 55 tanks. The town currently have a maintenance contract with Suez. They will

5 Page 3 of 4 only utilize current town property for the towers. It was asked if staff would be able to print out a weekly water usage for hour by hour use and you can. Council Member Bishop asked if all rates will go up and probably they will. There will be a pain point in the beginning. Mr. Brown doesn t think there are many meters that are 30 years old, but there are some. They are willing to work with an outreach project for the citizens. Mayor Orndorff said having more accuracy could help in not having rate increases. Council Member Bishop asked if one of the towers went down, would it affect the collection and it does not. You will not lose the data. No information is hosted in the cloud except for the account number and the meter reading. For disputes, the customer will be talking to town personnel. Vice Mayor Terndrup asked if this system will be obsolete in five years. The company will take care of the technology risk. Council Member Le Vine asked what the disadvantage of this system. The only disadvantage is when you don t have the service contract and Mr. Brown said the only ones who do not like it is when there is a very small staff to handle this. Risk to the town could be dealing with an old billing system, but this is mitigated for the town since the billing software is only two years old. Council Member Le Vine asked if someone could hack into the system. He thinks there could be some risk to this. The FCC frequency helps protect this. The only information in the cloud is meter reading and account numbers. Council Member Le Vine said the town is going to take the PR hit. Why did my water bill go up when I didn t use any more water? The increase in revenue is based on meters not reading correctly. How do we know Suez will fix our problems? Mr. Brown said they don t get their money for a long time. They have been with the town for many years already and want to keep the town as a customer. There are other companies that do outsourcing so how much do we want to outsource? Council Member Le Vine wants to know if we will need more sophisticated staff to do this. Vice Mayor Terndrup said it sounds like there will be elimination of staff. Director of Public Works McKinley said there will be a reassignment of the current staff. Council Member Plitt moved to enter into a closed meeting pursuant to Code of Virginia Sec (A)(29) for the discussion of the award of a public contract involving the expenditure of public funds, including interviews of bidders or offerors, and discussion of the terms or scope of such contract, where discussion in an open session would adversely affect the bargaining position or negotiating strategy of the public body. The subject of the closed meeting is to discuss Suez s proposal regarding Advanced Meter Infrastructure. Council Member Newman offered the second to the motion and with no further discussion, the motion passed unanimously. Council adjourned to a closed meeting at 9:08 p.m. Reconvened at 9:55 p.m.

6 Page 4 of 4 Mayor Orndorff said the Council of the Town of Strasburg hereby certifies by Roll Call vote that to the best of each member s knowledge (1)only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements by Virginia Law were discussed in the closed meeting to which this certification resolution applies and (2)only such public business matters as were identified in the motion convening the closed meeting were heard, discussed or considered by the Council of the Town of Strasburg. Each member should respond by Roll Call vote. Council Member Bishop Council Member Falkenstein Council Member Hall Council Member Le Vine Council Member Newman Council Member Plitt Council Member Terndrup Council Member Vena Mayor Orndorff Being no further business, the work session adjourned at 9:56 p.m.

7 Strasburg Arts + Tourism District Option 1 Option 2 Add Investment Criteria - Requires new capital investment of $25,000 within past eighteen months Change Amount of Reduction Qualified businesses can receive up to a 35% reduction Maintain BPOL Exemption Qualified businesses do not pay business license fee for five years Tier 1 No minimum investment, Receives BPOL exemption Tier 2 Requires new capital investment of $25,000 within past eighteen months to qualify for water/sewer reduction Receives BPOL exemption Qualified businesses can receive up to a 35% reduction