By Matt de Simone
Fincastle Town Council met last Thursday night giving updates on various items including the upcoming Christmas festivities, a records management policy, and the budget spending at Big Spring Park.
Town management met on Saturday to prepare the Christmas lights prior to the upcoming parade and the First Bank Tinsel Trail which kicks off Dec. 6. Mayor Mary Bess Smith commended Fincastle resident Henry Booze at the meeting Thursday for his apple butter sales helping the town purchase and repair lights. This year, Henry and his wife, Debbie, raised over $2,000. The lights will be put up throughout town on Wednesday, Nov. 20.
The mayor added, “It’s things like that which really make a difference because there’s one thing to be able to physically go out and do all the work, screw in the bulbs, and put the things up. It really takes money to keep it going. Thank you for doing that.”
Smith also updated the upcoming parade activity. Last week, the town learned that County Fire & EMS will be training at the courthouse on the Saturday of the Christmas parade (Dec. 7). The mayor wanted residents to know that there will be a “kick up” of water usage during the crew’s training exercises, but “(the water) shouldn’t be out where the general public will be gathering for the parade.”
Town Clerk Pam Brooks recently went through old records that “the town was hesitant to get rid of,” according to Smith. She mentioned the Library of Virginia adopting a records management policy. In the policy, the library explains that public records be “destroyed or discarded in a timely manner” – if the records are over three years old, they can be disposed of. Instead of destroying the records, the town is boxing them up and moving the old records to another building.
“Even though we’ve got a policy, we want to keep them as long as we need to,” Smith explained. “I talked about maybe needing to adopt a (town) records management plan. There’s already one in place for localities, so I wanted to let everybody know that we are following along with that prescribed guidance for how long we keep documents. Some documents related to zoning and matters like that we keep forever. Some of these documents around accounts payable we’re going to take out of the office itself and move over into the building.”
Last month, Town Council member Bill Gaul provided a proposal for the town budget related to the pond at Big Spring Park. Smith shared that she set aside approximately $4,000 for pond improvements. The mayor spoke with a local expert and decided to purchase a chemical management system, a dredging operation to install an Agri Drain drainage system, and adding carp in the pond. These items are expected to total around $3,500. Once installed the town will see how effective they are helping clean up the pond before considering “some of the more costly options.” Town Council unanimously approved the purchase, 5-0. (Councilmen John Thomas and Jim Reynolds were absent from the November meeting.)
Smith mentioned the repair of a small wall on Jake Cress’s property along Griffith Alley that Cress hired someone to repair. Smith suggested reimbursing Cress for repairs to the wall using some of the town’s sidewalk repair money in the budget, which falls within in guidelines of the town’s purchasing policy. The town currently has $14,000 for sidewalk repairs set aside. Council agreed to reimburse Cress for the wall repairs.
“Jake has done so much for the town,” Councilman Bill Gaul added. “I think it’s a small way to repay him (for all he has done).”
Town Manager Melanie McFadyen updated council on the town’s CDBG planning grant reimbursements for town expenses. The planning grant is scheduled to end at the end of December and the town expects to receive all reimbursements by then. Additionally, the town hopes to put in for a construction grant this spring, with help from the Roanoke Valley Regional Commission and Hill Studio. McFadyen added that the town would like to have David Hill from the studio come to a meeting to explain what the town plans to do with the construction grant.
The town is currently working on obligating all ARPA funds by the end of the year. McFadyen shared that the town “will have all of those funds obligated” and will produce a final report at the end of April 2025.
New council member training will soon be available this spring for the new members. McFadyen mentioned the town would be willing to offer the training to other surrounding localities for any new council or planning commission members who would like to participate.
Fincastle Town Council meets again on Dec. 9 at the Fincastle Volunteer Fire Department Training Room at 7 p.m.
