Dan Hoffman: 0:08

Hello, and welcome to another edition of the Rouse Review. I'm your city manager, Dan Hoffman. And with me is Sarah Fry, the PIO. Hi everybody. That's Public Information Officer. You're gonna get a lot of acronyms, so many letters, Andep, we're talking about GIS later, we're gonna talk about P, SAP and JSON files and all, all the, we're gonna, we're gonna have acronyms, but we are going to, uh, tell you what they mean. Um, just as PIO is Public information officer. Uh, Sarah Fry, and we're also gonna talk about the, um, what's coming up tomorrow night at City Hall. I hope you enjoyed the nice weather last week. Um, I know, I know. We are all very happy for spring, uh, here around City Hall. Uh, the, the allergies are starting to, uh, crop up. So if you hear me, uh, hack up, uh, along here during the course of this podcast, please excuse me. There you go. Um, but it is a busy time for us, so being able to get out and city staff to get out and stretch their legs around City Hall as they deal with the budget has been very nice. And that is what we're gonna be talking about tomorrow night at council. Uh, I will, one of the things I'll be saying at the beginning of council, uh, tomorrow night is, um, and this word is already out there. I will be, uh, formally introducing. Our new fire chief Drew Savage. Drew Savage is, uh, assistant chief outta Norfolk. Very long career there. Uh, a wealth of experience and uh, I think he's gonna be a, a perfect addition to the Winchester family as we kind of modernize and continue to grow. Uh, the fire department we're at, we're adding through this budget this year. We're gonna add, you know, possibly four new firefighters, um, which is something that we've been trying to do for several years now. And I think this year, we'll, we'll, we'll get it done. So we'll add four firefighters. And you know, there, there's also a lot of change going in the fire department. It's in a very different place than it was five years ago. Very

Sarah Frey: 2:17

different.

Dan Hoffman: 2:18

Yeah, I don't think anyone's gonna argue with that. And, um, chief Heel, uh, who's been. A great stabilizing force. You know, when, when I, you know, when I hired him to be the, the fire chief, you know, I, I promoted from within and that is, you know, generally my, my preference. Um, and, you know, I, but sometimes you bring in somebody from the outside because they have a, a particular set of experiences or expertise that are what is needed by the department at that point. And I, I really believe Drew has that, uh, just as Ronnie has that, you know, over in, right. I'm sorry, chief Lewis, chief Lewis over at the police department, uh, has that as well. So, uh, we are very excited to bring Drew in. Uh, we are, we. We wish Chief Heel the, the best on his new endeavor. Uh, we're excited to continue to work with him over at the Rescue Mission. Um, uh, but he is, he is dedicated, you know, decades of his life to the city and he's going to enjoy, I guess, a form of retirement. He's retiring from the city, but not from the working world.

Sarah Frey: 3:23

It's retirement adjacent. It's

Dan Hoffman: 3:24

retirement adjacent. Yes. So, uh, we're, we're wishing him well in his future endeavors and we are very, uh, excited to, uh, to welcome our new Fire Chief Savage, uh, which I will have to get used to saying. It sounds super cool.

Sarah Frey: 3:39

It does. He sounds like a superhero. Chief Savage. Chief Savage,

Dan Hoffman: 3:42

yeah. I don't know if I would want my police chief to have that name. It might not be the, you know, we, we, we don't do any kind of savagery. Um, but it does sound cool. Right?

3:55

Right.

Dan Hoffman: 3:56

So Fire Chief Cape, fire chief can get away with it. Mm-hmm. Fire Chief can get away with it. He's, he will, he is savage when he wants to put out a fire. Um, but, you know, that is a, uh, you know, meet him, get to know him yourself. Don't judge him. Don't judge the man. Just'cause you've got a cool last name. Uh, and he will be joining us in May, early May. So, uh, after Apple

Sarah Frey: 4:18

Blossom, I assume

Dan Hoffman: 4:19

he will be in the parade. That I, that's the word on the street is he will be in the parade. So I think he might be here. Um. Kind of getting things ready, getting transition, but,

Sarah Frey: 4:33

but we're not gonna, like, on his first day, throw him into running Apple Blossom operations, period. No, no, no, no, no, no, no,

Dan Hoffman: 4:37

no.

Sarah Frey: 4:38

That's kind of you. We, we still,

Dan Hoffman: 4:39

we have an amazing crew of folks over at Fire and Police who work hand in glove with, um, with the Apple Blossom Festival to make sure that it is a, a great and safe event. So, yeah. So I, I am going to, you know, introduce him at the council meeting tomorrow night. He won't be there, but I'll, you know, picture will be up and I'll say a few, a few nice words to, to welcome Chief Savage. Um, other than that, there is a council meeting with, with items on it. Uh, we have a slightly longer agenda than we had in the past. Excuse me. We, we kick off, uh, the meeting with three public hearings.

5:18

Ooh.

Dan Hoffman: 5:19

These are all things that are second reading. They were all discussed at the last meeting. So, um, that, that, that will probably move relatively quickly. Nothing controversial in there that will, you know, that I don't believe knock on wood would generate, um, a ton of discussion. But we do have those to, to knock out first. We got a few other items in there. Um, last week, the public health and safety committee, you know, recommended approval of using some red light cameras. Uh, so we'll be bringing that to council for discussion. And the budget. The budget, the budget is, it marches forward. So a couple quick thoughts in the budget and updates as to where we're at with the budget. Should be helpful, especially if you wanna come and provide us your feedback. Um, council has set the not to exceed rate to 82. I think we might have talked about, well, we got that direction from them at the last meeting, so, um, we have not talked about that yet. Uh, so they, at the last meeting, they gave me direction set the not to exceed rate at 82. Uh, I will say it again, the not to exceed rate is a largely pointless performative act that we are required to do by the state. Um, it just is a way for the city council to say, we will not go above this tax rate. Oh, two weeks later they actually set the tax rate. So I don't know why we don't just set the tax rate, but, uh, we, we go through this, it always creates confusion. So no, our tax rate is not 82 cents. Not to exceed just means that in two weeks, actually yeah, in two weeks when they finally set the tax rate, they won't go above 82. But we never anticipated they would go above 82. I

Sarah Frey: 7:00

was gonna say, that was never really, it

Dan Hoffman: 7:02

was never really an option. But they don't, what they don't wanna do, which is wise, is set it abnormally low just for, you know, whatever purpose and limit themselves because there's new data and new information coming in all the time.

Sarah Frey: 7:18

Constantly.

Dan Hoffman: 7:18

The school's budget isn't even finalized yet. Well actually technically it is being finalized today. It gets finalized the day before the meeting. So we're getting new information all the time. We're getting refined information about revenue projections. We're getting new information from the state. We're all the time, we're getting new inputs into this budget process. So setting the rate at a very low point, arbitrarily, it does nothing but puts you in a situation where, um, let's say you get some new information, or let's say maybe your calculations of revenue, were missing something. Um, it happens and that it happens sometimes, right? Um, well guess what? When you get that new information, if you set the knot to exceed rate, particularly low, you've done nothing but hamstring yourself. So I, I will get off my soapbox now about the knot to exceed rate. Um, counsel, I think did a wise thing by just setting it at 82 so they can continue to have an informed budget discussion, uh, as opposed to, you know, just being arbitrary with their decisions. So, uh, council is moving th forward through this process. Methodically, uh, we, it's set up that way intentionally. Uh, we had a good meeting last time where yes, we got some guidance on the not to exceed rate, so we could go ahead and get that done. Um, and we, and we again went through the budget summary with council. They've already gone through all the department budgets. I. Every video for every committee meeting, even the ones they're not on are available. Mm-hmm. Uh, they have, they have had line by line budgets for departments for weeks now. Um, they've weighed in on the different department budgets and, you know, they, they've made some modifications here and there, and tomorrow night will be no different. They will again, have an opportunity to make adjustments. Uh, they can adjust positions, they can ask questions. That is, um, that, that, that is their job and they're doing their job right now. So, um, hopefully tomorrow night we'll get some additional guidance as to where they would like to be in terms of a range. Tomorrow night, they will not be setting the rate, just to be clear. They will have a discussion about it, but it is only first reading. So they can have a discussion about it. They can express some of their interests in where it might land. Uh, they can suggest cuts. If they want a lower rate, um, they can suggest in additional investments, you know, whether it's an extra firefighter or, uh, extra, you know, part-time pay for aquatics. Instructors at the parking, wherever they feel, you know, taxpayer money should be invested. That is their decision. Um, we bring them suggestions and clarifying questions, but it is a big complex budget, so there's always questions. I, I have no doubt that out of tomorrow, tomorrow night's meeting, there will be some more questions from counselors that we get them answers to. But to keep with our statutory deadlines, we will need to set a rate the first meeting in April. So I think we're in a good, I think we're on a good trajectory to get to, uh, a decision at that point. Uh, our, the city's finances are in amazing shape. Triple

Sarah Frey: 10:38

A bond, bond rated,

Dan Hoffman: 10:39

triple a bond rated, and, um. You know, we, we try to put as much data and information out there as possible so that you, the residents can also be informed. So make sure you check the city, you know, go through the, if you are very, if you're very interested, the entire budget is attached to tomorrow night's item. Yes. So you, you can, you gotta go, you know, it's in the packet, so to speak. So you gotta look at the attachments. The entire budget is right there. If you wanna see how we've spent our money in the past, we have a portal that you can go do that down to every single penny that gets spent. It can be very overwhelming and I will be in, in full transparency. You know, sometimes there's glitches. Yes. We had one last week. Um, it doubled some numbers. We were made aware of it and we fixed it. So, no, the city's payroll has not increased by$43 million. Anyone that has a passing has paid even a minimal amount of attention to the budget, knows that our entire payroll. Is less than that. So no, it is not increased by that much. That is impossible. Um, our payroll and, you know, this is something else that, you know, you can find out on the website or in the discussion and these budget discussions, uh, it grows through two methods every year when an an employee is added, of course, but also the colas we get. So if you want to look back over the course of five years, you might say, oh my goodness, the city's, but the city's payroll Inc. Increased 20%. Well, yeah, if you add up all the cost of living increases for the last five years, they total 20%.

Sarah Frey: 12:21

Most industry happens. And if you look at our cost

Dan Hoffman: 12:23

of living increases, they are very, they're not exorbitant.

Sarah Frey: 12:29

No,

Dan Hoffman: 12:29

no one, there is no cop or firefighter or park employee getting rich off their city job. And they're very in line. In fact, in some cases we're stru, we. Do our best to try to keep up. Um, they're, they're, I wish they could be compensated more. So be informed. Don't take members outta context. If you want good information, go directly to the city's website. Um, we will do our best. If you see, if you catch something on there that doesn't make sense or doesn't add up, please ask us.

Sarah Frey: 13:03

Please.

Dan Hoffman: 13:04

It's, it's, it's possible that, you know, there's a mistake or an error, um, but it's also very possible that there's a reasonable explanation to all these things.

Sarah Frey: 13:13

And there's a convenient little box right on the budget page where you can ask your question.

Dan Hoffman: 13:17

Yeah. And, you know, somebody from the finance department will get back in touch with you. Um, if it's a foyer request, we'll respond to the foyer request. Yes, we will. Um, so please ask questions. Be informed. Don't just regurgitate stuff you see on social media and. Please ask questions, get engaged. We, we love constructive feedback. The budget on that same

Sarah Frey: 13:42

note, I'm going to plug, the Civic Leadership Academy is now open. There you go. And taking registrations for the next year, that will start up at the end of summer.

Dan Hoffman: 13:50

Mm-hmm. Absolutely. So you can apply now, you can be well informed and engage and actually have good information

Sarah Frey: 13:57

Yes.

Dan Hoffman: 13:57

To share with your friends and neighbors about what we're doing here at the city. So, um, that is that. And then, so that's the big topic for tomorrow night school's budget. Like I said, the superintendent will be there to present his budget. Um, you know, that's, that's a big chunk of our general fund revenue that goes over to the schools. It's a large percentage. Um, I think we will be able to, you know, in, in two of the three budget scenarios we have in front of council, the schools are fully funded with their request of the city, um, schools of, you know, that they've given us a. What, in my personal opinion is, is a reasonable request this year. So it's less than I thought it was gonna be. So that's, isn't

14:38

it, that's great. Right.

Dan Hoffman: 14:40

Um, and uh, so, you know, that's, um, that, that I think we'll be able to accommodate without any kind of major changes. Uh, but we are making this, we are making investments this year because it is a reassessment year and council has voiced their support so far through the budget process for adding the public safety positions that we need. And, um, I, I think we're gonna end up at a good place this year. I'm feeling optimistic I that we're gonna land at a good spot that is, you know, respectful to the taxpayer because we will, if even at 82 cents, we will have the second lowest tax rate for all our comparator cities. Wow. That does not include Frederick County back guys, and we can have a whole nother podcast about that. But Frederick

Sarah Frey: 15:32

County doesn't provide all the services that these to Exactly.

Dan Hoffman: 15:35

Um, but no, we, we are way lower than Stanton. We are way lower than Harrisonburg. We're way lower than Charlottesville. We're way, I mean, you can, the list goes on. I think only Fredericksburg is lower than us, and that's because they make a boatload of money off the meals tax. They're right off in 95. So they, they, they've, they basically, those interchanges for them are basically ATMs. Um, no offense to my, to my Fredericksburg colleagues, but, um, we have a low tax rate. There's nothing, you know, the ratings agencies that give us our credit rating put their credibility on the line when they say that we have the ability to raise revenues in an emergency, what they're saying is our rates are low. And if we had to, we could increase them. Because they're not abnormally high. We have a low rate. They're for an independent city of our size. With the infrastructure we have and the services we provide. There is no denying that. Um, if anything we should be proud, residents should be proud of where we sit now with this rate. Um, you don't have to like taxes. People like taxes. Exactly. There was a time when people felt proud to pay their taxes, but you know that, that age is long gone. I think it was gone before I was born, but um, it is, no one likes it. Right. And we've talked about this before. There are things we have to keep up. There are investments we need to make that are not tied to how many people live here. There are investments we make that are not tied to anything that we could control. I. Inflation, for example. Uh, you know, prices go up. We have to, you know, we have to give employees raises to keep them. There are things that will always increase. We have budgeted conservatively for, geez, two decades I would say, and our AAA bond rating, our low tax rate and a, a happy populace based on every survey we do. That's all based on the fact that we, we every year in and out, it might not be a budget that somebody loves, it might not be a budget I love, but they're good budgets that fund basic services. So, and I have yet to hear after years of, um, you know, chatter, I have yet to hear somebody actually point out a position that does nothing. Or doesn't provide value, I don't hear, I definitely don't hear it from the dais. You know, people have their opinions about what certain functions are. You might not like that. You know, we provide public transit. You might not think that's a worthy investment, but somebody does. And until city council says, no, we should not fund that service anymore, or we shouldn't have this program over at the parks, we keep doing it because people keep asking for it. And if people aren't, we cut it. I mean, we're proposing adjustments to win ready, um, or win Tran, because the loop route that we put in, no one's using it. So what do we do? All right? We're gonna shift those resources elsewhere to other parts of the transit system that are being heavily utilized. We constantly monitor those things so we're not dumping money into something that no one wants. And I. I challenge you to go through and find something that no, that does not have at least some type of direct benefit to the city or, and its residents. Again, you might not understand it. You might not understand what an employee does, but it doesn't mean they're not doing something important. So, all right. That's enough of my soapbox for now. Um, come give your opinion on, uh, on Tuesday night. Uh, we had some new folks in the last meeting just there to observe. It was very heartwarming. It was great. Um, okay, so that's tomorrow. I'm gonna take, I'm gonna take a breath and, uh, we'll talk about what's coming up.

Sarah Frey: 19:53

Spring has finally sprung. It's warm. Mm-hmm. It's magical. And don't you wanna go outside and take your kids to a playground?

Dan Hoffman: 20:01

Yes. Well,

Sarah Frey: 20:02

I mean, maybe not you. No, but I do, I'm not,

Dan Hoffman: 20:03

not me so much. It sounds a little like my hell. But, um, because I have, I've, I've passed that stage of life. You age out. But trust me, you got little kids. Oh, you want them to get out some energy?

Sarah Frey: 20:15

Yes. I've got three little kids and I love when they go to the playground. Mm-hmm. And it's amazing. Well, we're planning a new playground at Family Land at Jim Burnett Park. Yep. Yep, yep. And we wanna hear from you. We wanna know what you think is gonna make it amazing. So tonight, Monday, March 24th from five to six in the rec center at Jim Barnett. Stop by chat with staff advisory board members. Learn about the options for the new playground equipment. Tell us what you wanna see. Do you want a super accessible playground? Do you want a zip line? Do you want one of those spinny seats that doesn't stop spinning until you almost throw up whatever? Tell us what you want. We wanna hear about it. Yeah.'cause we want it to be the coolest playground ever.

Dan Hoffman: 20:55

And by the way, the money for that playground is in this year's budget. We're also getting a very nice donation of$150,000. Um, and that will help us. And really it will help make this happen. Yes, the city taxpayers are still putting$225,000 into this, provided the budget gets approved. Um. Another interesting, uh, educational opportunity. Playgrounds are not cheap.

Sarah Frey: 21:19

No. And did you know they only last like 15 to 18 years?

Dan Hoffman: 21:23

Oh yeah. Well, they're all, it's all that molded plastic that like ages and cracks. That, that was why actually family, uh, one of the playground, one of the slides of family land got boxed up because the plastic was splitting. And trust me, you do not want a plastic splinter. No. Uh, that's, that's like a dagger.

Sarah Frey: 21:38

And there's like two people on the east coast that can repair them.

Dan Hoffman: 21:40

Oh yeah. That's the other thing you gotta get if you want to, because you know, a lot of times, places, and we're, we're getting at an off topic, we're on a tangent. Very, but we normally don't go on tangents in the coming as up. But, uh, it, it's good to know the, especially when jurisdictions get these special custom playground sets that have, like, you know, and I, I had this in my last job where they had this one playground set. It was all like custom molded plastic to look like oak trees. Oh. Because we were known for our oak trees. Right.

Sarah Frey: 22:09

Great in theory.

Dan Hoffman: 22:10

Oh my God. Oh yeah. And it was beautiful. No, trust me, I, I actually loved this, this playground, but man, I was just waiting for the day when we had to replace one of the fake plastic trees, Radiohead reference, and, um, it,'cause it was gonna cost tens of thousands of dollars. It was gonna be bananas to try to get a custom plastic molded tree again. So we want your input now if you are asking for a crazy custom molded plastic, uh,

Kelly Henshaw: 22:39

reproduction

Dan Hoffman: 22:40

rousing hall or of an apple or something of Hall. No, that's not gonna, that's not in the cards guys. But, um, we, we will, we do want the, the best playground we can get. And we have the money to do it, which is great, provided the budget, get gets approved. Uh, so that is, um, that is coming. And, and if you're looking

Sarah Frey: 22:56

for this in the budget, it's under CIP not under parks.

Dan Hoffman: 22:59

Yes. Yes. Thank you. Don't look at the parks budget at c at look at CIP and, and we do want to hear from you about what it is. So, Sarah, how can people do that?

Sarah Frey: 23:07

So you can come out tonight, five to six at the rec center, or you can go to the website, winchester va.gov/playground and fill out a form. Tell us what you think. We wanna hear from you. It's gonna be open for a couple of weeks. Fill it out. Send in pictures of cool stuff you've seen. You'll go, you're gonna be able to tell us everything you wanna see.

Dan Hoffman: 23:27

Mm-hmm. There you go.

Sarah Frey: 23:29

All right. Next up. If you listen to the podcast, you know this, but personal property tax and real estate tax due dates have changed Uhoh. We actually made them due later than they used to be. Oh, well that's good. So you're welcome. Um, they are now due for everyone in the city on June 5th and December 5th. Mm-hmm. So if you're wondering why you didn't get anything in April or March about your personal property tax, that's why. Yep. But we want you to be aware. If you have questions about the deadlines, reach out to the commissioner of the revenues office. Mm-hmm. Which easily found on our website. Just go to taxes. It's all right there.

Dan Hoffman: 24:06

Give Ann Berkholder office a call. They will, uh, happily answer your questions.

Sarah Frey: 24:12

All right. And last but certainly not least, and the closest to my heart, pick up parties. Start again.

Dan Hoffman: 24:19

Yeah. You love these.

Sarah Frey: 24:20

I love a pickup party. Like you get to go to a park. Mm-hmm. Your kids get to play with the trash picker rubbers, which are. Better than playing with tongs. Yeah, yeah. When you're barbecuing.

Dan Hoffman: 24:29

Yeah. Just to be clear, the little kids with these little, uh, trash grabbers are incredibly ineffective, but they have a blast.

Sarah Frey: 24:35

They have so much fun.

Dan Hoffman: 24:36

They get like four pieces of trash and then they just become weapons. But

Sarah Frey: 24:38

you say that we had like a middle schooler, well, at our one at Timbrook last year, who got, I swear to you, two entirely. Full trash bags. Full of trash. Well,

Dan Hoffman: 24:47

it's middle, middle schoolers. I, I expect, I expect nothing less from a middle school kid.

Sarah Frey: 24:51

I'm just saying element. He's on it, element

Dan Hoffman: 24:52

your kids. However,

Sarah Frey: 24:54

I don't know. My 9-year-old could be pretty.

Dan Hoffman: 24:56

Oh yeah. All right. Well, I'm, if we made

Sarah Frey: 24:57

it a competition, I'm,

Dan Hoffman: 24:58

oh, yes. Well, then, then you're, mm-hmm. There you go. You, you put some, some incentives in there. My

Sarah Frey: 25:03

5-year-old, he's not doing anything to help you.

Dan Hoffman: 25:05

Yeah. He's chasing butterflies with those things,

Sarah Frey: 25:07

but most importantly, they start. Thursday, April 3rd. Mm-hmm. The first one is gonna be on the lawn at Hanley High School.

Dan Hoffman: 25:12

Very

Sarah Frey: 25:12

nice. From five 30 to six Thirty's, come out, keep our community beautiful. And more importantly, earn some stormwater credit. Yes, easy stormwater credits. That's,

Dan Hoffman: 25:22

again, it's super easy way. Knock a little bit off your bill and while you're at it, sign the fertilizer pledge. Knock another, I think it's 5%. Another 5%. We're gonna, another 5%. We're

Sarah Frey: 25:30

gonna, we're gonna go way more into depth about all of this later on in the program, so stick around and find out about

Dan Hoffman: 25:35

it. Do we got Kelly coming in?

Sarah Frey: 25:36

We got Kelly coming in.

Dan Hoffman: 25:37

Wonderful. Wonderful. Well that's, uh, that's it for coming up. We're gonna have, uh, Kyle Schweizer, our GIS manager coming in here in a second. We're gonna explain to you what GIS is and why it's important to grant. Hello and welcome, Kyle Schweizer. Hi Kyle. Hello. So, uh, for those of you who have not met Kyle, and that's probably 99% of the city,'cause Kyle's not, you know, you don't have a lot of presentations in front of city council. Uh, you. You know, you, you have a job that's primarily here in the office. Your clients, for the most part are city departments. Yep. So, uh, folks, a lot of folks do not understand, um, what this department does. And what we're gonna do today is dig into a little bit of what GIS means. Um, and Kyle runs our GIS department. And just because you may not know who he is, does not mean he's not a fantastic employee because, uh, Kyle not only has gone through our emerging leaders program, right? Correct. Yeah. We're first class, right? Second, second class. No, second one. Yep. Uh, not a second class person, but he was in the second class of our Emerging Leaders program, employee of the month, uh, and

Sarah Frey: 26:52

all around, great guy,

Dan Hoffman: 26:53

Jen, all around. Great guy. Um, and he runs our GIS shop, which is why we're talking to him today. Uh, so let's start off with the obvious. What does GIS stand for?

Kyle Schwizer: 27:03

So GIS, you know, those three letters stand for geographic information systems. Mm-hmm. But, uh, it's a lot more than that. Um, basically when I described that, or yesterday actually when I was describing it to my daughter's preschool class, I described it to'em as a magic map on a computer. Um, but what it is, is you're taking, uh, information and combining it with location, um, to make kind of informed interactive maps.

27:30

Mm-hmm.

Kyle Schwizer: 27:31

Um, so the GIS as a whole is kind of like an environment. You use it to capture, store, analyze and visualize, uh, spatial data. Yes.

Dan Hoffman: 27:42

Everyone, your most common interaction with gi, with GIS systems, uh, you probably interact with them every single day if you use the GPS on your phone. Yep. Uh, Google Maps, Waze, they're all GIS systems. Uh, we use GIS systems here heavily in the city. Every jurisdiction does. So if, if your first question is why is the city doing this? Mm-hmm. Uh, we, we do it because, you know, really in essence, to do the work these days, you, you almost have to, I, I don't know of any local jurisdiction that doesn't have a GIS team. Uh, at least one person that's in charge of it that Earth's contracted out to, that Earth's contracted out, right? Yeah. Uh, we have our own shop. Here internally, uh, it's very hard to get contractors to do this in an affordable basis. Mm-hmm. Uh, and we don't pay Kyle very much, so. No, I'm just kidding. Um, the, no, we, we, we try to take Kyle care of, care of Kyle the best we can and his folks, because just of how important this is to us. Um, public services could not really operate. You know, we've, we've had Perry and Kelly and all that. They could not operate as efficiently as they do without Kyle's department. Um, our planning department could not do what they do without Kyle's department. Uh, all the permits that come in, if someone wants, uh, if there's an emergency, you know, and I need quick maps of situ situations, I need aerials. Everything that a resident gets on our website that is map based for the most part. Comes from these teams.

29:20

Mm-hmm.

Dan Hoffman: 29:21

If you come, if you need a map, a very specific map, and maybe we have that information, a resident can come here and, and ask us for that. So, uh, it's a, not just an, don't forget

Sarah Frey: 29:34

public safety.

Dan Hoffman: 29:35

Oh my goodness. Maps for our crime analysts, all of that this team can do. Uh, that's why it's so important, including, and I think one of the things a lot of folks, um, and you guys are dealing with this now, is our 9 1 1 system. Mm-hmm. Completely reliant on GIS systems. Yep. Take a second to talk about that.

Kyle Schwizer: 29:55

Yeah. So I mean, like you said, we're not just about making maps. You know, GIS plays an important key role in like every local government. Um, but here at the city we provide our data to a lot of the different softwares that different departments use. And one of the major ones is dispatch or cad. Mm-hmm. Um, so our data, our our 9 1 1 address points and street center lines data is actually used in the back end so that when you pick up nine one one or pick up the phone to call nine one one. Um, the call is getting routed to the correct dispatch center. Mm-hmm. Um, so our, our data is being the driving factor behind routing those calls even before the dispatcher picks it up. Yeah. Picks up the call and

Dan Hoffman: 30:38

I mean, that saves a, a material amount of time. Mm-hmm. I mean, we're, we're not just talking about a, it, it saved two seconds. No. That getting to the right person at the right time, I mean, that can be a significant time savings mm-hmm. In those types of situations. So there's also a bunch of tools that are resident facing. Yep. Right. I use, I mean, I use our GIS portal that we have on the website daily. Same. It's, it, it is always one of the 50 tabs open on my browser and I, I refer to it multiple times a day. Uh, it's also just good kind of, if you're curious about fun property, if you wanna know about

Sarah Frey: 31:17

anything. Yeah. It is the portal to all the answers.

Dan Hoffman: 31:20

All the answers. You would be stunned how many of your answers. Questions can be answered through the GIS portal. Right. Go to the tax parcel mapping. Yeah. Uh, portion of it, and don't stop there. Also, make sure, rather than having, um, kind of the, the generic street kind of map, use one of our go to Picto. It's Pictometry Pictometry is our provider. Yeah. Pictometry. Eview. And get the most recent pictometry. Because how often is it that we do that? Every two years? Actually every two years. Right now we just collect it. Yep. We, we get brand new aerials of the entire city. Um, which we do for, we, we don't just do that for fun.

32:03

So

Dan Hoffman: 32:03

the first thing you're thinking is, oh my goodness, that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars and is not needed. No, it does not. How much does that cost us?

Kyle Schwizer: 32:10

Uh, it's, it's over two years. We split up over two years and it comes out to be like 11, 12 K. 11 or 12 K. Yeah. So six. And we use that

Dan Hoffman: 32:19

constantly. Yes. Uh. It came up, something came up just the other day. We wanted to see if, uh, I, I needed to see if trees had been removed from a certain area over time. And we do them at the same ti, you know, same time every year. So I can tell yes, over the LA and you can go back over multiple years. I can see that. Yes, there were, contrary to what we were told, there were many trees removed from this particular area over the years and that is creating erosion. That's the kind of stuff that we can get off of this, which is very important and often can save, can save the city from a lot of liability. Yeah. What are some other reasons we use it for?

Kyle Schwizer: 32:59

Well, so to kind of build off of that, uh, we're, we're actually Brian Place, our GIS technicians actually working on a project to take some of the old historical paper copy mm-hmm. Uh, photos that we have from like the seventies, um, and early nineties. Oh wow. We're scanning those in and he's actually, it's called geo referencing. He's kind of tying'em all together so that we can have another, you know, vintage of imagery that we can provide out to the public

Dan Hoffman: 33:25

that's very be doing like a

Kyle Schwizer: 33:26

side by side viewer eventually, but yeah, that would, that's another cool tool. Very cool.

Dan Hoffman: 33:32

And, and it's good information for our city planners and our city council. Mm-hmm. Excuse me, I. Because, you know, they're making these planning decisions and sometimes, you know, there's a lot of, sometimes these planning decisions are a little emotionally charged, you know, a lot of concern over change and how, you know, the built environment is, has evolved over the years. This information is, you know, it's pictures. They don't lie, you know, they, they, they show exactly how the city has changed over the last decade plus. So that, that's super cool. Um, and if you are on the, but you know, that's not the only thing. And, and these, and these, by the way, these are aerial that are more up to date and much more detailed than Google maps. So if you're looking at Google satellite of the city, you're probably looking at something that's five to possibly 10 years old. Um. Our website. It's probably never, it's never more than two years old. Yeah.

Kyle Schwizer: 34:28

Never more than two years old.

Dan Hoffman: 34:29

And it's very, and it's very detailed. Like you can really get a lot of information. Yeah. Three information, three inch

Kyle Schwizer: 34:33

resolution is, is pretty good. Better than what you'd be getting at, at Google for sure. And

Sarah Frey: 34:37

we even use that to figure out, um, like how we charge for stormwater fees, right.

Kyle Schwizer: 34:42

Yeah. A form of that. Yeah. Yeah. So that's part of the imagery product that we got last year. The, the 2023 year was, um, the data to, uh, generate the impervious surface Yeah. Uh, areas that we used to figure out the storm water fee.

Dan Hoffman: 34:59

Yeah. And one of the most, uh, it's, it's very helpful. It's not just a curiosity, but when you're in that tax parcel mapping site, you can click on your property

35:15

mm-hmm.

Dan Hoffman: 35:15

And you'll see all of the information, you know, when it was built. The nu you know, what it was sold for previously, who the listed owners are. That's all

Sarah Frey: 35:26

accurate lines for your lot too.

Dan Hoffman: 35:28

Accurate lines. Yeah. So it a representation. It's a representation. Just be clear, just to be clear. But there is a little disclaimer before you, sorry. There is, there is a little disc still Call a surveyor. Call a surveyor. Don't, don't rely on, on the portal for legal purposes. But, um, there is a lot of legal information for every single parcel in the city. You wanna, and all the time people come to me and say, the city owns this property, why isn't it doing anything with it? And I, the first thing I, you know, say is, well, we probably don't. Um, and then seconds later I have the information in front of me that says, no actually, that, that is owned by, you know, so-and-so a person here's their address and contact information. All that's public information. It's all recorded over at the courthouse, so we're not sharing anything that we shouldn't be sharing. But it is incredibly helpful for businesses, for realtors, um, you know, folks that are looking to invest in the city. If someone, if you, if someone, if trying to sell your house, it's, uh, it's very, very useful information. Um, in fact, businesses, I think, you know, other than, you know, the, the internal city uses and, you know, general public, you know, curiosities, um, businesses rely on that information. Um, and we provide it, you know, for free. And there's so much more in the portal.

Kyle Schwizer: 36:56

Yeah.

Dan Hoffman: 36:57

What else is in the portal?

Kyle Schwizer: 36:58

Yeah, so we have all of our applications out there, like you mentioned, the tax parcel mapping. We have like a, a basic property search one where it's kind of like for, uh, residents that had just recently moved here, they can find out when their trash pickup is. Um, you know, their tax information, stuff like that. Um, but also on the portal we have, uh, our open data, so all of our GIS data mm-hmm. That's publicly accessible through any of the applications. Mm-hmm. Anyone can download the data. We put it out there into a shape file, which is a, a geospatial format, a geo js, O-N-K-M-L, and A CSV. So if, if people wanted to download Yeah. You know, all our parcel information is A-A-C-S-V and bring it into Excel, they can definitely do that. I'll translate

Dan Hoffman: 37:45

that so you, you can out of this system, online, uh, tech people who maybe want to use it for, you know, it could be an engineering firm that's doing some work. It could be, like I said, a realtor that's doing some work. Uh, they can download the data. They don't have to just be on our website. They can, I. Suck it out of the city system in various formats, whatever tool they're gonna use. Uh, Excel is a good one. Yep. A lot of people know what Excel is. You can put it in Excel. Um, you can put it in a variety of different things. These formats, we, we make it accessible in common formats. People can download all of it, it's public and free information, um, and then ingest it into whatever they're doing, which is a huge help for a lot of these businesses. Yep.'cause in, in some cases, we are the only provi in a lot of jurisdictions. The locality is the only provider of that information, otherwise they need to go and spend thousands and thousands of dollars to get it themselves. So it is a, it is a very business friendly portal as well. Correct. Yeah. Awesome. Um, so. It is also, I, I referenced earlier that it's used in emergency situations as well, and we've got Apple Blossom coming up. So give an example of how it, and granted, apple Blossom is not an emergency, it's just a big event. And we activate the Emergency Operation center. Sure. Apple Blossom. Just because, you know, the volume of people that are in town. Um, you know, the, the festival is a festival, uh, and people have a lot of fun at the Apple Blossom. I know. I'll what I know. Shocking. And, and I hear they serve alcohol. No. Yeah. It's kind of crazy. And it's Big Carnival and a parade. This, there's a whole thing. It's a thing here. Right. Um, and we wanna make sure people have the safest time they can have at Apple Blossom. And our partners over at Apple, at the Apple Blossom Festival, who are amazing and they do a tremendous job putting on a safe event. Um, but a lot of the data that comes out of GIS helps make it a safe event too. Yeah. Talk about that.

Kyle Schwizer: 39:49

Yeah. So we, uh. Before, um, we, we kind of got involved in, uh, emergency management in the oc. Um, the way they would do things was with paper maps. And, uh, when I was kind of hired on in 2019, I saw that there was kind of a need for kind of streamlining that they had all these big, fancy monitors figured, well, let's make it interactive, give it a little bit better situational awareness. So we converted all that data. Um, the main big one is like their traffic control points where intersections are shut down mm-hmm. Where they have different personnel staffed. Um, so what we do is we have an interactive application, dashboards that display all that data, all that information. They can click on a point. On a traffic control point. Mm-hmm. Identify who's there at that location from this time to this time. All the specific instructions that, that, um, personnel is given during briefings. Mm-hmm. Um, we show the parade route. Of course, we also show all the barricade deployment locations. So if they needed to zoom in on a intersection that someone broke through a barricade, they know exactly where that barricade was. Mm-hmm. And where they need to redeploy it to. Um, so yeah, we have all that, all that information is in the USC for them to,

Dan Hoffman: 41:05

yeah. I mean, traffic control points alone, we have dozens mm-hmm. And dozens of a lot during Apple Blossom. Uh, we, we also have multiple parades, so it's Yeah, I know. Uh, so in every year we struggle to get folk staff to. Man, them. We don't have enough police officers to, to do it all. So I, I mean, last year we got bailed out by the su football team who, who stepped up that they're doing it again this year.

41:34

Yeah.

Dan Hoffman: 41:35

Um, so, but managing all of that, all that people power that, that we're putting out in the street for a safe apple blossom, you, you, it has to have these kinds of tools. You, you can't just have a, a notebook pad with a list of, of intersection on it and with names scribbled there.

Kyle Schwizer: 41:52

Yeah. It's good to have that as like a redundant

Dan Hoffman: 41:55

source, but Yeah. Maybe if you wanna download it and print it out, that's fine. Yeah. But we, if Apple Blossom is gonna be, continue to be a safe event as it is, um, we, we have to, we can only get better by using tools like this. Sure. So, yeah. Uh, so gimme, gimme one last thought. Um, what, what is something about. The GIS system or GIS capabilities that no one knows. I'm gonna put you on the spot. This was not part of this. These were not the sample questions we gave you.

Kyle Schwizer: 42:34

Um, I think it's just a lot more than just maps, you know? Okay. Um, because that's what most people think is Yeah. Just, oh,

Dan Hoffman: 42:40

he's the, he's the digital map guy.

Kyle Schwizer: 42:42

Yeah. It's a lot more, more to that. Um, you know, we make maps. Yeah. That's a, that's a portion of our, and we make these cool apps, which are essentially maps. Mm-hmm. But there's also some in-depth analysis that we do too. Um, you know, we, we solve a lot of problems in the city and we're kind of behind the scenes. Mm-hmm. Um, and we kind of like being behind the scenes. We don't really like doing this kind of stuff. Um. But yeah, I mean, um, yeah, there's just a lot more to it than just maps. So when you think about GISI would think there's, there's more than, there's just a map that goes behind it. Yeah. Um, like I said, analysis, um, we're kind of working on something right now with Ethan in emergency management to, uh, provide him some sort of analysis to show where there can be potential, uh, routes, um, onto the parade route. Um. That can, you know, bypass a barricade location or something like that. So yeah, there's a lot more behind the scenes stuff that people don't really think about. Yeah. Uh, with GIS the map is really just the

Dan Hoffman: 43:45

veneer.

Kyle Schwizer: 43:46

Yes. Yeah.

Dan Hoffman: 43:47

That's the, the nice coating that you put on top of it that people can understand.'cause underneath it, that's all data. That is all the, the mumbo jumbo you talked about. You know, that's the JSON, that's the shake files there. There's just a trove of data that goes into it. The end result's a pretty map. Mm-hmm. That guys like I can understand. Uh, but we need guys like you to make those maps and makes sense of all the data that's sits underneath them. Yep. Yeah. Excellent. Yeah. Kyle, thank you very much. Yes, sir. I think we're gonna do, uh, Saturday morning at Ralph's about GIS soon

Sarah Frey: 44:23

noted.

Dan Hoffman: 44:24

Make a, make a note, Sarah

Sarah Frey: 44:25

noted.

Dan Hoffman: 44:26

We are gonna do a set and you're gonna have to do this for the public, so keep an eye on the city website. I I, I bet you. May, maybe even around Apple Blossom time we, we'll, or maybe after the dust is settled, we do a little kind of, uh, community. Educational workshop here at, here at Rouse. Sure. Yeah, it'd be fun. Alright, keep an eye on that folks. Uh, and Kyle, thanks for coming in. Yes, sir. Thank you. Thanks sir.

Sarah Frey: 44:54

Welcome back to the Rouse Review. Now we are joined by Kit Reder, our communications director and Kelly Henshaw, who's got two of the most important titles in the city. Deputy director of public services and city engineer. And Kelly's main hat today that she's wearing is all about storm water. Hi Kelly. Hello. You know, that's one of my favorite hats to wear. Hi Kelly.

Kit Redmer: 45:16

Hey Sarah. Hey Kelly.

Sarah Frey: 45:18

Hello. Alright, so even though we're talking about stormwater, what we're really talking about are fun events, right?

Kit Redmer: 45:25

Absolutely. Yeah.

Sarah Frey: 45:26

So can't

Kit Redmer: 45:27

wait.

Sarah Frey: 45:27

Spring is officially in the air, right? It is warm this week. It's amazing. Spring March is going out like a lamb. We're ready to be outside. Yes. And that means

45:40

absolutely

Sarah Frey: 45:41

our neighborhood parks, our community areas, our green spaces, they need some love too, right?

45:46

And absolutely.

Sarah Frey: 45:48

April is the month of both Earth Day and Arbor Day. Some may say the most environmentally friendly month of the year.

Kit Redmer: 45:55

I would agree. Yeah. So, and it's also National volunteer month,

Sarah Frey: 45:59

and it's actually, oh, so many great tie-ins. Don't forget so many great tie-ins. Um, so a lot of cool stuff

Kit Redmer: 46:05

in April.

Sarah Frey: 46:06

With all of that, the city's got two things that we really wanna talk about in today's segment, which is about our pickup parties that run from April to November every year. And a brand new event that we're doing in honor of both Earth Day and Arbor Day. They both fall in the middle of the week, so we decided the Saturday after them, April 26th, we're gonna do what we're calling our spring spruce up, which is basically kits at, at best earlier. Do you wanna explain a. Springing spruce up too, everybody.

Kit Redmer: 46:36

Yeah. Thanks Sarah. And, uh, no pressure everybody, but, uh, so I, what I was, I was actually confirming with Sarah because I wanted to make sure before I went on this podcast, I actually knew what the Spring spruce up was. And you know, I, I suggested to her, I said, maybe it's a pickup party. Like a, a big pickup party. Like a pickup party on steroids, right?

Sarah Frey: 46:55

It is. Is that a fair way to describe it? It's, that's a perfect way to describe it.

Kit Redmer: 46:58

Okay.

Sarah Frey: 46:59

It's a pickup party on steroids. Instead of being in one place, we're gonna be at five different places and then we're ending it with a picnic.

Kelly Henshaw: 47:06

Nice. Yes. Right. Sounds like fun. Yeah.

Sarah Frey: 47:09

So, before we get into the nitty gritty of it, let's talk about what a pickup party is. I know all of my, yeah. Start there. Loyal, loyal podcast listeners know what a pickup party is. I know you all know about our stormwater, I know you all know about your credits. Mm-hmm. I know you all have your credits, but let's really dig into. What a pickup party is, Kelly. Absolutely. You've been, you've been around the block the longest when it comes to stormwater and pickup parties. Do you wanna talk a little bit about the history and what they are?

Kelly Henshaw: 47:35

Yeah, sure. So, you know, having people volunteer to clean up their community is a very important part. I feel like being a member of a vibrant community. And so when the stormwater utility was being proposed a couple years back, city council said, Hey, how can we reward people who wanna participate in these things? Can we give them credit on their stormwater bill? And so we did some digging around the state. There are some other localities that are doing this. And so when household shows up for one of these pickup parties or these cleanup events, you get 5% off your stormwater bill just by signing in that you're there. So if you come to every event that we have in 2025, you can get a 45% discount on your stormwater bill. Wow. And I would say the, the ones that are on the monthly ones that are on Thursday evenings, usually. An hour, 45 minutes to an hour of your time.

48:27

Mm-hmm.

Kelly Henshaw: 48:28

Um, the, the, uh, spring spruce up, you know, that might be a little longer, but really to get that perpetual discount on your bill for the next year, we, we will gladly give it to you if you come help us out.

Sarah Frey: 48:44

I was gonna say, you don't have to feel like you need to stick around at any of the events for the full time. Obviously we would love it if you did.

48:50

Yeah.

Sarah Frey: 48:50

But come by, give, give 30 minutes of your time, make your community more beautiful and get a, get a credit on your bill. Yes. Win, win, win, win, win.

Kit Redmer: 48:59

I mean, our parks are pretty clean already, so for the most part, to be fair, right.

Kelly Henshaw: 49:03

We do, we have a fantastic grounds maintenance team that takes care of all of our city parks and yeah. You know, sometimes we're like, don't clean up this week, we have a pickup party coming up. Um, but they, they do a great job. But, you know, some of our, some of our park areas are a little more labor intensive, so having the extra hands is a big help.

Kit Redmer: 49:23

Never

Kelly Henshaw: 49:23

hurts. Yeah.

Sarah Frey: 49:24

Well, specifically the ones that are near streams, those are the ones that tend to get the worst of it and are also the most impactful when it comes to cleaning up for stormwater. Yes. So Kelly, because you're an engineer and I'm a comms major, can you explain? No offense taking Sarah.

Kit Redmer: 49:41

I mean,

Sarah Frey: 49:42

I'm just saying

Kit Redmer: 49:44

actually I was a music major, so the number,

Sarah Frey: 49:45

the, the number of science classes that really went into my education, we don't need to get into. Yeah, definitely not

Kit Redmer: 49:50

engineering on my side, either

Sarah Frey: 49:52

specifically, not engineering. Yeah. But. The creeks and stuff that gets into our creeks and into our streams. How does that impact stormwater and what are, what are we really trying to do with the stormwater program?

Kelly Henshaw: 50:04

Yeah. I mean, I think there's a couple of, uh, different aims there. Obviously any sort of trash that accumulates in our waterways or along storm ditches, things like that, they can lead to blocking hazards. Mm-hmm. And so anytime we have a big rain, if those are clogged Yeah. It causes all kinds of problems upstream. So we, the, you know, the physical stuff makes sense. We have to get that out. But then there's other things like leaf and yard debris that shouldn't be disposed of in drainage that just people think, oh, it's not a big deal. This fell off my trees. I'm just gonna dump it. It's kind of push it in there, but as those things decompose, they actually affect the water quality. So Interesting. That's one reason we work really hard to maintain our storm system and to keep those areas clean. But the, some of the more natural parks, it's really more difficult because naturally stuff just accumulates there, so. Sure. Um, and then when you have big, non-natural things that are building up, they tend to hold onto things like that. And then of course we, we hope nobody ever tries to dispose of things like old oil or, or things like that. Yeah. But if we find containers of that stuff, we obviously wanna get it out there as well.

Sarah Frey: 51:13

Um. A tangential question. Mm-hmm. If somebody notices their neighbor kind of dumping some stuff that shouldn't be getting dumped, is there something they should do? Somebody they should contact?

Kelly Henshaw: 51:23

Yeah. So you can either email us at stormwater@winchesterva.gov, or you can call our stormwater hotline, and that number is on our, the website.

51:32

Sure.

Kelly Henshaw: 51:32

Um, and just report that and we will look into it and, uh, report that as what we call an illicit discharge. It's when something is being put into the storm system that shouldn't be. So we, we take all those reports seriously and follow up on them.

Kit Redmer: 51:46

Thanks for staying on top of that. Yeah. Yeah.

Kelly Henshaw: 51:47

That's so important. I

Kit Redmer: 51:49

mean, we city clean.

Sarah Frey: 51:50

I mean, earth Day is important. Yes. Without gotta take care of it.

Kit Redmer: 51:54

It's our home. Yeah.

Sarah Frey: 51:55

So back to our pickup parties, they are typically the first Thursday of every month from five 30 to 6:30 PM Everybody in the city should have received a calendar in their mailbox. All the pickup parties are listed on the calendar, and the back page of the calendar is a poster that tells you where they all are. So no excuses guys. They're also on our Facebook pages and they're on, um, our website,

Kit Redmer: 52:24

but, and they're all at the same time, right?

Sarah Frey: 52:26

They're all at the same time. Five 30 to six 30. 5 30, 6 30, same time. Yeah. And the only months they're not the first Thursday are May and July. July and July. Mm-hmm. Because Apple Blossom and the 4th of July, nobody wants to go pick up on Yeah. The Thursday. Right. A couple small events there. Um, small things. So

Kit Redmer: 52:44

minor details.

Sarah Frey: 52:45

We hope to see you every, we hope to see everybody at all of them are first one is April 3rd. Mm-hmm. At Hanley High School on the front lawn, so everybody should come out. It's a great time to, I bring my kids out. Do you know how much kids love to use the pickup? The trash picker sticks. Oh yeah.

53:01

Yeah. It's a

Sarah Frey: 53:01

giant claw. Yeah. They love it. It's like a video game. Yes. Kind of like they're, yeah. So bring the whole family out and come help keep the community looking great.

Kit Redmer: 53:11

They get to put on vests too, right? They

Sarah Frey: 53:13

get to wear the safety vest. Oh yeah. Safety vest. They get gloves. Gloves, vest. Yeah, I know. My boys

Kit Redmer: 53:16

love it.

Sarah Frey: 53:17

It's basically a dress up opportunity with like, it's good throw op if you're with like a gr a gross motor skills, uh, component to it. So that's how awesome pickup parties are.

Kit Redmer: 53:28

And can I just say too, it's a great opportunity if, if you're listening to this and you just want to get out and meet your neighbors. You know, maybe get away from a screen for a little while. Mm-hmm.

53:37

You know, if

Kit Redmer: 53:37

that applies to you and I'm looking in the mirror here. Say that. I was gonna say same, you know, especially as you said, I mean as the weather's nice. Yes. I mean, come on out folks. Just come on out and, and meet other folks and, and just have fun. Mm-hmm. You know, it's a good time.

Sarah Frey: 53:49

And even if you don't come to all of them, we try really hard to spread them out across the city so that they're in every neighborhood. Mm-hmm So there should be one. That's good point. That's within a 10 to 15 minute walk at your house. So come on out and join us.

Kit Redmer: 54:01

Yeah, totally.

Sarah Frey: 54:02

Which then brings us to our Spring Spruce app, which as Kit said earlier, is basically a pick party on steroids.'cause we're gonna be five different locations. So we are going to be at Weaver Park, Whittier Park, Timbrook Park, harvest Ridge Park, and over at Family Land at Jim Barnett

Kit Redmer: 54:22

Family Land. So

Sarah Frey: 54:23

pick the one closest to you My son's favorite park. Come together. If you go to family land, you get the builtin playground. If you go to Tim Brook, you got a builtin playground. I'm just saying, um, you can't go wrong with this type. Of course you can't go wrong. No, it's gonna be from 10 to noon. Come for the whole time. Come for part of the time. Earn your stormwater credit. Check in with us, get to know your neighbors a little bit better. Learn about community gardens. Did you know we have community gardens in a lot of these parks? Hmm, that's a great point. So now it's the time to start thinking about those things.

54:53

Yeah,

Sarah Frey: 54:54

so we'll, if there's not a lot of trash, because it is a super clean park and that sometimes happens, we're gonna have mulch to put around trees, right? We might even be planting a couple of trees. So come get involved. Awesome. Make your community feel great. The other cool part about the spring thru up is the picnic at the end. Woo-hoo. Woo hoo. So, yay. So first things first, we've got an incredible sponsor, Redding Landscape. Thank you so much to Redding Landscape. They. Are such a great partner of the city. Kelly can probably go on about it more than I can, but they help us all year round. They do, and they are so phenomenal and they are paying for us to have a picnic over at Whittier Park after the pickup part and the cleanup part of the spring Spruce up is done. So come on over, have some hamburgers and hot dogs. Bring the family. Enjoy. Awesome, awesome. Yeah. Right, because Whittier also has a playground. It does all these awesome playgrounds, little hidden gems. Mm-hmm.

Kit Redmer: 55:49

Hoping for good weather. Of course.

Sarah Frey: 55:51

Always. It is the weekend before Apple Blossom and you know what weather likes to do the weekend before. Awesome. But we're gonna be sure we'll buck the trend. We're gonna be optimistic. That's right. Absolutely. It is a rain or shine event. All of our pickup parties and the spring spruce up rain or shine.'cause we never want to

Kit Redmer: 56:04

Good point.

Sarah Frey: 56:04

Not give you your opportunity to get your stormwater credit. Mm-hmm. But

Kit Redmer: 56:10

So folks will get a credit if they come to Spring Spruce up? Yes. Just like if they come spruce party,

Sarah Frey: 56:14

you'll get a credit just like it's a regular pickup party. Yep.

Kit Redmer: 56:17

Awesome.

Sarah Frey: 56:18

But there's other ways to get credits. There

Kelly Henshaw: 56:21

are.

Sarah Frey: 56:22

So I'm gonna let

Kelly Henshaw: 56:22

Kelly talk about those. All right. So for residential, actually for all properties in the city, the maximum credit you can get is 50%. So if you come to every single one of these events and you get 45%, you're almost there. But if you wanna get to that percent threshold, we have some ways that you can do that. So the easiest one, and I challenge everybody to go online and do this, as you are listening to this podcast right now, the easiest one it is, is to sign the city's no fertilizer pledge. So basically there's a form, you fill it out, you basically say, I pledge that I'm not gonna fertilize my yard this, this year. Um, sign it, you submit it electronically and we apply it to your. Your account. It's good for a year. We send out a reminder when it's about to expire, so you know you need to go do it again for the next year. That's good for somebody

Kit Redmer: 57:12

like me who's lazy and I don't, there you go, work

Sarah Frey: 57:14

anyway. You give 5% off the bat. Like if you're that person who does use fertilizer, I'm not that motivated. So if you're like me and you're a lazy lawn owner Yeah. Right. It's perfect, right? Yeah,

Kit Redmer: 57:26

exactly. I don't even mow it, so, so that Right. But I do, I do pay somebody to mow it. Just for the record.

Sarah Frey: 57:30

Yeah. We don't want code of work coming

Kit Redmer: 57:31

enforcements down the hall. So in case they heard that,

Kelly Henshaw: 57:34

so that is, please

Kit Redmer: 57:35

continue

Kelly Henshaw: 57:35

that. Yeah, that's the easy one. Really low hanging fruit there. Mm-hmm. But, um, you could also install a rain barrel, which the city will give you one, which every property in the city can get one for free. Very cool. Go to our website and sign up on the waiting list and we'll let you know when the delivery weeks are and that's it. And you can sign up for a time slot and we'll bring it to your house. We can't make it any easier than that, bringing

Sarah Frey: 57:57

it to your house. Um, also that's winchester va.gov/stormwater stormwater. Yes.

Kelly Henshaw: 58:02

Yeah. So very nice. Um, those are, those are pretty easy. You can get multiple credits for rain barrels. It's based on the square footage of your roof. Um, and I can't remember what the number is off the, the top, top of my head. Square feet. Is that what It's four. Okay. Yes. So, um, yeah. For every 400 square feet you can have another rain barrel and you get 5% for each one that is installed correctly.

Sarah Frey: 58:22

And if you have questions, once again, there's a stormwater hotline on our website and on the stormwater page you can ask a question. Somebody from the stormwater team will get back to you and help you understand. Yep, yep. What you can do, you can send us a picture of your house and we'll be like, oh, you can probably do X, Y, and Z.

Kelly Henshaw: 58:36

Right. Um, so we have some other, they're a little bit more heavy lifting, that's why the credits are more. But, um, if you wanted to be industrious and have a rain garden designed and installed on your property, we, you could earn up to 35% credit for that. It depends on how much impervious areas draining to that. Um, and would that

Kit Redmer: 58:54

expire after a year, Kelly, or would that be a permanent

Kelly Henshaw: 58:57

That is a three year credit. Credit. Three year. Yeah. None of them are permanent except for the last two that I'm gonna talk about. Gotcha. Um. If you plant a new tree on your property, it has to be new. Before the stormwater utility was established in 2024.

59:15

Mm-hmm.

Kelly Henshaw: 59:16

Um, for every 3000 square feet of open space that you have on your property, so not hard surface, not roof, not driveway, but grass, lawn area. Okay. If you have 3000 square feet, zero to 3000, you can plant one tree. If you have 3001 to 6,000, you can plant two for every tree that you plant and show us that you planted it, you get 5%.

Sarah Frey: 59:37

And we don't care what kind of tree, how big the tree,

Kelly Henshaw: 59:39

I mean, I personally don't care. All trees are good. If you want some input that we have a lovely. And knowledgeable city arborist, who I'm glad, uh, you know, would be glad to give his input on. If you ask Gordon what kind of

Sarah Frey: 59:51

tree to plant, he is gonna be so

Kelly Henshaw: 59:53

happy. Yes, exactly. He really likes that.

Kit Redmer: 59:55

Lots of tips for

Kelly Henshaw: 59:56

you. So, um, and then we have some really heavy ones. We have about 200 properties still in the city. They're on septic. If you wanted to get off septic and go on city sewer, you know, there's some cost associated with that. But you get a 50%, you get automatic 50% credit because the ni the nitrogen savings to the groundwater. Okay. And to the storm water is, is good for us. Really good. And that's for life, right? It is For the length that you own the property.

Sarah Frey: 1:00:22

Mm-hmm. That's a pretty good

Kelly Henshaw: 1:00:23

deal, so,

Kit Redmer: 1:00:24

okay. Yeah, that's a great deal.

Kelly Henshaw: 1:00:24

And then we have this project partnerships thing on here. If the city is doing a project in your area and we need an easement or something like that, we would approach you and say, Hey, um, if, if you would be a partner with us in this, we, we can negotiate a certain percentage of credit for that. And again, those credits are good for the duration that you own the property.

1:00:44

Wow.

Kelly Henshaw: 1:00:44

So those are the residential credits. We also have a slate of non-residential credits mm-hmm. For all of our non-residential properties. So multifamily, um, residential, commercial, industrial, those sorts of things. They are a little more beefy because the stormwater requirements for development of that nature is more technical. So I encourage you to look into those. If you're interested in them, reach out to us, uh, at the stormwater hotline or the phone or, or the email address. Hmm. Or the form on our website, and we'll be glad to help you out with those.

Sarah Frey: 1:01:18

Because once again, not an engineer. So you want the actual engineers helping you with those.

Kit Redmer: 1:01:22

That's right. Credible source.

Sarah Frey: 1:01:24

Exactly.

Kit Redmer: 1:01:24

Kelly, actually, we had an interesting question from a community member. I think it was a week or two ago. They were asking if a husband and wife or a couple comes to a pickup party today, both get credits and how does that work? In the same family?

Kelly Henshaw: 1:01:36

Yeah, so it's one per household. Per household. Okay. Per household. Per event. Per event. Per event. Um, but if both people wanna sign in and one family member wants to apply their credit to a relative's address, maybe somebody who can't get outta their house, we also maintain a running list of people who wanna donate their credits to people. Oh, okay. Who can't get out.

Kit Redmer: 1:01:58

Okay, so they're transferable. Mm-hmm. Um,

Kelly Henshaw: 1:01:59

and so that's good to know

Kit Redmer: 1:02:00

too.

Kelly Henshaw: 1:02:00

Yes. If, if you just say, I wanna donate my credits, but I'm not sure who, we keep a running list. So if somebody comes, oh, that's cool. Calls in and says, Hey, you know, I can't do a pickup party, do you have anything, we would donate your credit for that pickup party to some. Okay. That's awesome. So good to know. Yeah.

Sarah Frey: 1:02:17

So you can feel good about picking up the neighborhood. You can feel good about helping a neighbor get some money off their storm water. Yeah. And you get to hang out with your neighbors in the beautiful weather. Oh, why would you not come to all of this? Correct.

Kit Redmer: 1:02:29

That's right. Come folks. So we wanna see you there.

Sarah Frey: 1:02:32

To wrap up, pick up party. Start Thursday, April 3rd, five 30 to six 30. The first one's at Hanley High School out on the front lawn. And then our spring spruce up is on Saturday, April 26th from 10 to noon at Weaver, Whittier, Timbrook, harvest Ridge, and Family Land at Jim Barnett. And then afterwards, you can join us for a picnic over at Whittier. We hope to see everybody at all of these amazing events. And if you have any stormwater questions, just one more time. Winchester va.gov/stormwater answers every question you could possibly think of. I promise. So,

Kit Redmer: 1:03:08

and if you think of a question that's not on there, let us know and we'll add it that to the That's right. You can

Sarah Frey: 1:03:12

also always just email me and we will get it figured out in my email address again, is Sarah with an h fry, FREY at winchester com. Great. Thank you, Kelly. Thank you. My pleasure.

Dan Hoffman: 1:03:29

Thank you for listening to another edition of the Ralphs review. Uh, a lot of stuff to cover. We went through a, you know, GIS storm water. We, we, we covered a lot of ground today and we thank you for sticking with us. Uh, stick around couple of weeks. We will do, who do we know who's coming in?

Sarah Frey: 1:03:49

Um. Well, in the next couple of weeks we're gonna be talking to our new fire chain.

Dan Hoffman: 1:03:54

That's right. We got, we gotta, we we're gonna have a whole cast here.

Sarah Frey: 1:03:58

We're gonna be talking about the new portal to do permitting.

Dan Hoffman: 1:04:02

Oh yes. Actually, that's a big one too. So that's

Sarah Frey: 1:04:04

coming up next.

Dan Hoffman: 1:04:05

We're gonna have a full, uh, full episode in a couple of weeks. Uh, even if you, even if you don't think permitting applies to you, it does, it does. It does. You want, you wanna put that shed in your backyard permitting. You want a fence, you wanna put a fence up? Permitting.

Sarah Frey: 1:04:19

Mm-hmm.

Dan Hoffman: 1:04:19

Get your permits, folks, and they're, your business

Sarah Frey: 1:04:21

needs a new sign permit.

Dan Hoffman: 1:04:22

They are there to keep you out of trouble. You might not, you might see it as bureaucracy or you might think it's a waste of time. Trust me. It keeps you out of trouble and it keeps the contractors working on your property. It keeps them. Honest, honest to a va. Lack of a better way to put it. It, you know, it, it ensures that they're gonna be following the proper standards

Sarah Frey: 1:04:46

and make sure everything is safe.

Dan Hoffman: 1:04:47

Yes,

Sarah Frey: 1:04:48

safety is key.

Dan Hoffman: 1:04:49

Safety is key. Tune in next time for that one and uh, until then, we'll see you on city hall.