October 8, 2024 Board of Supervisors Meeting - Oct 08, 2024

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Fairfax County Board of Supervisors 4h 54m 6 speakers 8 agenda items transcribed 21 hours ago official recording ↗

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What opening remarks and moments of silence are made at the start of the meeting?

Jeffrey C. McKay 0:01

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our Board of Supervisors meeting of October 8, 2024. It is great to have a big crowd here in the auditorium. And we're going to begin our meeting, as we always do, with a moment of silence to be followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. And before those who are able rise for the Pledge of Allegiance, I'm going to ask my colleagues if they have anyone that they would like to keep in our thoughts and prayers this morning. And I'm going to begin just by mentioning two. One is I'm sad to report the passing of Carrie Hitt. Carrie and her husband, Bruce Wright, are well known for their bicycle advocacy, having founded the Fairfax Alliance for Better Bicycling. And Carrie was known to take multi-day trips along the W&OND and Rock Creek Park.

Jeffrey C. McKay 0:57

She spent most of her career studying natural resources at the USGS in Reston and was a pioneer in the use of GIS technology to analyze national water resources and land use data. Carrie spread awareness of ovarian cancer by sharing her own personal story and fight against ovarian cancer through the Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance Survivors Teaching Students program and made a major impact on the medical training of students. She was also an avid dancer and loved animals. Carrie is survived by someone we know really well, her husband, Bruce Wright, who were together for 33 years and her sister, Linda Mecklenburg. And I just want to reemphasize that Carrie and Bruce began and founded the Fairfax Alliance for Better Bicycling.

Jeffrey C. McKay 1:49

And I worked closely with them for many years on a bicycle master plan and so many of the other pieces that we have in place today to protect pedestrian and bicycle safety were led by Fab in many ways. And so her legacy will last on here in Fairfax County for a long time. And if we can keep Bruce and all of her friends at Fab in our thoughts and prayers, that would be appreciated. And then secondly, I think we all are watching closely the devastating effects from the hurricane that recently occurred. There have been now over 220 deaths attributed to Hurricane Helene, more than half of which are in our neighboring North Carolina. which experienced the worst of the storm, including several feet of fast-moving water.

Jeffrey C. McKay 2:40

Helene made landfall, as we know, on September 26 in Florida, causing catastrophic flooding, power outages, and extensive damage across several southeastern states. Sadly, the youngest victims are month-old twins who died when a tree fell on their home in Georgia. Damage estimates are in

Unknown 3:00

the

Jeffrey C. McKay 3:00

many billions, and we know that the devastation will affect these communities not for days, weeks, or months, but as many have said, for many, many years. Fairfax County has proudly deployed numerous resources in response. Our federally funded and trained urban search and rescue team, Virginia Task Force One, deployed as a FEMA Type 1 80-person team to Florida. and conducted search and rescue operations in the Tampa Bay area. They were then redeployed to flood-ravaged Ashe County, North Carolina, where they conducted hasty searches and damage assessments over the next five days. They have now relocated to Cherokee, North Carolina, to continue their work. In addition to our Type 1 team, Virginia Task Force 1 personnel are also serving in various support roles within FEMA, including a human remains canine strike team,

Jeffrey C. McKay 3:52

and are anticipated to be deployed through October 18, 2024. In addition to the USA Team, elements of the National Capital Region Incident Management Team and the National Capital Region Communications Cachet were deployed to Washington County, Virginia. These specialized Fairfax County-based teams provided critical equipment and personnel to Abington, Virginia, setting up emergency management centers and restoring communication networks essential for search and rescue efforts. And finally, just yesterday, four Fairfax County 9-11 dispatchers deployed to North Carolina with teams from Loudoun County, Prince William County, Charlottesville, and the National Capital Region Incident Management Team.