Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

I'll call this U board of supervisors public hearing meeting April 20th, 2026. Like to welcome all of our visitors. remind you if you want to address the board at uh and be put on the agenda at any of our regular meetings, uh you'll need to contact the county administrator's office at least 7 days in advance of any of our regular meetings. Uh however, this being a public hearing night, uh as we get into it, uh you uh will have an opportunity to address the board under the public hearing. Again, welcome uh everyone. Um uh thank you for coming out and participating in your county government. Um prior to getting uh started, we have a member of the board of supervisors that as part of the board's bylaws, it it permits electronic participation. And I'm going to read that. Uh electronic participation by a board member. Section 2.3A of the Henry County Board of Supervisors bylaws allows for a board member to participate in a meeting of the board through electronic communications subject to the limitations of the Code of Virginia section 2.2-3708.3. Supervisor Travis Puit of the Ridgeway District has requested to participate in tonight's meeting through electronic means. He's online now with us. Mr. app it. For the record, will you please state your purpose for needing to participate by electronic means and state your current location?

Yes, sir. I'm in Las Vegas, Nevada for a board conference. All right. Thank you. Uh, a vote is needing to uh to affirm his participation by the board. I'll need a motion from board members. I make a motion that you can participate by Zoom.

Second. We have a motion and a second. All in favor is uh the affirmative of five votes here. So um uh thank you for joining us, Mr. Puit. I'd also like to mention uh as we're mentioning uh visitors, uh thank you uh those members of the Fielddale uh uh fire department and uh for being here as well as we have Dr. Boone and Mr. Weaver from uh our financial department of the Henry County Public Schools. Thank you all for being here. Uh with that agenda item number five, uh we will conduct a public hearing. Uh but prior to that, I'll ask Mr. Wagner who would uh provide some background material on the budget process.

The public hearing is part of the county's annual budget process and is being held in code of Virginia and the public hearing notices have been properly advertised. The pro proposed fiscal year 2026 2027 budget reflects several months of work with departments, agencies, and the board to develop a plan that maintains core services, supports public safety and education, and provides a financial plan for the upcoming year. The total proposed bal budget is balanced at 231,528,674, which includes all county operations as well as the school board's budget. The proposed schoolboard budget totals 117,973,744 which includes $24,352,855. The board is also considering tax levies of a real estate tax of not more than 50 cent per $100 of value, personal property, machinery, and tools tax rate of not more than $1.64 per $100. Since this is a reassessment year, the board is also required to hold a separate public hearing specific on the tax rate as it relates to the reassessment, which is scheduled for Tuesday, April 28th at 6 p.m. The board may ultimately make changes to the budget as it sees appropriate. However, if the board desires to set the tax rate higher than what has been advertised, the board would be required to readvertise and hold an additional public hearing. The purpose of this public hearing is to receive citizen input on both the schoolboard budget and the total county budget. Mr. Chairman, that concludes myself.

All right. Uh thank you, Mr. Wag. Any uh questions from the board prior to us starting with a public hearing? Okay. Um, let the record reflect that the public hearing will begin at um, 7:05 uh, p.m. This portion of the meeting is dedicated to hearing from our citizens. It is a time for the board to listen, not to debate or deliberate. The board will have an opportunity to discuss and take any action on the budget after the public hearing is closed. If you care to address the board, uh, come to the podium, state your name and the district in which you live. By coming to the podium, you have agreed that you'll exhibit respect for the board and its members. You'll receive the same consideration from the board. Uh, please keep your uh presentation to no more than five minutes. We'll now hear from those who signed up to speak, and I've been provided the list. um and we'll go in that order in which they signed up. If there's anyone who would like to address the board in regard to this public hearing who has not signed up, we'll add you to the list at the conclusion of our first speakers. Uh the first name I have on the list is uh Jeffrey R. Hajes. All right. I'm not exactly clear if this is the prop proper one for me to be in. I just back my tax assessment on my house. Am I in the right place in the right meeting? This is the meeting I was called when I went up to the office and of the fourth floor to be here. So, am I in am I on the right one or do I need to be in the one with 28?

Uh, I'm going to let Mr. Wagner going to answer that question. So the budget is based on the tax rate. So you're acceptable to speak or above those.

Okay. All right. First question is um I'm just trying to see I don't have a problem with taxes going up. I know that taxes have to be paid like you were talking gentlemen here earlier about the different things that it pays for roads. You know these gentlemen here ladies. Uh, so I know we have to pay taxes. I'm not in here to complain about taxes. I'm trying trying to see if my assessment was fair is what I'm trying to determine. The first thing I want to know, which you don't really get any information much when you get these assessments. Matter of fact, when I got the assessment, the first thing I went to was GSI, which is a mapping of it was shut down. It was all wiped off except for the address and the person's name. And I when I moved into this county uh in 2016, I built my house um off of Reef Creek in the Basset area. So what I want to know is what the assessment range is from zero to 100 or does it go from a zero higher than 100 assessment. What is the range? Does anybody know?

Again, we're here to listen and we will ask.

I got my ass was 61% on my house. Okay. And uh what I've been doing I I looked at the I've been looking at the gsi for years. So basically I know what most of my neighbors assessments were. My assessment before this came out was $212,000. That doesn't include that's improved value. That doesn't include the acreage because the acreage wasn't increased. My assessment was already higher than everybody's in my neighborhood. Okay. Even at 2012, which mine went up $142,000 at 61% to $354,600. Even as I look at the new assessments on the gsi, my 212 back before my morning assessment is higher than what there is have been reassessed at. Now I know my house is built in 2016 and I don't know what the um variance is. Okay. And I don't know the way the parameters are set up, but there's two things that stick out to me on my assessment. The age of my house is one of the reasons why it's got a higher assessment. Everything else in my area is built in the 50s, the 60s, the 80s, and 90 except for one, and it's a larger house than mine and was built down in 2021. and it said it's the highest one assessed on my area which is at 674,000.

I've looked at houses in my area that are twice the size of my house, twice the size of my house that are assessed less than my house is assessed. So, I don't understand unless it's the age of the house, which I worked in the building industry for 45 years. Built a lot of things. I worked in hardware. I've worked in big box stores for 45 years. So, I know a lot about building. A lot of these houses that are built in these years are built better than most houses that are built today. A lot better. And a lot of the houses that I'm looking at are brick houses cuz most of them in my area are brick houses. Mine is not. Mine is a law firm. I built a lot of it myself. Okay. So, these are with the questions. You're not giving any information before the fact. Very hard to get information after the fact. When the gsi is shut down, all those numbers are gone. You can't look at them until these new assessments came up. So, that bothers me. Um, I won't talk about I know I I talked to a gentleman, I don't remember his name. He called me when I came down and the lady couldn't get off of me. He called me on April the 9th and his extension was 4611 and he said and I heard y'all talking about it that percentage was 38 what it is right or 0.38

and what it was was 0 555 is what's on my information here and he said it's going to be somewhere in that range between 038 and 055. And he said more than likely it's not going to be at 38. It's going to be higher because that only holds steady to what's budgeted already, not all the other stuff. So it's probably going to be somewhere above 38. So, I've got quite a few houses here. I've got right directly behind me, um, a house was built, actually, the fellow sold me the land. His house was built in 1976. His house was larger than mine. Got an inground pool. I don't have an entry on. He's got a building almost as big as my house in his new assessment as that 225,000. Mine's at 354,000. Okay. Now, I don't know how that happens unless there's an algorithm out there that has parameters in it. Okay. One of the other thing is my house is fully paid for and I don't know about these other houses but some are and some aren't fully paid for. I'm wondering if that's an hour where this person's got theirs paid for they can afford more. So you know their is higher than somebody else's. I don't know. I'm not giving any information. There's no information given. You have to dig for this

information to find it. If you're not looking for it, you're not aware of it. Um, Mr. Hodge, I know it's over 5 minutes. Uh, I uh and it's fine if you can kind of wrap up and and even after this, I'm sure that the supervisor in your district will be glad to discuss this with you and maybe give you some u uh some options on this.

Okay. All right. Um, well, like I say, I'm not opposed to taxes. I stood I pay my electrical tax or electricity and real estate. And was a lady in there standing in front of me complaining. She says, you know, I I've paid all my taxes, you know, my house. Why do I have to keep paying taxes? Because the courthouse, you have to pay for the courthouse. The sheriff's department, you have to pay for them. the roads, you have to pay the damage. I don't have a problem with taxes. I have a problem with is it fair? And it's no way for me to figure out when you're not given any information if it's fair or not. So, if 61% is fair, if $145,000 is fair, I'm okay with it. But it's got to be something consistent across the board is what I'm saying. And I'm, you know, I got a lot of stuff I could talk about, but that's pretty much the gist of it. You know, I just I just want a fair shake. Uh, it's all I want.

Yes, sir. And if this is fair, it's fine with me. Yes, sir. But if it's not fair, it's not fine to me. Yes, sir. Okay. Yes, sir. All right. Thank you for the time. Uh thank you. Thank you. Next we'll have uh Craig McCroski. Uh uh please.

Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity to come forward again. Name is Craig McCrosky. I live at the Basset Reed Creek uh division. Uh to be fair, I am employed uh full disclosure I guess by United Way uh here representing the county and the city. And one of the roles that I uh partake in is with our West Pemont Better Housing Coalition. Uh I am the treasurer for that for that organization. And uh one of the projects that we run out of the West Pemont Better Housing Coalition is the MHC warming center. And that's a subject I wanted to come uh talk a little bit about tonight. So uh Mr. Wagner and members of the board. Uh thank you for your continued support uh over the past two years in the warming center financially as well as just principally and also for your consideration to support uh that in the coming year. Your contributions have already made a measurable out uh of difference most notably allowing us to transition from an all volunteer model and to add paid to part-time staff at a time when volunteerism has significantly declined. I want to briefly share why this matters both personally and for our community. I returned here 10 years ago with a successful corporate job but one that kept me constantly on the road. I saw the needs in the community that I couldn't address. COVID came along, job ended, and uh I ended up with something unexpected besides trying to figure out how to keep keep the house over our ro over our heads. But that was time and the time led me to the warming center and it has reshaped my understanding of both the need and the opportunities in our county. This past season, over 130 individuals came through our doors seeking warmth, safety, and connection. We helped 28 individuals move into housing and connected more than 40 more

with critical support services. Now, you hear 100 130 came through the doors and we only helped 28. That doesn't mean the other hundred are still out there unhoused. Certainly, there are still those that are unhoused. Excuse me. But additionally, a lot of people just are there kind of temporarily. Either family comes through and picks them up or and and takes care of them and those kind of things. So, but these are not just numbers, right? They represent a reduced strain on emergency services, fewer individuals on the street exposed to dangerous winter conditions, and more residents moving towards stability and self-sufficiency. Right now, our impact is constrained not by a lack of need, but by a lack of capacity. We've identified additional grant and partnership opportunities that could significantly expand our services and reduce our long-term reliance on municipal funding, which is our goal. However, pursuing those opportunities requires dedicated expertise and time that our current team simply cannot cannot provide as we all have full-time jobs and frankly running the center takes most of our extra available time. Our increased funding request this year is focused and strategic. It will help fund one full-time position dedicated to the warming center. This is not just an expense. It is in our eyes a multiplier. With this capacity, we can actively pursue these external funding sources. We can strengthen partnerships with service providers and improve outcomes for the individuals transitioning into stable housing that often require support in order to maintain that h housing and we can ultimately reduce future dependence on county resources. I certainly understand the concern about increasing and ongoing commitments. However, this request is specifically designed to position the warming center

to become more financially self- sustaining over time. With the right investment now, we are confident that we can diversify our funding and lessen the long-term building burden on the county. Simply put, we see this as an opportunity to invest in a solution that not only addresses immediate needs, but builds a more efficient, sustainable system moving forward. Um the details uh we we put a request in. It did ask for an increased funding over what we awarded last year. We're very thankful for that. We're very thankful to see that at this point it's been proposed to keep level funding, but the request would be to kind of come back go back and look at our request and see if it might uh garner some additional support. If you've not yet reviewed our full request uh submitted to the county administration office, I'd welcome the opportunity to share it and maybe discuss how this investment can deliver measurable returns for our community. Again, overall, thank you for your leadership and your commitment to our county and our services.

Thank you, Mr. McCrosski. Is there anyone else wishing to address the board in this public hearing? Anyone else? Yes, please come to the podium at this time that I only had two that signed up. We signed in. We didn't sign up. U to the board of supervisors. I know most of you. Hey, if you uh state your name for the record and your district in here,

Steve Fure. Uh, I'm speaking for Fielddale Volunteer Fire Department though, but I don't live in the Fielddale district. It's in Martinsville district, but I do speak for Fielddale Volunteer Fire Department tonight. Fieldell is the oldest fire department, volunteer fire department in this area. Um, we are one of the few fire departments because I don't know about the rest of them that we don't own our main station. Our main station is owned by Henry County. Our upper station, which is considerably smaller than a lower station, is uh we own that and we have maintained that. We've got a situation now with the roof on Fieldell Volunteer Fire Department that uh it is in bad shape. Uh I'm going to let Keith Sig, chief of the fire department, he's going to come up and tell you about the pricing that we've got to replace our roof. Um, we also as a result of the leaks in the roof, we've got some damage to our wood floors upstairs and uh we don't have the money available right now to do that to fix. Uh we do own the two lots below the building in Fielddale, main building in Fielddale. But there again, there's nothing in the plans right now to do anything other than we've gotten bids on the roof. And Keith Y, you got to tell them about station. Good evening. How you doing? My name is Keith Sink. I'm the chief of the Bedell Volunteer Fire Company. I know several

of you here. Uh I just wanted to come tonight and bring a lot of fine men and women on my fire department and uh we want to say thank you. I did receive an email and if it wasn't uh from Mr. Dale Wagner right here, uh we wouldn't have got approved for that money, but I did receive an email that we were approved for the money to replace our roof on fire department. Uh but we just want to come tonight uh to say thank you for being on the board and again to Dale Wagner for helping us through this. We've been working on this project for about I guess about 18 months. We do a lot of volunteering, a lot of fundraising. We run the Bingo Hall down here uh Lancer Hall. A lot of volunteers are sitting here now. Uh they're involved with the pool at the recreation center. Uh we do a lot of training. We are broke, but we're doing the best we can to serve the community and we'll continue doing so. As long as we got y'all support, we'll stay open. We'll stay running and this group is going to help us tremendously. But we just want to come tonight and thank all y'all and especially Dale. He helped out a lot. That's all we have.

All right. Thank you, Mr. S. And um Mr. Sink is in the Blackberry district. Yes, sir. Um, do we have others that's wishing to address the board in this public hearing? Anyone else? Seeing no indication. As such, I will close the public hearing at 7:25. Mr. Wagner, do you have anything uh that uh we need to consider as far as board action tonight? Yeah, just a reminder the meeting next Tuesday and 6 p.m.

board members, do you have anything that we need to consider tonight and I know that each of you uh have been uh contemplating what we've last talked about in our work session. you've communicated some of those uh thoughts to county administration and of course we'll still have some opportunities uh to discuss this along with tax rate setting. Um anyone have anything tonight?

I just want to make sure like to say that each meeting and I want to ask Mr. Wagner about the the budget and the information that we receive on the budget. Is this online for everyone to see? Yes, above the budget is posted to our public website.gov as well as there's been social media. Okay. I think I just wanted to remind everyone that they can go on and and see all the figures and the revenues and the expenditures that we see. Thank you.

Right. Any other items? Mr. Puit, thank you for joining us tonight. Uh wish you safe travels. Uh I'll accept a motion for adjournment. So moved. Second. Have a motion. Second. All in favor? It is uh 62. Everyone have a good evening.