Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

Good evening, welcome to the Board of Supervisors budget public hearings. Today is Thursday, June 4th, 2026, 7.01 p.m. Board meeting room 39 Bank Street, Southeast Avenue, Virginia, 24531. Madam Clerk, would you call the roll, please?

Yes, sir. Mr. Bynum? Here. Mr. Brown? Here. Mr. Dalton?

Here.

Mr. Dudley? Present. Mr. Whittle? Here. Mr. Ingram? Here. Mr. Tucker?

Here. All right. Are there any items to be added to the agenda? Hearing none, I'll entertain a motion to approve the agenda.

I'll make a motion.

Thank you. Second. Thank you, Mr. Dudley. Mr.

Bowman. Mr.

Bowman, all right. Any discussion on the motion? If not, vote electronically, please. Motion passes unanimously. That takes us down to agenda item number four, public hearings. Each person addressing the board under a public hearing shall step up, give his or her name and district and or his or her place of residency for non-county citizens in an audible tone of voice for the record. Unless further time is granted by the chairman, shall limit his or her address to three minutes. Speakers for a group shall be limited to 10 minutes. Speakers shall conclude their remarks at that time unless the consent of the board is affirmatively given to extend the speaker's allotted time. Absent chairman's approval, no person shall be able to speak who has not signed up to speak. All right, agenda item four, public hearing on increasing water and sewer rates. Mr. Adcock, Ms. Vandahat is here. Thank you.

Yes, Mr. Adcock, he called me this afternoon and I said, I think I can handle it for you today. He's been here through all of the discussions about the water and sewer rates. And if you all remember, a sewer study was done on rates about four or five years ago, and it gave us a schedule of how we should increase rates in order to keep up with inflation to also provide sufficient funds for capital infrastructure. And as you all are very well aware of, water and sewer infrastructure is very expensive. And so this is just keeping in line with what that study recommended. And we don't think that it's out of line at all. So we have advertised for these water rates, and they've been posted on our website and have been made available for the public. And so we're here tonight to hear any citizens that may want to speak regarding those rate changes.

Thank you, Ms. Vandahat. All right, it is 7.04. We open public hearing. Anyone sign up to speak?

No, sir.

Anyone here desiring to speak that did not sign up? Yes, sir. Come on up.

Yeah, I'm Aubrey Myers, a standing member of the district. Since nobody signed up to speak, I will speak briefly. Looking back last year at the Balco controversy, voting, everything that happened during that, I recall an individual from Hurt stood up and gave out a lot of facts and figures on the budget of the county and everything, and what would happen if the data centers were not brought to the county. And from what I read in the paper, exactly what was said in the public hearing on the Balco thing, it came to fruitation. We are now facing a tax increase where if we had the Balco money, we would not be facing a tax increase, a garbage fee increase. and then the other increases that may come about. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. All right, it is now 7.05 to close public hearing. I don't think any action needs to be taken. No, sir, not today. Thank you. All right, that moves us down to agenda item 4B, public hearing, FY 2027 school budget. Ms. Vendahot again.

The school budget is a separate part of the county budget overall. And so the school board has their own public hearing, which they have done. They have also provided us with documentation by category for their budget. That budget is roughly $132.4 million. It's not a lot more than it was last year. That does include their cafeteria budget as well as their operating budget. It, too, has been advertised properly, and tonight we're here to hear public input on their budget.

Thank you, Ms. Vande Heide. It is now 7.06. We open the public hearing on the school budget. Anyone signed up to speak?

No, sir.

Thank you. Anyone here desiring to speak that has not signed up? All right. It is now 7.07. We close the public hearing. And I don't believe any action is necessary. We take care of that at our regular business meeting. All right. That moves us down to agenda item 4C, public hearing on FYI 2027 county budget. Ms. Vander Heide, thank you for your diligence and hard work. Yes.

So the county budget this year is in total $264.9 million. It does include that $132.4 million school budget. That is a part of your total budget. So you will vote on that budget, which also includes the school budget at your 16th meeting. And also that has been advertised. You all have worked hard. very diligently for months on that budget, and we're here tonight to hear citizen input on that budget as well.

Thank you, Ms. Vander Heide. All right, now it is 7.08. We open the public hearing on the county budget, FY 2027. Anyone sign up to speak?

No, sir.

Anyone here desiring to speak that did not have an opportunity to sign up? Hearing none, at 7.08 we close public hearing. All right, if there's nothing else, that moves us down to agenda item five. Mr. Chairman. Yes, sir.

Mr.

Shorter. I would just be remiss if I didn't say that Dr. Mayhew contacted me this afternoon and wanted me to express to you all the reason that he's not here this evening. He wanted to be. but the Dan River baseball team is in a regional final in Martinsville, and he needed to be there in support of that team and its efforts, but he wanted the entire board to know the reason for his absence this evening. Okay.

Thank you, Mr. Shorter. Anything else to claim our attention? Hearing none, we stand adjourned.