March Board highlights

Goochland’s Board of Supervisors held its regular monthly meeting on March 5.

Spring Town Hall meetings start today. The schedule is: District 5, March 7 at Dover Baptist Church, 635 Manakin Road, Manakin Sabot; District 1 March 11 at Byrd Elementary School 2704 Hadensville-Fife Road; Districts 2 & 3 March 18 at the county administration buildings 1800 Sandy Hook Road; District 4 March 25 at Salem Baptist Church 465 Broad Street Road. All sessions begin at 6 p.m. Supervisors and School Board members will be present along with staff to discuss the budget for FY25, which begins on July 1, county wide initiatives, and matters of interest to each district. Please try to attend one or more sessions. These meetings will also be livestreamed at https://va-goochlandcounty.civicplus.com/1154 .

Don’t forget to set your clocks ahead an hour next Sunday and test your smoke alarms. If you do not have a working smoke alarm in your home, contact the Fire-Rescue office at 804-556-5304 to request one at no charge. These devices save lives.

The March agenda included, for the first time in recent memory, a report on agriculture activity. During citizen comment Keith Burgess, District Manager for the Monacan Soil and Water Conservation District, which includes all land in both Goochland and Powhatan Counties, said that the MSWCD is working with the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to develop a “local total maximum daily load implementation plan for a portion of the Dover Creek watershed. The area in question is east of Shallowell Road, to roughly Manakin Road and Millers Lane, south of Broad Street Road. The plan will include best management practices to improve water quality, which could involve fencing cattle out of streams.

Burgess also reported that the at large director position for the district is currently vacant. Go to https://www.monacanswcd.org/ to details.

In the future, reports from Burgess should be part of the agenda. Agriculture is essential to keep Goochland rural.

The consent agenda, items that require board action but tend to be “housekeeping”, was 19 entries long and all were approved or adopted as appropriate.

It included:

·         Commendations for outgoing planning commissioners: John Myers, District 1; Matt Brewer District 2, Carter Duke, District 3; and Tom Rockecharlie, District 5. Thanks to these gentlemen for their service. According to the county website, the four-year terms of all planning commissioners end on March 31, 2024.

·         Scheduling April 16 public hearings to add parcels to the Tuckahoe Creek Service District.

·         A resolution to amend the FY24 budget by budgeting and appropriating $400,000 in the school capital improvement plan for roof replacement at Byrd Elementary School.

·         Several resolutions requesting the addition of roads in Mosaic into the state system for secondary maintenance and authorization for the County Administrator to execute rights of way agreements with VDOT for Mosaic pedestrian facilities.

·         A memorandum of understanding with the Goochland Day Foundation to memorialize the relationship for Goochland Day 2024, which will be held on May 17 and 18, 2024.

Complete details of these items are in the March 5 board packet available on the county website goochlandva.us.

Goochland Superintendent of Schools Michael Cromartie, Ed. D. shared the school division’s proposed budget for FY25 with an excellent presentation. Go to https://www.goochlandschools.org/page/budget-and-finance  for details.  Fiscal challenges faced by our wonderful schools echo those of every agency of local government, recruiting and retaining the best people. Cromartie pointed out that excellent schools increase the value of homes in a community. Ironically, one of the reasons cited by departing teachers for other jurisdictions is the high cost of housing in Goochland, which results in long commutes from other areas with more affordable shelter options.

Cromartie said that Goochland is losing ground in the competition for the best employees and the school division continues to prioritize salary increases to “counter inflationary pressures and recognize the valued contributions of dedicated staff.”

Opening the new Goochland Elementary School at the start of the next school year in August will require an increase of $371,000 in insurance, utility, and insurance costs. The new GES is much larger than its predecessor. The projected average daily membership of the division for the next school year is 2,480, down from 2,572 this year.

The school budget is balanced based the amount of money provided by the county. Due to a funding mechanism called the composite index, Goochland pays 80 percent of local education costs. This year’s county transfer of $29,373,150 is 70 percent of the total school budget, up from 68 percent in the previous year. State funding amounts tend to be determined after the local budget process is complete, requiring amendments along the way.

Cromartie’s presentation included a priority list of unfunded but needed items that include $120K for increased health insurance costs, and a $1.4 million “market adjustment” to put Goochland salaries at the median or top half of competitive regional school divisions.

The supervisors appointed Planning Commissioners for a four-year term beginning April 1, 2024, as follows: District 1 Guy Kimmerly; District 2 Amanda Kowalski; District 3 Jess McLaughlin; District 4 Curt Pituck (this is a reappointment); and District 5 Dwain Cosby.

Thomas Little was appointed to the Board of Equalization to succeed Danial Keeton from April 1, 2024, to March 31, 2027.