March 11, 2025: A hastily produced attempt to let people know what's happening today in local government
Lynchburg City Council to hold public hearing on rezoning for 750 homes on Wiggington Road
I had big hopes this weekend that I would somehow get right back into providing updates of what’s happening at local and regional meetings in the Fifth District. Then again, I had hopes I’d be able to buy my parents’ house in Campbell County to set up a new headquarters for Town Crier Productions.
That didn’t happen and this newsletter ground to a halt. It’s now off pause but still in slow motion because I’m already at capacity with Charlottesville Community Engagement and the column I write for C-Ville Weekly.
To guide development of this newsletter, I created a spreadsheet to let me know basic facts about the 24 localities in the Fifth District. That’s three cities and 21 counties. There are also towns but I can’t get to those at the time. But I firmly believe that every community needs access to information about government written by a non-partisan actor. I’ve been a citizen of a democracy my whole life and have spent my career trying to draw attention to the mechanisms in place at the local level. I’m going to keep going.
In any case, this week I’m just going to give a status update on where meetings are. There may not be as much information in here as I’d like, but I am giving myself half an hour to complete these assignment.
The Week That Already Has Been
There were four meetings of elected bodies in the Fifth District yesterday. These were held in Albemarle, Bedford, Buckingham, and Mecklenburg counties. I recorded the Albemarle meeting and will write up a discussion which centered around the cost to pay for the 57 firefighters hired by a federal grant. For background, here’s my story on the introduction of County Executive Jeffrey Richardson’s proposed budget for FY2026.
The Mecklenburg County Board of Supervisors met for about an hour yesterday and their meeting is available on YouTube. One of the items on the agenda was the initiation of a total ban on solar projects. You can see the staff report here.
Watch on YouTube:
The Bedford County Board of Supervisors had a work session on the budget yesterday as well as a regular meeting that lasted less than an hour. There were no public hearings. Here’s the meeting portal. I believe they’ll next meet on March 24, 2025 but I’m rusty at this.
Watch on YouTube:
The Buckingham County Board of Supervisors made it to an hour and a half yesterday. There’s an argument to be made for me to report on this county more often given how close it is to the region I cover more closely. Perhaps over time I’ll manage to add capacity. As I am now 12 minutes in to the 30 I have allotted for this task, I confess I am abandoning my attempt to find the agenda.
Oh wait. The heading’s just wrong. You can access meeting packet here.
Watch on YouTube:
The Day That Is Today
There are seven meetings today and I’ll have full details about the Nelson County meeting below this. For now I’m just going to give you a list of the meetings and perhaps a little about them.
Amelia County
The Board of Supervisors will have a budget workshop at 1 p.m. in the Amelia County Administration Building. I have to resist the urge to dive into all of the details because I’m running out of time. (agenda packet)
Cumberland County
The Board of Supervisors will meet at 7 p.m. in the Circuit Courtroom. They’ll hear reports from various agencies and departments. There are no public hearings. (agenda packet)
Goochland County
The Board of Supervisors will meet at 3:30 p.m. in Board Conference Room 251 at 1800 Sandy Hook Road. This will be a joint work session with the School Board on their Capital Improvement Plan request. (agenda)
City of Lynchburg
The seven-member City Council will meet for a work session at 4 p.m. in the 2nd Floor training room of City Hall at 900 Church Street. They’ll have a discussion on the capital improvement program as well as whether committee meetings should be televised. They’ll also get updates on Heritage Park as well as the Virginia Opioid Abatement Authority grant. (meeting overview)
City Council is a fractious body. There are two closed sessions with the second being “specific to a legal analysis of Virginia and other relevant laws applicable to the conduct of Councilmember Martin Misjuns and Councilmember Chris Faraldi.” Both are Republicans but are part of different factions.
The regular meeting will be at 7 p.m. Did you know a ladder truck costs $2.4 million? You do if you look at the consent agenda. (meeting overview)
There are several public hearings:
One is on relocating polling places in two precincts. (item summary)
The second is on a rezoning of property from R-1 to R-2 for construction of a new home on McVeigh Road. (item summary)
The third is for a rezoning and Comprehensive Plan amendment for construction of up to 750 residential homes on Wiggington Road (item summary)
The fourth is for a revision and update of the city’s floodplain management regulations (item summary)
The fifth is on appropriating $10 million to replace lead and copper in some sections of the city’s water service lines (item summary)
The sixth is on approving the “Virginia Department of Health Drinking Water State Revolving Fund FY 2023 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Lead Service Line Inventory Funding.” This could use some unpacking. I’m out of time. (item summary)
Another thing about Lynchburg. You have to tell the City Council Clerk in advance if you want to address Council. There are nearly three dozen people. The final one is… well.
“While two of the three Protective Orders against me expired March 5th 2025 at 11:59 PM, because of mother nature one could possibly still be in Effect. With that being said, while it it isn't standard protocol I would like to continue my request to be placed last on list of speakers so I can remain in conference room outside of chambers until it is my time to speak.”
There are three items under general business. I am now 13 minutes over the time I allotted.
Prince Edward County
The Prince Edward County Board of Superviosrs meets at 7 p.m. The meeting packet is split into three sections. There are eight public hearings. I have run out of time for this installment but two of them relate to a solar installation. There’s so much I want to learn. (meeting info)
Nelson County
Nelson County is one of the localities I cover regularly. I want to be able to provide a summary like this for each of the 24 in the Fifth District. I believe it’s time to find funding to do so.
Public hearing in Nelson County on issuance of $25 million in bonds
The five-member Nelson County Board of Supervisors meets at 2 p.m. in the General District Courtroom at the Courthouse in Lovingston. I should say at the outset that the recommended budget for Fiscal Year 2026 will not be introduced at this meeting but at a special meeting on March 18 at 10 a.m.
After the public comment period is the approval of the consent agenda with three items. They are the minutes from the September 19, 2024 retreat, an amendment to the current year’s budget, and a grant application for $4,5000 from Virginia Commission for the Arts’ Creative Communities program. This is for the Wintergreen Music Festival.
Next up is a proclamation for American Red Cross Month.
There are two presentations, both from the Virginia Department of Transportation. The first is a general update but the second is a work session on the Secondary Six Year Plan. That usually is funding to pave roads. There will be a public hearing on April 8, 2025. (learn more)
There are four items under the new business category.
A new Fire Marshal will be appointed for Wintergreen allowing investigations to be done at the resort. This will be Joshua Bean and the idea is to prevent insurance premiums from increasing after a recent audit by the Insurance Safety Office. (learn more)
There will be a renewal authorization for the county’s health insurance for FY2026. (learn more)
There will be a resolution to authorize an April 8 public hearing on a proposed amendment to Chapter 2, Article IV, Section 2 related to elections, terms, and vacancies. This is related to recent legislation in Virginia that moved party primaries to the third week of June. (learn more)
There will be an update on the rewrite of the zoning that is currently underway under the stewardship of the Berkley Group. I wrote up a more detailed story in the March 10, 2025 edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement. (read the story) (learn more)
Then there will be reports, appointments, correspondence, and directives.
Then the Board will go into closed session related to litigation with the Region 2000 Services Authority related to the landfill.
The Board will reconvene at 7 p.m. for a public hearing on a $25 million general obligation bond to finance the renovation of the Nelson County High School. These will be sold by the Virginia Public School Authority. There’s a lot of paperwork in this one.
Reading material
I ran out of time. But surely it’s time to find others to assist me. The problem is, no one really wants to be a journalist. No one wants to aspire to be a neutral in a world of factions and friction. Yet, this is what I want to do, and I will find others to assist me.