Board of Supervisors: April 4, 2007

April 4, 2007

Virginia:

AT A CONTINUED MEETING of the Nelson County Board of Supervisors at 5:00
P. M. in the Board of Supervisors Room at the Courthouse, Lovingston Virginia.

Present:     Thomas H. Bruguiere, Jr., Chair
       Thomas D. Harvey, North District Supervisor
Harry S. Harris, South District Supervisor
       Constance Brennan, Central District Supervisor
       Stephen A. Carter, County Administrator
       Candice W. McGarry, Administrative Assistant/Deputy Clerk
       Debbie McCann, Director of Finance & Human Resources


I.   Call to Order

Mr. Bruguiere, Chair, called the continued meeting to order at 5:25 P.M. with four members present to establish a quorum and Mr. Hale being absent.

The Chairman proposed that the Board consider Other Business prior to beginning the FY08 budget work session. The Board agreed and Other Business was considered.

II.   Other Business

A.   VRA Financing, Convenience Center Site Equipment

Mr. Carter reported on the status of the solid waste financing with VRA and noted the decisions on the equipment configuration to be utilized were upcoming. Mr. Carter noted the receipt of only a handful of complaints made to Susan McSwain regarding the removal of open tops from the Rockfish convenience center. The Transfer Station has gotten some complaints recently, but these are primarily from people who were dumping non-household trash into the Rockfish site open-tops and are now having to pay a tipping fee. Mr. Carter noted that the current financing is based on the use of Scenario 1 from the presentation which utilizes both compactors and open tops. He reiterated that the more efficient option is compactors only with Montebello being the only location that would utilize an open top container unless the Board felt it necessary to continue to use the open tops at other sites. He also noted the possibility of buying a roll-off trailer in addition to the equipment presented, but noted that it could be worked into the present total financing amount. Mr. Harris noted that he would like to see the County try moving an open top to Gladstone to see if reduces the ground dumping there. Mr. Carter noted that the County can still experiment with that. He noted no decisions were necessary at this point, but that things were progressing and it would be beneficial to know if the Board had a strong sense about the actual operations in terms of having the open tops or not. He noted that the Board would be considering a resolution authorizing the County to proceed with executing the VRA financing documents at an upcoming meeting.
Ms. Brennan reported having spoken with Harry Powell about acquiring some land for the Faber/Schuyler convenience center who said he was not interested in selling.

There was some discussion regarding Amherst County’s continued participation in the Region 2000 Solid Waste initiative. Mr. Carter noted attending a meeting in which Amherst County noted some hesitancy pertaining to the surcharge for keeping their landfill open and operating in conjunction with that of Lynchburg City once the Authority was operational and noted they seemed to be on the bubble. He stated that it was still cost effective for Nelson County to participate and take waste to Lynchburg if Amherst backs out. He noted Nelson’s participation in the Solid Waste initiative was not predicated on being official members of the Region 2000 Local Government Council.

III.   FY08 Budget Work Session

Ms. McCann noted that there was no new information to share but to recap; the revised net undedicated funds remained at $62,723. No changes to the recommended expenditures were made at the last budget work session.

The Board discussed whether the County had contracted someone to do the mowing. It was noted to be in final process, and the selected contractor’s price was actually lower than last year.

The Board reviewed the expenditure synopsis beginning with the Buildings & Grounds department, with staff noting reasons for increases or decreases in each department and the Board making no changes to the recommended budget amounts. The Board did express some desire to revisit some of the department requests, should improvements in the anticipated revenues provide for that. Review of the Health Department line item was deferred until after a scheduled meeting with them and staff on April 5th.

Following some discussion on rent increases and the rental agreement with the Nelson County Community Development Foundation for space at the Nelson Center, the Board requested a break down of the County’s rental payments and a status report on the NCCDF rental agreement and potential rebates for the next work session.

The Board discussed how best to consider funding to the Agencies listed in the Non-Departmental section of the budget. A suggestion was made to categorize each Agency into priority levels and use that as a means to allocate funding on a percentage of discretionary funding bases, by category. Mr. Carter noted that Ms. McCann had calculated that a 1% increase for all level-funded agencies amounted to about $8,000. It was also proposed that the Board wait until the end of June to see how the revenues have come in for the fiscal year and make any further allocations in the FY08 budget then. Mr. Carter noted that is a possibility, but noted he didn’t see a substantive increase on the horizon. The Board’s consensus was to have staff develop a sheet which could be used to prioritize the Agencies that were level funded or cut back for the next work session.

Rockfish Valley Community Center building maintenance/ownership issues were discussed with Mr. Carter reporting on ongoing problems with obtaining certification for the existing water pressure tank, which could be costly if replacement is needed. He noted Wiley & Wilson would be providing cost estimates on replacing the tank. If not remedied, Health Department fines could be imposed on the County. The consensus of the Board was to defer these issues until the regular meeting on April 10, 2007.

The Board discussed the recommended funding of the Senior Meals at the requested amounts. Ms McCann noted that the Senior Centers had revised their meal costs to $6.13 per meal. It was noted that the JABA per meal cost was $4.75 a difference of $1.38 per meal. The main reason for the increase was noted to be that all of the Senior Centers used Rockfish’s costs, which includes rent and the cost of a cook, as their base meal cost. Mr. Carter stated that the County could potentially be paying for senior meals twice, since in addition to paying for meals at the Senior Centers, the JABA budget accounts for all of the seniors from the Senior Centers going to the Nelson Center for meals even though they aren’t, and there hasn’t been a corresponding JABA budget reduction for the actual meal costs. Mr. Carter noted that Lida Hurst of JABA confirmed this. Whether or not this is occurring and a brief discussion of the JABA budget followed.   Staff noted that if the senior meals were based on JABA’s meal rate the costs of the senior center meals would come down by around $8,000. It was calculated that approximately $6,270 was the cost of JABA meals at the Nelson Center and $1,028 was the JABA cost of home delivered meals for a total JABA meal cost of $7,298 based on numbers provided in the JABA budget request. Staff recommended standardizing the meal payments based on JABA’s costs for the Senior Centers. The Board noted they would think about this and took no action on this item.

Funding of the Nelson Volunteer Coalition was briefly discussed by the Board noting that savings from the recommended reduction in the senior meals could cover this request. The Board deferred action until the agencies can be prioritized by the Board.

The Board’s consensus was to discuss what to do with the 571 Front Street property at the upcoming regular meeting on April 10th and the requirements for disposition were briefly discussed, noting the preference for holding the public hearing in May and disposing of the building soon thereafter.

Mr. Harvey also noted he would like for staff to make known to whoever is now in charge of the Lingo property behind the Courthouse, that the County would be interested in acquiring more property now that it has or will be changing hands.

The Board discussed next budget work session dates and decided to set the next budget work session at the regular meeting on April 10th when Mr. Hale would be present. Mr. Carter noted that Roland Kooch from Davenport would be available the week of April 18th to possibly come and present their 5 year analysis.

IV.   Adjournment

At 7:20 PM, Mr. Harvey moved to adjourn and continue the meeting until the regular scheduled meeting on April 10, 2007 at 2 PM at the Lovingston Courthouse. Mr. Harris seconded the motion and Supervisors voted unanimously (4-0) to approve the motion.