The
Fluvanna Review won two awards for outstanding journalism and advertising design in the annual Virginia Press Awards held late last month .
Lynn Stayton-Eurell
Ad designer Lynn Stayton-Eurell won first place in the Professional Services category for her design of an ad urging people to “be a hero” and wear masks to protect the community against COVID-19.
Reporter Heather Michon was third place for her story titled “Remembering
Fluvanna Review Founder Len Gardner (1921-2020).” The article detailed his life as a Pearl Harbor survivor and as a community leader.
“Heather is a solid reporter who has a close connection with the Fluvanna community and an eye for detail. Lynn has been designing clever, eye-catching ads for years. Both are the reason the
Correspondent
The Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a $110 million county budget for FY22 during their regular meeting on Wednesday night (April 14).
The real estate tax rate was set at $0.884 per $100, with an equalized rate of $0.865. While lower than the FY21 tax rate of $0.952, most homes have increased in value in the most recent assessment, so the average homeowner will see an increase of 2.19 percent in their annual tax bill.
The 110,600,979 budget includes a major investment of $25 million in capital improvement projects covering building projects and equipment and infrastructure repairs and replacement.
“I think we’ve been as good on this one as we’ve ever been,” said Chair Mike Sheridan (Columbia).
Correspondent
The Board of Supervisors met on Wednesday night (April 14) for public hearings on the FY21 budget and the tax rates.
PUBLIC HEARINGS
“This year was a pretty amazing year for reassessments,” said management analyst Liz McIver. Real estate assessments rose 6.87 percent.
The real estate tax rate in the adopted FY21 budget was $0.925 per $100 in assessed value. For FY22, the proposed rate was $0.92 and supervisors have advertised a rate of $0.884. McIver calculated the equalized tax rate at $0.865.
Under state law, the county was required to hold a public hearing because the reassessment resulted in an increase of one percent or greater in the total property tax levied.
By Heather Michon
Correspondent
With planning for Fiscal Year 2022 (FY22) now in its final weeks, the Board of Supervisors is preparing to vote on a $25 million capital improvement package, including $16.5 million for a new administration building and over $3 million in new fire and rescue vehicles.
Capital Improvement Plans, or CIPs, are expenditures focused on building, upgrading repairing, or replacing equipment and infrastructure, generally over a four-year period.
In recent years, supervisors have taken a fairly conservative approach to CIP funding, balancing the need to keep the county’s debt levels manageable against the pressures of maintaining aging buildings and infrastructure.
Correspondent
The Fluvanna County Board of Supervisors got its first look at the results of the 2020 County Residents Survey during their regular meeting on Wednesday night (March 3).
Deputy County Administrator Kelly Belanger Harris gave a detailed presentation on the survey, which ran from Oct. 23 to Dec. 18, 2020. They received 524 responses, about 200 more than received the last time the county ran the survey in 2017.
Overall, respondents said Fluvanna was a good place to retire (70 percent), live (88 percent), and raise kids (66 percent). Only 29 percent said it was a good place to work, and only 19 percent said it was a good place to run a business. These numbers are very similar to the 2017 results.