Greene Supervisors to consider solid waste fee increases, potential lodging tax increase

The five-member Greene County Board of Supervisors will meet at 4:30 p.m. for a budget work session followed by a closed meeting at 5:30 p.m. followed by their regular meeting at 6:30 p.m. (meeting agenda)

There are three presentations at the regular meeting. The first is on potential changes to the way that the Agricultural Forestal District Advisory Committee operates. This comes at a time when Supervisors want more citizen groups to be involved with county government. 

“On February 27, 2024, the Board of Supervisors asked staff to recommend a plan for expanding the role of the Agricultural Forestal District (AFD) Advisory Committee to act as a stakeholder group advising the Board of Supervisors,” reads the staff report. “The committee is uniquely qualified to provide recommendations regarding agricultural land, land use and land conservation.” 

Next will be a presentation on the tipping fees for solid waste collection and possible increases to offset fuel and transportation costs. 

“In 2023, 99.5 percent of the trash was brought in bulk and measured by ton on the scales,” reads the staff report. “Trash companies, construction waste, brush and trash in trailers make up this component of the waste stream.”

The remaining percentage is for items brought to the facility at 386 Mays Road in Ruckersville. The bulk products brought in $2,684,025 whereas the individual items and bagged trash brought in $82,111. The fee increase would seek to generate more revenue from items for some of those individual items. 

“Using 2023 as an example the newly recommended fee structure would have added a additional $421,250 in revenue,” the staff report continues.

The third presentation is on several federal grants for projects that the county could apply through a program operated by 7th District Representative Abigail Spanberger. These are for requests by local governments and nonprofits that can seek federal funding by getting support from a member of the U.S. House of Representative of a U.S. Senator. 

“For Fiscal Year 2025 Members of Congress are allowed to submit 15 requests but there is no guarantee on how many of those will get funded,” reads the staff report from Terry Beigie, grant writer for Greene County. “Requested projects must have a ‘federal nexus’ tied to a Federal Authorization Law.”

One of the requests is actually two related to improving the water system in Stanardsville. One would be a new water storage tank and the other would be improvements to the water main. 

“We recommend submitting these as separate projects with price tags of roughly $6 million each,” the report continues. “Rep. Spanberger’s office will have the final say on what projects she submits from her office.”

There are three items on the consent agenda and two of them are to accept grant funding that Beigie has already secured. One is a $29,950 grant to help the Circuit Court with an indexing project and the other is a $26,188.50 grant to preserve county records dating back to 1841 and through to 1958. 

Then we get into action items. 

To authorize tax increases, elected bodies have to advertise what they will be first so that members of the public can decide if they want to make a comment. There are three potential increases associated with the FY25 budget with one of them being an increase in the lodging tax to something above five percent. The others are a Courthouse Renovation fee as well as an increase “in the fee used to maintain the law library.” (read the memo)

Then the budget workshop will resume if needed.