Report details how Albemarle will slowly pick up cost of new firefighters

The budget adopted by the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors in May includes the first real estate tax rate increase for several years. Eighty-percent of revenue from the four cent hike will go toward public safety.

A report on grant activity between January 1 and March 31 offers details about how some of that money will be used to begin covering the cost of paying new firefighters that were initially hired using funding from the the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“As those grants feather away, for the local government to step in and to take that burden over,” said County Executive Jeffrey Richardson when he introduced the budget in February.

Albemarle County received several SAFER grants with SAFER being an acronym for Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response.

“We have been successfully awarded 4 FEMA SAFER grants to date,” said Abbey Stumpf, Albemarle County’s Director of Communications and Public Engagement. “The first one we received is finished which is why it’s no longer included in the quarterly report.”

The first covered in this report was in 2020 to cover the cost of ten new personnel to staff stations at North Garden, Earlysville, and Stony Point. The county picked up half of the $853,291 cost in FY2025 but will cover the full amount in FY2026 going forward. Projections show that amount increasing to $1,043,563 in FY2029.

The second covered in this report was in 2022 to cover the cost of 30 firefighters for southern Albemarle. The federal grant will expire in FY2028. Albemarle County covered $580,446 of the $2,852,114 in FY2025 and will gradually increase that amount. In FY2029, these 30 firefighters will cost $3,531,728.

The third SAFER grant covered in this report was in 2023 to cover seven staff at North Garden. The total cost in FY25 is $418,389 with Albemarle picking up $127,826 of the cost. This grant expires in FY2029 when Albemarle will pay the full amount which will have increased to $676,876.

Here are some other highlights from the grant report:

• Albemarle has requested $50,000 from the Virginia Brownfields Restoration and Economic Redevelopment Assistance Fund to help with clean-up of the Purvis Store site in Esmont. If awarded, the funds will be used to demolish a collapsed structure to prepare the land for another purpose. A local match is required. Albemarle will serve as a fiscal agent for Friends of Esmont, a group seeking to revitalize that unincorporated community.
• Albemarle has made two requests from the Virginia Dam Safety Flood Prevention and Protection Assistance fund. One is $44,060 to design improvements to the Greens Dam at Rivanna Station to bring it up to compliance with safety regulations. The other is $500,000 to construct improvements to the Middle Dam at Mint Springs Valley Park to bring it up to compliance.
• Albemarle received $596,570 from GO Virginia to help bring the Rivanna Futures site from Tier 3 to Tier 4 under the Virginia Business Ready Site program. To learn more on that, go back and read this story from April 1.

Before you go: This story was originally sent out in the May 29, 2025 edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement. It took a few days to post it to this site which also has the effect of showing up in the email inboxes of about a hundred people. If you’d like to support this work, take a look here to learn how!