Local Government news
Will You See An Increase In Real Estate Taxes?
When you're curious about the state of our County, meeting with county employees is the first step into understand operations. Recently Tracy Pyles, former Chairman of the Augusta County Board of Supervisors met with the County Administrator, Tim Fitzgerald and Finance Director, Misty Cook to discuss the county's budget.
After his meeting with the county, he penned the following article.
Will You See An Increase In Real Estate Taxes?
On Wednesday, January 10, 2024, Wampler-Eanes presented to the county an overview of the 5-year cycle real estate property reassessment. Unfortunately, it wasn't good news for property owners. Upcoming capital improvement projects like the new Courthouse construction project - $80 million, and the over $6 million partial renovation of the 39,000 square feet of the former Verona Elementary School conversion to an animal shelter, the money needs to come from somewhere.
While the impact of the increase in assessed value, and possibly a few more cents added to the $0.63, will be felt by property owners, and it will allso be felt by those leasing.
You may view the presentation on the county's meeting video service website or a shortened version on our Facebook page.
Staunton Augusta County Waynesboro (SAW) Animal Shelter construction bids are in
On Monday, February 5, Augusta County received three bids for the renovation and conversion of the Verona Elementary School to be the new location of the Shenandoah Valley Animal Services Center. To provide some background, the press release from the county stated. "In December 2022, the three municipal owners of the Shenandoah Valley Animal Services Center (SVASC) announced that the former Verona Elementary School building would be renovated and used as the new facility for the shelter, relocating SVASC from their Lyndhurst location.
SVASC is the open-admission municipal animal shelter for Augusta County, Staunton, and Waynesboro. The shelter takes in all stray, abandoned, and owner-surrendered animals from these localities and strives to improve the lives of people and pets in our regional community. We are pleased to present the design concepts and the vision for the new shelter space. We do not yet have the construction estimate, which will determine if we can move forward as designed or if we need to value engineer to fall within the $2.7 million budget."
With the lowest coming in just under $7 million, it would be safe to say, they are going back to the drawing board.
Read the full story here: https://www.newsleader.com/story/news/local/2024/02/06/bids-for-new-shenandoah-valley-animals-services-center-opened-in-augusta/72483784007/
Analysis: Augusta County 6 brought legal scrutiny on itself with series of missteps
Augusta County leaders stumbled and bumbled their way into being on the wrong side of a circuit court order to turn over a copy of the recording of a March 20 Board of Supervisors closed meeting that a judge ruled last week was held illegally.
The closed meeting had been called, in part, to discuss the surprise resignation of then-South River Supervisor Steven Morelli, who was quietly, at the time, under fire for reported sexual-harassment allegations involving at least two county employees.
That fact, and the existence of the recording of the March 20 meeting, which was made by Wayne District Supervisor Scott Seaton, are both public knowledge directly as a result of the actions of the Augusta County 6, the six members of the Board of Supervisors who have tried to use the machinery of local government to try to punish Seaton for his oppositional political stances.
Read the full story here: https://augustafreepress.com/news/analysis-augusta-county-6-brought-legal-scrutiny-on-itself-with-series-of-missteps/
WHSV New at 6: Board votes to censure Seaton
By Mike StaleyPublished: Jul. 13, 2023 at 12:11 AM EDT
VERONA, Va. (WHSV) - In a 6-1 vote, the Augusta County Board of Supervisors voted to censure Wayne district supervisor Scott Seaton.
Seaton will lose all committee responsibilities, but still serve as Wayne district supervisor.
The only items on the agenda for the July 12 meeting were proposed animal ordinances, a major point of discussion between board members. At the meeting, the board learned Seaton had met with county attorney James Benkahla to discuss the legality of the ordinances.
Read the full story here: https://www.whsv.com/2023/07/13/dr-scott-seaton-censured-by-augusta-county-board-supervisors/