More than $800K sliced

VERONA – Augusta County supervisors voted to cut $836,000 from the current fiscal year budget Wednesday night to offset state and local shortfalls, but not without strong dissent from one member.

Pastures Supervisor Tracy Pyles said the cuts could be avoided if the four supervisors who voted for the second phase of renovations to the county library would instead appropriate their own infrastructure money to support $1 million of the renovation costs.

Pyles pointed to July board minutes in which he had forecast a possible cut of 1 percent in state revenue, and reported an e-mail from a constituent about excessive spending.

“You ignored me in July, you can ignore me now,’’ said Pyles, who said the library costs should be reallocated.

Pyles also suggested the board hold off on proceeding with a contract to build a Riverheads fire station until it was known how much of an increase in Virginia Retirement System rates the county will have to pay for its employees.

The fire station was approved earlier this month, but the total costs won’t be known until a contract is finalized.

About 40 percent of the construction costs of the station will come from infrastructure money of supervisors, with the majority coming from Riverheads Supervisor Nancy Sorrells.

And Pyles said the county should aggressively pursue selling Mill Place Industrial Park to help with future revenue cuts for the county and the county schools.

Sorrells answered Pyles.

“This is about saving lives and protecting people,’’ she said of the Riverheads station. “This is about the health, safety and welfare of our people.”

Sorrells said had there been a Riverheads station, an area church could have been salvaged from a fire just over a year ago.

In the end, the board voted 6-1 to make the cuts.

Augusta County Administrator Pat Coffield said some of the cuts are in staff positions that will remain vacant for the remainder of the year, such as the director of IT and a commissioner of the revenue vacancy.

Some of the largest cuts came in the capital improvement accounts for agricultural development and economic development.

Coffield said the budget revisions were needed to offset cuts that include more than $300,000 from the state compensation board, and a downward reforecast in local tax revenues.