Supervisors consider fire truck, redistricting, audit

GATE CITY — Gate City has gotten a boost from the Scott County Board of Supervisors in an 11th-hour attempt to replace a three decade-old fire truck.The letter of support was one of three high-profile items on Wednesday's supervisors agenda, which also dealt with a state constitutional amendment and the fiscal year 2025 county audit report.Gate City Vice Mayor Kevin Barnett asked the board for a letter of support for a Congressional Community Project funding request through Ninth District Congressman Morgan Griffith.The deadline to file the request with Griffith's office is Friday, Barnett said, and could be a chance to replace the Gate City Fire Department's 1996 pumper truck. Town officials got a letter Tuesday from Griffith's office, he said, and have been working with the fire department to get information on the cost of a replacement truck.A new pumper truck would cost more than $1 million, Barnett told the board, and the existing pumper is costing more to repair each year. "This is difficult for a small rural community to fund locally," Barnett said.At the same time, he added, the Gate City Fire Department serves 88 square miles of in-town area and provides mutual aid support to six other fire departments in the county."This project is about ensuring reliable fire protections not only for Gate City but for the broader Scott County community," Barnett said, adding that getting approved for a federal allocation would mean no cost to the town or county for a new truck.The board voted unanimously to have County Administrator Josh Wilson write the letter for the town.Gate City Fire Chief Jeff Brickey said later the department had contacted manufacture Atlantic Emergency Solutions within the past year to get quotes on a replacement truck. That quote — $950,000 — has climbed to $1.091 million within a year."We couldn't get the truck then, but we were laying the groundwork for this," said Brickey. "This announcement was really a surprise, and we hope it works out."If the allocation is successful, Brickey said, the department could commit to purchasing the new truck and seeing delivery within two years."We'd still have a lot of equipment to replace or transfer from the old truck, and we'd have to find funding for that," Brickey said. "That's a good problem to have if we can get this truck." Audit Scott Wickman, a certified public accountant with auditing firm Robinson Farmer and Cox, presented the county's draft 2024-25 audit. Wickman said no major issues were found with the audit, and the county was below the state average in its debt level.The county maintained a 9.19% unassigned fund balance at the end of FY 2025, Wickman said, against a recommended 16.67% balance. While the county's balance was lower than recommended, he said the recommended figure may vary depending on each locality's circumstances.Wickman said the audit report included three material weakness findings, although all funds had been accounted:- The financial statements as presented for audit, did not contain all necessary adjustments to comply with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). As such, the auditor proposed adjustments that were material to the financial statements.- The Treasurer's office worked to catch up on bank reconciliations from the prior yeardeficiency but could not get the school health insurance account reconciled- The School Board is not submitting reimbursement requests for federal grant programs in a timely manner.Two Virginia noncompliance findings were reported:- The Head Start Department does not have a fiscal year budget that is appropriated by the Board of Supervisors. However, the School Board processes all payroll, accounts payable, and is a fund of the School Board financial statements.- The School Board overspent the appropriations from the Board of Supervisors.Wickman said the School Board issue may be related to Head Start being federally funded and having its own financial reports submitted to the School Board. He recommended that the school system have a separate finance director.Before the audit report, Bobbie Ann Powers — the plaintiff in a lawsuit against the county and school board over fiscal issues — said during public comment that she was amending her suit to demand an explanation of what she claimed was $2.5 million in unauthorized School Board spending in the previous fiscal year.Schools Superintendent John Ferguson on Wednesday said that Head Start gets all its funding from the federal government, adding that the funding was equivalent to the Head Start budget. Financial reports for the Head Start program are presented to the School Board at each regular monthly meeting for approval, he added.Ferguson, who also prepares monthly financial reports for the division and board, said the hiring of a finance director would have to be a school board decision. Redistricting The board voted unanimously to approve a resolution opposing the state's referendum on off-year redistricting. Supervisor-at-large Stefanie Addington, reading the measure, said the General Assembly's moves on the referendum "have raised concerns that rural/conservative communities may be divided, consolidated, or otherwise reconfigured in ways that diminish their political influence and weaken their representation in the United States House of Representatives."The referendum was a reaction by the General Assembly's Democratic majority to Texas Republican partisan redistricting at the Trump administration's request in 2025. Gov. Abigail Spanberger signed the referendum legislation in February. Two court challenges to the referendum have been placed on hold pending the outcome of the referendum on April 21.Early voting on the referendum begins Friday in Scott County and most Virginia localities.