Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Back in April, we detailed how some of the purchases in the new Farmville budget would come in the form of a loan. That budget has since been approved and took effect as of July 1, but there’s still a bit of work to do. 

The rate and term for that loan still have to be approved by the Farmville town council. But before we go into that, let’s do a quick refresher as to what this loan will be used for. Again, the use of the loan has been approved as part of the budget, but not the rate or years involved. 

In the general fund, town staff want to spend $956,000 to make a series of purchases. That includes $231,000 for five police cars; $75,000 for graphics and outfitting for those cars; $60,000 for a new emergency medical services (EMS) vehicle; $25,000 to outfit the EMS vehicle; $180,000 for a tractor/mower to mow the right-of-way on the street; $80,000 for a pickup with a lift gate; $225,000 for a dump truck and $80,000 for a ¾ ton utility truck. 

“We don’t have the cash today to (pay for) all the capital needs that we have,” Farmville Town Manager Dr. Scott Davis told the town council during their Wednesday, April 9 meeting. “But we can afford that over a five-year period.” 

Previously, Davis said, the town had gone more than a decade before replacing police cars. And as a result, they got very little when they sold the old ones at auction. It makes more sense, Davis said, to replace the vehicles every five years. That way, the town can get more out of the old ones at auction. 

Going into the proposed loan details 

During the council’s Wednesday, July 2 meeting, Finance Director Julie Moore provided details on what the current loan proposal looks like. 

“We’re going with a local bank this year, a five-year period with a rate of 4.25%,” Moore told the council. 

Once the loan is fully repaid, any liens on the equipment, such as the police vehicles and other purchases, will be released. One key part of this is that while the loan is part of the current budget and had to be approved as such, no part of the $956,000 will be paid during this current budget cycle. Payments typically begin in the fiscal year following a loan’s approval and closing.
So in other words, it’ll be this time next year that you hear council members discussing making the first payment in this latest loan.
But this is why, when council members brought up postponing purchases of the police cars or trucks during budget talks this year, town staff said that wouldn’t reduce the overall budget. We don’t start paying for all of these vehicles until next year. The goal is to avoid ending up like some other towns and cities in Virginia, which kept putting off infrastructure and equipment purchases until it got so big they had to make dramatic decisions to cover the cost.

And just as a quick reminder on that, to explain what we’re talking about, one of those is Purcellville, where the town council back on April 8 voted to move forward with eliminating the police department. The move saved the town $3 million, by transferring law enforcement responsibilities to the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office. It wasn’t a well-received decision, as Purcellville council members now face protests and recall petitions to put them out of office. Other counties and cities in Central, Southside and Southwest Virginia have already been warned by their respective staff that long-delayed maintenance and replacements will have to happen within the next year, as vehicles are breaking down and buildings are starting to crumble. 

What happens next for Farmville? 

As mentioned, this proposed loan will go before the town council during their Wednesday, July 9 meeting.