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Every year during budget season, Prince Edward County officials have to make some decisions. What takes priority, in terms of capital projects? What gets built or renovated now, while moving something else off two or three years down the road? Over the last three years, for example, we’ve seen the emergency communications center finished, the courthouse lawn renovated and the middle school track replaced. 

And each time, before county supervisors make this decision, they get recommendations from the planning commission. Over the last several months, the planning commission has gone through the list of projects, ranked priorities and worked on cost estimates. 

“The capital improvement plan (CIP) is intended as a guide to assist the Board of Supervisors in the development of the county’s budget,” Prince Edward Planner Robert Love told the audience at the Dec. 17 planning commission meeting. “The CIP process began with the submission of 10 capital expenditure requests from county departments and associated agencies.” 

Now there are a couple rules that go along with this, Love explained. In order to be considered as a CIP, the project has to be non-recurring. In other words, you pay once for it and then it’s finished. Second, it needs to have a “useful life” or be able to function for at least five years or more. And third, the cost must exceed $50,000 for a government project or $100,000 for a school project. It’s also worth mentioning that these are recommendations. Even after being included in the budget process, until they’re paid for and work starts, anything could change. 

 “The CIP is strictly advisory,” Love said. “Once the plan is adopted, the individual project priorities may change throughout the course of the year. It is quite possible that a certain project may not be funded during the year indicated in the CIP.”

And before we even get started, it’s worth mentioning that the Prince Edward Elementary renovations aren’t on this list because they’ve already started. This is for new projects.

Looking at Prince Edward priorities

This current priority list, for budget years 2025 through 2027, starts with a unanimous choice at the top. The first priority is a new animal shelter, estimated at a total cost of $10.628 million. 

As a refresher, the proposed site for the new shelter is a 9-acre parcel of land owned by the Prince Edward County Industrial Development Authority, located between the Social Security building and FACES on Commerce Drive. The location was chosen because it was a bit easier to get to, as opposed to the current shelter, located at 255 County Shop Road in Farmville. But this isn’t a case where a simple renovation was possible. 

The current building is just too small for the county’s needs, able to only accommodate 9 cats and 11 dogs at one time. Also, the isolation room and euthanasia room at the current structure do not meet state requirements. Why? The whole thing was built 50 years ago. Under the proposed CIP plan, $7 million would be set aside in the 2027 budget to get started, with expectations of paying the rest and finishing the year after that. 

Beyond the animal shelter, there are some projects on the list to help Prince Edward’s fire and rescue operations. A new self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) air trailer is needed. Right now, the departments use an outdated and “mechanically plagued” piece of equipment, according to county staff, a 1996 model that was bought from DeKalb County, Georgia. 

“The current apparatus is unreliable and unable to fill the new SCBA fully that the county fire departments transitioned to,” Love said. 

Under this plan, the commission recommends supervisors set aside $150,000 in the 2026 budget to pay for a towable enclosed trailer, outfitted with a new air compressor filling station, bottles, a generator and lights. By switching to a trailer, the need to upkeep and maintain a vehicle is eliminated, Love pointed out, therefore lowering the longterm costs. 

A convenience site upgrade

A third project on the list, and one of the first to start construction, if approved, involves the county’s convenience site in Worsham. At a cost of $800,000, the county would repave the site, add new fencing, signs, concrete pads for compactors, provide open top dumpsters and improve site lighting. This is the primary dump site for residents in the Hampden district, along with southern parts of Farmville and northern parts of the Leigh district. The current site is unpaved, with no security cameras or adequate lighting. 

And Worsham isn’t the only site set to be upgraded. Recommended for the 2027 budget, the planning commission suggested moving forward with a $1 million upgrade and consolidation of the Prospect and Tuggle convenience sites. The Prospect site, located on U.S. 460 just west of Prospect, is too small, wedged between High Bridge Trail and the road. There’s zero opportunity to expand. The Tuggle site is at the entrance to the county landfill, with similar problems. Both sites are unpaved, with potholes and reports from residents that they’re hard to maneuver in. The county staff would look at a new site, somewhere along U.S. 460 in between the current ones, and then spend $1 million to develop it. 

The landfill also needs some help, with the commission recommending $175,000 be set aside in the 2025 budget to replace the scale house. This would be done with a new 16 x 26 mobile office trailer with three offices, a restroom and a break area/kitchen area. The current structure was assembled 10 years ago and was taken from a used construction trailer. Now it’s wearing down, with leaks, doors that don’t fully close and restrooms that aren’t up to code. There is no floor in the structure, only plywood. It would take about 12 weeks to build the new version, once approved. 

A few more at the back of the list 

There are some other one-time purchases the planning commission recommended for supervisors. They include a backup generator for the courthouse at $230,000, taken out of the 2025 budget, along with $135,000 for new voting machines, to be bought during the 2028 budget cycle. The current machines were bought in 2017 and only have a “useful life” of around 10 years. 

All of these projects now go to county supervisors, to be considered as part of the budget process.