Henrico supervisors approve $69.9M in new spending plans

At its Sept. 27 meeting, the Henrico Board of Supervisors approved $69.9 million in new spending as part of the county’s Fiscal Year 2023-24 budget.

Of that amount, $14.4 million is spending requests carried over from the previous year, while the rest represents new spending. County Budget Director Crawford listed some key items within the latter $55.5 million, including $15 million for water and sewer improvements in the Regency area, $10 million for Henrico County Public Schools, and $4 million for a mobile public safety command unit, as well as a new fire engine for a station under construction in Highland Springs that’s expected to begin operations in 2025.

Included as part of the new funding amount:
• $165,041 in state funding for the Henrico Circuit Court Clerk’s Office to be used for indexing, imaging and enhancement of the office’s current imaging system, which covers land records, state highway plats, county road maps and wills;

• $254,874 for the Division of Police to expand its cell-phone program to ensure that every officer and some civilian employees have agency-issued phones;

• $410,000 for the Division of Fire to use toward vehicle replacement efforts;

• $5 million for the school system in unspent prior year revenues to be used toward the school food services program;

• $4.025 million to the school system to fund the creation of 91 new positions, including 75 school security officers, six reading specialists and 10 English language learner teacher positions;

• $1.5 million for the county’s share of the purchase of a replacement aircraft for the Metro Aviation Unit, whose overall purchase price will be split evenly with Chesterfield County and the city of Richmond;

• $13 million for the initial phase of sewer and water improvements in the Farmington Drive area between Starling Drive and Quioccasin Road;

• just more than $380,000 in Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles funding to support overtime work by Henrico Police officials related to alcohol-enforcement and speed-patrol activities;

• $253,242 to fund the creation of three new division manager positions for the Henrico Department of Social Services;

• $2.25 million to complete the purchase of the St. Gertrude Athletic Campus on Scott Road at the site of the GreenCity development;

• $236,917 for the addition of a venue operations manager position and other personnel costs for the Henrico Sports and Events Center, as well as the annual costs to maintain the fields recently acquired from St. Gertrude;

• $168,000 for the purchase of 10 stationary and 10 hand-held security scanners to be used at the Henrico Sports and Events Center;

• $594,799 in federal funding for the Capital Region Workforce Partnership to be used for youth workforce training programs, on-the-job training reimbursement to employers who have hired program participants and incentive payments to those hired based upon job performance;

• $600,000 in state funding for the Marcus Alert planning phase to help improve emergency responses to mental health crises;

• $624,000 in state funding for a permanent supportive housing grant focused on pregnant and parenting women with substance-use disorders.

• $2.16 million from the Virginia Department of Transportation to fund pedestrian accommodations on the north side of Nuckols Road, from Capital One Way to Springfield Road, including crosswalks at the Capital One Way intersection and connection of ADA ramps;

• $432,000 to convert aging tennis courts at the Elko Community Center into four new pickleball courts;

• $115,428 for improvements to the Deep Run High School baseball field.

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The board approved a contract for $695,687 to Blakemore Construction Corp. for sidewalks, mixed-use paths, curb ramps and pedestrian signals to integrate the Fall Line Trail as it runs through Spring Park in Lakeside; the project will take 150 days.

And, the board approved a $259,757 contract to MTS Business Solutions LLC to replace the rubber surface at the Twin Hickory Splash Park. Tuckahoe Supervisor Pat O’Bannon asked why MTS was the only bidder, and Henrico Director of Recreation and Parks John Zannino explained that two other companies had reached out but could not meet the conditions of the contract. In response to a question from Brookland Supervisor Dan Schmitt, Zannino also noted that there were five splash parks open in the county and that water features planned at Taylor Farm Park.

“That’s an equitable spread,” noted Schmitt.

Zaninno listed the budget to Branin as $28 to $30 per square foot and stated that this bid was slightly more than $31 per square foot.

– Joseph Maltby contributed to this article