Author: Jim Duncan

This important story by Allison Wrabel with the Daily Progress is a must-read. Seriously, click through, and read the whole thing. The FB conversation at RealCrozet is pretty good, too.

“As it faces a dearth of volunteers and an increased number of missed calls, another Albemarle volunteer fire station is asking the county to send help.

The Crozet Volunteer Fire Department has asked Albemarle County Fire Rescue to provide weekday staffing for its station, citing a lack of available volunteers and an increased number of “scratched” calls, where the station does not respond or arrives late.

CVFD Chief Gary Dillon said that when the department scratches calls, it is not meeting the community’s expectations.

“They expect when they call 911 that a firetruck’s going to show up, and we would prefer that when they’re right down the road from us and they call 911, a Crozet firetruck shows up and not one from another station somewhere,” he said. “While we’re glad to have [help from other stations], the quicker response is from right here, and that just wasn’t happening.”

At an all-member meeting earlier this year, CVFD volunteers were supportive of a plan to ask for paid staff to come in.

If CVFD gets paid staff for its daytime shifts, only two fire stations and one rescue station in Albemarle will remain all-volunteer — North Garden Volunteer Fire Company, Scottsville Volunteer Fire Department and Western Albemarle Rescue Squad.”

Following up on Joe’s excellent story last week about funding Albemarle County (but specifically Crozet schools), a reader asked a question. I don’t know a lot of answers, but I often know whom to ask. This is meaty, boring, super-important stuff about how our County government runs, and how we pay for important stuff.

I don’t have a good summary, other than, please take the time to read, or at least skim, the information below. Land use taxation affects all facets of our community, as property taxes comprise such a significant portion of the Albemarle County budget. That, and I’m glad to know so many people who know much more than I do.

A reader asked

Jim – Quick question as to an issue I wonder if you have every looked into during your years of civic research.   I wonder how much of the land in the County, outside of development areas is qualified under “land use” taxation for agricultural, forestal, open area or horticultural taxation benefits, and what the cumulative effect of this land use tax benefit/tax loss to the County “costs” the County each fiscal year.   
Food for thought.

Chapter 26 – Related Land Use Laws

So I asked a friend who knows more than I do

But first, he asked the County Assessor for a breakdown of the Albemarle County acreage that is in land use.

We have a total of 214,798 acres under land use taxation in the county in 2019.
It is broken up as follows:

– 131,892 Forestry
– 67, 840 – Agriculture
– 2,471 – Horticulture
– 12, 594 – Open Space

Above is from Peter Lynch, Albemarle County Assessor