Radford Council Considers Utility Budgets
By DAVID QUESENBERRY
Patriot Publishing
At its work session on Monday, March 24th, the Radford City Council got its first look at the proposed utility fund budgets for the upcoming fiscal year 2025-2026. Interim City Manager Craig Meadows presented the draft budgets and recommendations for the Solid Waste Fund, the Water/Wastewater Fund and the Electric Fund.
Meadows referred to the decline of the unrestricted net position of the City’s business activities. He emphasized to Council that, “We’ve got to get about addressing that and doing what we can to turn that around.”
Mentioning the negative trend in the Electric and Solid Waste Funds and the low level of reserves in the Water/Wastewater Fund he added, “With the things we’ll talk about this evening, we can start getting those numbers back where they need to be as well.”
For the Solid Waste Fund, Meadows proposed a three dollar increase in the residential solid waste fee to $25.00 along with a five percent increase in fees for dumpster services. Fund revenues and expenditures were balanced at $1,734,000, a 2.7 percent increase from last year.
Concerning the Water/Wastewater fund, Meadows proposed that the City’s monthly charge for water and wastewater service both be increased by $4.00 per month for users of 4,000 gallons or less. The combined charge for service would rise to $60.80 per month per customer. The fund was balanced at $6,694,000; an increase of 12 percent.
Even with the increase in rates, Radford’s service charges for water utilities remained below other communities.
The Electric Fund was balanced at $28,867,505, which did not include any adjustment in rates. Meadows said wholesale power cost adjustments might come under consideration for a one to two percent adjustment if circumstances required. The budget also kept the $3.9 million transfer to the General Fund. Meadows urged Council to start reducing the amount of the transfer, since RU would be initiating its Co-Gen program which would result in a decrease in revenues to the City. Any remaining revenues would need to be kept in the Electric Fund.
During his presentation, Meadows emphasized that each fund had been budgeted to have monies set aside for reserves. The General Fund, Meadows said would be a challenge and he was concerned how that would come together. He said that he and the staff would be working on the General Fund this week in anticipation of presenting it to Council on March 31st.
After the presentation, City Council went into a Closed Session for consultation with legal counsel concerning: a proposed settlement on opioid litigation, the REDI grant; and the School Capital Projects account.
After the budget work session, Council convened its regular session and began with citizen comments all of which dealt in some manner with the City’s finances.
Citizens expressed their concern over the City’s condition pointing to money owed by the City, increases in taxes and rates, and breaks given to Radford University. Additional taxation they claimed, would result in citizens leaving since it was getting difficult to afford living in the City.
They urged Council to look at other communities for ideas in attracting retail and industrial development to Radford. Some spoke asking to have the hours at the Recreation Center restored and to maintain hours at the drop site.
Other speakers urged that Council use volunteers to maintain Recreation Center hours and that the City pursue grants for needed projects.
Council considered Ordinance 1802.26, which authorized a $128,686 appropriation under the REDI grant program for a real estate tax rebate to RUF Hotel Land L.L.C., owners of the Highlander Hotel. Mayor David Horton told Council that since they were in the middle of the budget process and working to determine revenues and expenditures, he moved that the ordinance be tabled and reconsidered at the May 12th Council meeting. The motion was approved by unanimous vote.
Council approved several more appropriation ordinances as follows: Ordinance 1802.23 for $1,000 from the Virginia Spay Grant Program; Ordinance 1802.24 for $137,519 from the Va. Dept. of Emergency Management for the NG-911 upgrade program; and Ordinance 1802.25 for $3,200 from a Local Law Enforcement Block Grant to purchase police training aids.
In its final action, Council granted authority to the City’s outside legal counsel in the opioid litigation to propose a settlement with Henry Schein and related companies in the amount discussed in closed session, and authorized the City Manager to take any other steps necessary to accomplish that purpose.
The next scheduled meeting of the Radford City Council is a budget work session on the FY 2026 General Fund Budget to be held at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, March 31, 2025 in the Council Chambers at Radford City Hall at 10 Robertson Street.