Smithfield holds public hearing on FY2026 budget; council will defer adoption to June

The Smithfield Town Council held a public hearing on the proposed fiscal year 2026 budget and did not take action, deferring final adoption to the council's June meeting.

The hearing matters because the proposal would change user rates for water and sewer, and fund a roughly $2 million parks and recreation maintenance facility from town cash reserves rather than borrowing.

Michael, a town staff member, told the council that "we do not recommend any tax rate increases." He said the only increases in the draft budget are for water and sewer rates, explaining that the water and sewer changes "were based off the recommendation of a water rate study we had done for us." Michael said the town is proposing a new water rate of $8.50 per 1,000 gallons and a new sewer rate of $6 per 1,000 gallons to support operations, maintenance and capital work on aging infrastructure.

Council members and staff discussed the largest capital item in the draft budget: a parks and recreation maintenance facility. Michael said the town is recommending funding the facility with cash reserves rather than issuing debt. He described the project to include a building, a parking lot, material storage and required landscaping, and said the preliminary design work by Kimley-Horn produced an initial budget estimate of about $2,000,000. He said the engineers are finishing design and the town would put the project out to bid; if everything goes as planned the town could advertise as early as July, with construction expected to take less than a year.

Vice Mayor (unnamed) raised siting concerns tied to an easement for a Dominion power line that crosses the property between the parking lot and the baseball fields; Michael said that easement prevents building in that strip and that the town has considered other locations on the property. The vice mayor also asked whether the property sits in an "interest corridor overlay" and whether the town might set the building back further to be more cost effective; Michael said town structures must comply with the overlay guidelines adopted about two years earlier and that the town may seek a special use permit before bidding if required.

A council member asked about the maintenance building size; Michael said he believed the plan was about 50 by 80 feet, or possibly 50 by 100 feet, and that he would confirm exact dimensions when the engineering documents are finalized. Michael said the town will decide before bidding whether to include a bricked exterior as a bid alternative and that the decision about a special use permit will be resolved before the project is advertised.

The council also discussed internal accounting changes. A council member asked the Treasurer whether an insurance line item had disappeared; Michael explained that the town consolidated property and liability insurance historically spread across multiple departments into a single non-departmental line. Michael said, "What I did was consolidated that in 1 place. So if you look under non departmental, all the total cost of our insurance policy is under there." He added that funds for changing the town's accounting system are set aside under municipal funding implementation and that the council would consider an additional appropriation if the project requires more funding in the fiscal year.

The mayor opened the public hearing and, with no members of the public asking to speak, closed it. The council took no action on the budget at the meeting; adoption is scheduled for the June town council meeting.

Less-critical details discussed during the hearing included preliminary building dimensions (reported as about 50 by 80 or 50 by 100 feet), the possibility of bid alternatives for exterior finishes, and an early estimate that bid solicitation could occur in July with a construction timeline of less than one year if bids and permitting proceed as anticipated.