Cumberland County administrator outlines FY2026 capital improvement requests, seeks planning commission feedback

Derek Staney, Cumberland County administrator, presented the county's capital improvement plan (CIP) requests for fiscal year 2026 and the five-year planning window to the Cumberland County Planning Commission on March 17, 2025, and asked the commission for feedback that will be included in his budget recommendation to the Board of Supervisors.

Staney said the county uses a 25-year CIP broken into five-year segments but focuses on the immediate year for budgeting. He told commissioners the CIP entries often round estimates upward to cover escalation and that projects are funded from a mix of cash, borrowing and grants or donations.

The presentation highlighted several near-term requests and opportunities. Staney described a radio-system partnership with the Virginia State Police that would put county radios on the state's STARS network and place a state-owned tower on county property; the county would install the tower footers and the state would install and maintain the tower. He said components for the system have been ordered and estimated that pursuing an independent county-owned system would require building towers and hiring staff, with a conceptual standalone cost in the $4 million to $5 million range. Using the state partnership, Staney said, saves a multi-million-dollar capital outlay and ongoing operating costs: "we're being creative in how we we get some of these projects done," he said.

Public-safety vehicle and ambulance needs were a major focus. Staney said the county has six ambulances, with model years ranging from about 2006 to 2019 and mileages between roughly 68,000 and 105,000. He explained the county follows a vehicle-replacement policy that generally targets 10 years or 50,000 miles for most vehicles and seven years or 50,000 miles for sheriff's vehicles. Staney recommended pursuing a grant program (described in the transcript as an RSAT application) that would cover 70% of ambulance replacement costs on a 70/30 match; the county discussed replacing ambulances but a final per-unit figure was not specified in the presentation.

Staney also reviewed other requests and project notes: a courthouse conceptual design presented by the county's architectural firm showed a $37 million conceptual figure that Staney described as preliminary and subject to reduction as the design is refined; generator renewals for water pump stations (the county has five generators serving 12 pump stations and is seeking green funding for additional generator coverage); HVAC replacements at the Administration Complex and Luther Jackson buildings; a library roof replacement estimated at about $100,000; animal-control renovations (including added adoption space and commercial laundry) for which staff are pursuing NVIDIA settlement funds or donations; public-works fencing and transfer-station paving; IT infrastructure switch replacement for aging equipment (some systems cited as 8—to—10 years old); and requests from the school system including a $150,000 request for ADA playground improvements (Staney said donors would fund that element), $400,000 in athletic-field lighting in two-year increments, and a $1.1 million replacement for an original elementary-school roof.

Staney described several funding and partnership wins already in hand: about $100,000 in solar-related funding from a previously approved 2021 project, an approximately $36,000 grant from the governor's office for improvements at Blue Ridge Jackson (Staney said the county will leverage solar funds for the required match so that no general-fund dollars are needed), an expected tanker donation from Goodson County, and an arrangement with Piedmont Regional Jail that has lowered the county's capital outlays by about $88,000 in the prior year. He also said Firefly's contract included a waived county contribution of roughly $200,000 for fiber installation to the Range Road complex.

Staney said some projects are contingent on funding or must be deferred, and recommended the commission provide priorities, funding ideas and feedback for his recommended CIP. He closed by asking the planning commission to provide feedback that staff would incorporate into the administrator's recommended CIP for the FY26 budget process.

Ending: The commission discussed scheduling a follow-up workshop to allow commissioners more time to review the material; staff offered March 24 or March 31 as options and later a motion was made to adjourn to a workshop on March 24 at 6:30 p.m. for further discussion and feedback. The workshop scheduling motion was seconded in the meeting record.