CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – The Albemarle County Board of Supervisors will consider Wednesday changing the way the county handles cash payments by rounding down in light of the dwindling supply of pennies.
“This is a prime example of when something happens elsewhere in the country, the world, the region, the state. Whatever that impact is locally, we have to figure out how are we going to handle that,” County Communications Director Abbey Stumpf said.
In this case, the U.S. Mint stopped manufacturing pennies for general circulation last November, and now only makes limited-edition collector or commemorative coins.
“For cash payments, if there’s going to be a decrease of pennies in circulation, how can people pay their bills to the county?” Stumpf said. “So, this is setting the rules for how we will round payments in cents.”
She said the ordinance will be crafted to round the amount down to the benefit of the person paying.
The thoughts on how to handle the penny is the second public hearing item in the evening business section starting at 6 p.m. Wednesday.
Prior to that, the board will look at how to appropriate $11,458,253 in fiscal 2027, much of it unspent from the previous fiscal year.
That 2026 leftover of $8,135,769 includes more than $2 million to the Office of Performance and Strategic Planning, full funding of which was not included in the 2027 budget plan, more than $3 million into the Economic Development Investment Pool, $881,000 associated with the Rivanna Futures property, and $380,000 for transfers to the Economic Development Authority (EDA) Fund pursuant to performance agreements.
The action will also fund “requests the re-appropriation of $1,625,668 in EDA fund balance, loan repayments, and a transfer from the Economic Development Fund for EDA programs.”
Another public hearing is on the county bringing the use of school and work zone speed cameras up to state code.
“There’s been some changes out of Richmond around photo speed camera usage, so we’re aligning our ordinance to what points to the state law,” said Stumpf. “That has now changed to expanding it to work zone areas and some other technical ways that program is implemented.
“I would take this opportunity to say that this isn’t a point where we’re putting more of those photo speed cameras in, we’re keeping ones where they are in the school zones. This is just to align with legislation as it comes out.”
One of the changes she pointed out is the expansion of who can evaluate the images for violations.
Stumpf said Albemarle, for example, has a police officer review the footage.
“One of the things they (the state) have expanded is if you could use retired law enforcement officers,” she said.
There’s also a public hearing on an application by The Barns on Garth Rd. near Free Union Rd. that would allow the applicant to host special events up to twenty-four times a year on their farm. Each special event would allow up to 75 persons. The building envelope is designed for an occupancy of 114 persons.
The afternoon session, which begins at 1 p.m., has a number of proclamations and recognitions of individuals followed by action items to extend Capital Project Loan toward expansion of living quarters at the Earlysville Volunteer Fire Company, and to adopt additional guidelines for the Drainage Infrastructure Management Program.
