Supes to talk legislative priorities, consider Bowler's Mill Lake capacity study; Mineral TC censures Hempstead, appoints McCarthy; Louisa TC continues search for interim mayor; News roundup
Supes to talk legislative priorities, consider Bowler's Mill Lake capacity study; Mineral TC censures Hempstead, appoints McCarthy; Louisa TC continues search for interim mayor; News roundup
Engage Louisa is a nonpartisan newsletter that keeps folks informed about Louisa County government. We believe our community is stronger and our government serves us better when we increase transparency, accessibility, and engagement.
Note to readers: Engage Louisa won’t publish Oct. 27
Due to a family obligation, Engage Louisa won’t publish a newsletter on Sunday, October 27. Look for us back in your inbox on Sunday, November 3. For more coverage of Louisa County government and politics, including live updates from board of supervisors and planning commission meetings, follow me (Tammy Purcell) on X, formerly Twitter, at @docpurcell. Thank you for readng Engage Louisa! -Tammy
This week in county government: public meetings, October 21 through October 26
For the latest information on county meetings including public meetings of boards, commissions, authorities, work groups, and internal county committees, click here. (Note: Louisa County occasionally schedules internal committee/work group meetings after publication time. Check the county’s website for the most updated information).
Monday, October 21
Louisa County Board of Supervisors, legislative work session, Extension Meeting Room, Louisa County Office Building, 1 Woolfolk Ave., Louisa, 3:30 pm. (agenda)
Louisa County Board of Supervisors, Public Meeting Room, Louisa County Office Building, 1 Woolfolk Ave., Louisa, 6 pm. The board will convene in closed session at 5 pm. (agenda packet, livestream)
Tuesday, October 22
Human Services Advisory Board, 114 Industrial Drive, Louisa, 11 am.
Wednesday, October 23
Community Policy Management Team, Executive Boardroom, Louisa County Office Building, 1 Woolfolk Ave., Louisa, 1 pm.
Additional information about Louisa County’s upcoming public meetings is available here.
Interested in taking your talents to one of the county’s numerous boards and commissions? Find out more here including which boards have vacancies and how to apply.
BOS preview: Supes to talk legislative priorities, consider Bowler’s Mill Lake capacity study
The Louisa County Board of Supervisors on Monday will once again consider a light agenda with no public hearings and only a few action items up for consideration during the public portion of the meeting.
Prior to the regular meeting, supervisors will convene their annual legislative work session where they’ll discuss with the county’s representatives in the General Assembly their legislative priorities for the 2025 General Assembly session.
Supes to talk legislative priorities with General Assembly reps
Supervisors are looking ahead to the 2025 General Assembly session.
Just prior to Monday’s regular meeting, the board will meet with the county’s representatives in Richmond for their annual legislative work session. At the meeting, they’ll discuss the county’s legislative platform, a list of policy goals and initiatives that supervisors want lawmakers to advocate for during the 45-day session.
The upcoming General Assembly session kicks off January 8. The board is set to formally adopt its platform Monday night.
Louisa County is split between two state Senate and House of Delegates districts with most of the county falling into the 10th Senate District and 59th House District, and the county’s western edge included in the 11th Senate District and 55th House District.
The 10th and 59th are represented by a pair of Republicans: Sen. John McGuire, a fitness instructor and former Navy SEAL from Goochland, whose serving his first term, and Del. Buddy Fowler, a six-term incumbent from Hanover.
The 11th and 55th are represented by two Democrats: Sen. Creigh Deeds, an attorney from Charlottesville, and Del. Amy Laufer, a former teacher and first-term lawmaker from Albemarle.
As one of the General Assembly’s longest serving members, Deeds wields significant power in Richmond. He chairs the powerful Commerce and Labor Committee and is a high-ranking member of the Finance and Appropriations Committee, which plays a key role in crafting the state budget.
Deeds, Laufer and Fowler are set to return to Richmond come January. But McGuire is currently pursuing higher office, vying for the 5th Congressional District seat in the November 5 general election.
Should McGuire win that contest—he’s a solid favorite in the conservative, mostly rural district—he’ll trade Richmond for Washington, vacating his senate seat and setting up a special election to determine who’ll represent most of the county in the state legislature’s upper chamber through 2027.
Board Chair and Mineral District Supervisor Duane Adams is one of four Republicans who’ve said they’ll vie for the seat assuming McGuire prevails in November.
2025 legislative platform
The county’s draft legislative platform includes nine items, several of which are perennial planks, having appeared in the document for at least the last four years.
Among those are a request that counties have the same options to raise revenue as cities, a request that the General Assembly allow localities flexibility in using state aid for compensation increases for state-supported local employees like teachers and cops and that the assembly provide more funding for those positions, and requests for more money to support regional jails and broadband deployment.
The board is also asking legislators to support efforts to develop small modular nuclear reactors; fully fund local libraries; provide money for buoy maintenance and hydrilla management on freshwater bodies like Lake Anna; and allocate additional resources to mitigate and remediate Harmful Algal Blooms, which have plagued the upper end of the lake for at least the last seven years.
Aside from those priorities, this year’s wish list includes a new addition, which could spark some debate among county officials and legislators, especially Deeds, the powerful Democrat from Charlottesville.
Supervisors are pressing the General Assembly to resist efforts to roll back local control of zoning and land use decisions, arguing that local governing bodies like boards of supervisors and town councils know their communities best, and the state shouldn’t curtail their authority to decide what’s permitted to be built and where.
“Local governments are the closest and most accessible form of government for their citizens, and more connected to local land use issues and associated challenges facing their communities. As such, localities are best positioned to undertake planning and land use decisions,” the platform says.
One area where the legislature could usurp some local control is clean energy generation with several bills pending that would curtail localities’ power to set strict limits on utility-scale solar development or place an outright ban on the use.
One of those bills was carried by Deeds last year. His SB 567 would essentially allow the State Corporation Commission to approve some large-scale clean energy generation facilities—including certain utility-scale solar projects capable of producing at least 50 megawatts of power—when those facilities face difficulties in the local approval process.
Another was carried by Sen. Schuyler VanValkenburg (D-Richmond). That bill would prohibit localities from placing a cap on utility-scale solar until at least four percent of a locality’s land mass is under panel.
Deeds and VanValkenburg have suggested that it’s necessary to reform the approval process for clean energy generation projects to meet the goals of the Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA), landmark legislation passed by the General Assembly in 2020 to combat climate change. The VCEA requires Virginia’s two monopoly utilities—Dominion Energy and Appalachian Power—to pull all their energy from carbon-free sources by mid-century.
Louisa’s board passed resolutions opposing both bills during the 2024 legislative session. Adams, the board’s chair, expressed his frustration in a Facebook post.
“Elections do have consequences. State Senate Democrats move to strip away local control of solar and wind projects. The last thing we need is for Richmond to tell us how to manage Louisa County,” he said.
Deeds’ bill was voluntarily carried over until 2025 while VanValkenburg’s bill narrowly passed the Senate and was carried over by the House.
After initially embracing utility-scale solar, most of Louisa’s board has soured on the use, in part, because of significant problems with erosion and sediment control at Dominion’s 88 MW Belcher Solar Project off Waldrop Church Road. At Belcher, stormwater runoff from the sprawling 1,300-acre facility has caused significant erosion and other damage on neighboring farms.
Resistance to the use has also been driven by concerns that the proliferation of solar panels threatens the community’s rural character, marring viewsheds and gobbling up farms and forests for industrial-scale energy production.
To address concerns about widespread solar development, supervisors in 2022 adopted a beefed-up solar ordinance that limited the use to no more than 3 percent of the county’s land. Earlier this year, they lowered the limit to two percent, or 6,343 acres. Supervisors have already approved seven utility-scale solar projects, covering about 5,200 acres, though three of those facilities haven’t been constructed.
Under VanValkenburg’s bill, Louisa’s solar cap wouldn’t be permitted.
Note: The original post incorrectly stated that Deeds and VanValkenburg’s bills were carried over by the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee. It has been corrected to accurately state the fate of both bills.
Supes to greenlight Bowler’s Mill Lake capacity study
As demand for water rises in Louisa County, driven largely by data center development, county officials are taking steps to inventory the capacity of county-owned water resources.
As part of that effort, the board of supervisors on Monday night is expected to allocate about $66,000 for a capacity study at Bowler’s Mill Lake near Gordonsville. The item is included on the board’s consent agenda, a group of resolutions typically passed in a block vote with no discussion.
Economic Development Director Andy Wade recommended the study, which will determine the lake’s “safe yield,” essentially the maximum amount of water that can be withdrawn from a water source during a drought.
“[The study is being conducted] primarily to understand the capacity of the water resources the county owns. As you know, water is a limited commodity and its prudent that we know and update our capacity information from time-to-time,” Wade said, adding, “I recommended that we conduct the study to understand water supply capacities in the event we need to utilize those sources for any reason in the future.”
The Bowler’s Mill study is the second capacity analysis the board has authorized in the last two years. In March 2023, the county performed a capacity study on the Northeast Creek Reservoir, which provides drinking water to homes and businesses in central part of the county including the Town of Louisa. The analysis found that the reservoir has a safe yield of 3.2 million gallons of water per day (gpd), up from 2.77 million gpd in 1980 when it was initially tapped for public use.
The study came just five months before the county announced a blockbuster deal with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to build two data center campuses in the newly created Technology Overlay District. The campuses, which are slated for construction adjacent to the North Anna Power Station near Lake Anna and just south of the reservoir in central Louisa, will use raw water from the reservoir to cool the data centers.
According to water services agreements inked between the county and AWS last December, the campuses will draw, on average, 630,000 gallons of cooling water per day from the reservoir, more than double the usage of current customers. An AWS representative told the planning commission last year that the facilities could use as much as 7.2 million gpd at peak demand. Wade has said that “peak demand” refers to only the hottest days of summer, noting that the centers would rely on ambient air temperature for cooling in winter.
County officials have pointed to the study as evidence that, as Wade puts it, “there’s a ton of capacity in the reservoir” to serve AWS, existing customers and future commercial and residential development in the Town of Louisa and surrounding areas.
The county last conducted a safe yield analysis on the 75-acre Bowler’s Mill Lake in 2006 when it was eyed as a potential water source for Zion Crossroads. That study determined the waterway had a safe yield of 750,000 gallons per day, according to Louisa County Water Authority (LCWA) General Manager Pam Baughman. Baughman said the county considered building a water treatment plant at the facility, but ultimately determined that “a plant at that location wasn’t feasible” due to costs.
Built in 1970 as a water source for the Town of Gordonsville, the lake currently supplies water to Old Dominion Electric Cooperative’s (ODEC) Louisa Power Station, a 504-megawatt natural gas-fired “peaker” plant that provides power to the grid during periods of high demand.
Wade said that, given the rising demand for power across the state, ODEC could potentially increase its reliance on the plant, necessitating more water from the lake.
“I don’t have confirmation from ODEC that [they plan to use the plant more], it just makes logical sense to me,” he said.
The Town of Gordonsville has rights to 10 percent of the lake’s current capacity though Wade said that, to his knowledge, the town has never withdrawn water from the facility.
Wade noted that the last safe yield analysis, conducted nearly 20 years ago, determined that sedimentation in the lake could potentially impact its depth and, in turn, its storage capacity and safe yield.
“Ideally the safe yield is still the same or increased, but if the safe yield is now less, we need to know this information and plan accordingly given [that] we have existing capacity commitments in place with ODEC and the Town of Gordonsville. I have zero concerns that existing commitments are at risk,” he said.
The engineering firm Johnson, Mirmiran & Thompson (JMT) will conduct the study, the same firm that performed the analysis on the Northeast Creek Reservoir. Wade said the study is expected to be complete by early 2025.
While county officials are evaluating the capacity of publicly owned water resources, they’re also looking at ways they could bring more water to central Louisa, potentially to serve data centers and residential and commercial growth.
This summer’s moderate to severe drought prompted LCWA to implement mandatory water restrictions across its service area and raised concerns among some residents about the reservoir’s capability of meeting future demand, particularly as droughts and heat waves intensify because of climate change.
Baughman said the restrictions were implemented because the seven production wells that feed Zion Crossroads were deemed “substantially low,” but she also noted that the reservoir was considered “low for the time of year.”
In an email to Engage Louisa in August, Baughman said the county is in the early stages of exploring what she termed “incremental upgrades” to its infrastructure “to ensure there is enough water for everyone.” Those upgrades could include “raising” the reservoir by as much as six feet to increase its capacity and piping water from the James River to central Louisa.
Louisa and Fluvanna counties, via the James River Water Authority (JRWA), are in the final stages of constructing a roughly 17-mile water line from the James to Ferncliff. When complete, the infrastructure will enable JRWA to draw 8.57 million gallons of water per day from river, which will be split between the counties.
Louisa initially invested in the water line to serve burgeoning growth at Zion Crossroads. Based on a withdrawal permit from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, the water can also be used for other growth areas along Interstate 64, central Louisa and Lake Anna, based on a tiered allocation structure.
Aside from the reservoir and Bowler’s Mill, the county, via LCWA, draws water from the Zion wells, which have a withdrawal capacity of about 620,000 gpd, a single well at Ferncliff, which primarily serves Patriot Aluminum, and a well system near Lake Anna, which serves Lake Anna Plaza and adjacent townhomes. That facility has an 8,000 gallon per day capacity.
Supes to consider $340K appropriation to LCSO to address ‘salary compression’
Supervisors will consider authorizing a $340,000 supplemental appropriation to the Louisa County Sheriff’s Office “to address salary compression issues within [the] department,” according to the proposed resolution.
The resolution says that the funding is necessary to help the department attract and retain employees, noting that many localities pay deputies and dispatchers higher wages than Louisa.
The money would allow the department to adjust salaries, per the resolution. The meeting materials don’t provide any details about how the funding would be allocated and how LCSO’s pay scale compares to other localities.
Should supervisors approve the mid-year appropriation, the funding would be drawn from the county’s General Fund Balance.
Board to consider updates to erosion and sediment control ordinance
After tabling action at its last meeting, supervisors will again consider adopting a revised erosion and sediment control ordinance (ESC).
Erosion and Sediment Control Manager Kris Nelson told the board at its October 7 meeting that the county is required to update its ESC ordinance to comply with new state regulations.
The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality earlier this year greenlighted new ESC rules while the General Assembly passed a law, effective July 1, that consolidates erosion and sediment control and stormwater management standards.
Nelson said the proposed ordinance doesn’t significantly change the county’s current erosion and sediment control regulations. It mostly reorganizes the existing ordinance and updates its language to ensure it aligns with state code.
“This ordinance is very similar to our current ordinance. It’s just a lot of updated verbiage and stuff of that nature. I didn’t really see any big changes as far as what’s new versus what we originally had,” Nelson said.
But Mountain Road District Supervisor Tommy Barlow said that he hadn’t had time to fully digest the proposal and wanted to ensure that the county wasn’t passing regulations that place an undue burden on residents.
Though most board members seemed comfortable approving the ordinance based on staff’s assurances that it didn’t beef up current regulations, the board opted to hold off on adoption to give Barlow more time to read the proposal.
Around the towns: Mineral TC censures Hempstead, appoints McCarthy to seat she just vacated; Louisa TC continues search for interim mayor
The Mineral Town Council on Tuesday night voted 3-0 to censure council member David Hempstead.
In a two-page resolution, council said Hempstead had acted in a “less than professional manner,” accusing him of harassing and demeaning town staff, including the town manager, clerk and treasurer, and fellow council members.
The resolution said that Hempstead’s actions, which allegedly include sending “several abusive emails to Town Staff ‘demanding’ actions be taken that are in direct opposition of the will and vote of the Mineral Town Council,” could potentially open the town up to litigation “for creating a hostile work environment.”
“Councilman Hempstead has demanded that Town Staff provide proof directly to him in regards to their qualifications, using demeaning and unprofessional tactics to assert that the staff is not working hard enough. Hempstead asserts that it is ‘his’ responsibility to ensure their ‘qualifications are adequate for you to do your jobs.’ Hempstead has failed to understand that staff has already been vetted, and more than meets the qualifications required to perform their individual responsibilities. Hempstead further fails to understand that the Town staff does not work for any one individual on Council, but for the body as a whole,” the resolution says.
The resolution also alleges that Hempstead ignored town protocol by using his personal email account to conduct public business; shared documents discussed in closed session without authorization, including paperwork that was part of a contract negotiation, “jeopardizing the [town’s] strength in said negotiation;” and overstepped his authority as a council member, among other allegations.
After Vice Mayor Ron Chapman read the resolution, which wasn’t included on the meeting’s advertised agenda, Hempstead called for “a point of order” then lashed out at Mayor Ed Jarvis, who refused to yield the floor, and council members. Hempstead accused his colleagues of violating state law and parliamentary procedure.
At Jarvis’ direction, a Louisa County sheriff’s deputy escorted Hempstead from the meeting.
“You are breaking the law. You are breaking the Virginia Constitution, and you are breaking Robert’s Rules of Order. And I will be taking this to the state attorney general. Count on it,” Hempstead said before leaving.
Jarvis apologized to attendees then gave Chapman the floor, who said he wanted to provide some context for the public.
“Over the weekend, we received several emails on a personal email account, not a town-issued email account, berating the town staff, telling them that they were worthless and that they did not know how to do their jobs,” Chapman said. He added that, after reviewing the emails, he spoke with council members individually about presenting a censure resolution at the meeting.
The three remaining council members—Chapman, Bernice Kube and Michelle Covert—then voted to approve the censure.
A censure is a formal statement issued by a governing body to reprimand a member and has been occasionally employed by council. The body’s last censure came in June when it reprimanded Jarvis for allegedly overstepping his authority as mayor.
That censure stemmed from approvals related to a 14-lot residential development on the eastern edge of town that has sparked outrage among some community members, who’ve called it a “trailer court” and say it doesn’t comply with town code.
The resolution greenlighted on Tuesday night directs Hempstead to “cease and desist” all direct communication with town staff and instead communicate through the mayor and relevant committee chair. The resolution also directs Hempstead to submit a written apology to staff, via the mayor, within 48 hours.
It’s unclear what repercussion Hempstead could face if he doesn’t abide by the censure’s directives.
Hempstead was appointed to council last May to fill the seat vacated by Blair Nipper. He’s running to retain the seat through 2026 in a November 5 special election.
Council appoints McCarthy to seat she just vacated
Aside from the decision to censure Hempstead, council took up another hot topic: an interim appointment to a vacant seat.
Council members voted 3-0 to appoint former council member Olivia McCarthy, who resigned from the seat in late August. They chose her over two other candidates: Bob Spedden and JoAnna Von Arb.
McCarthy will serve on council until a special election to fill the remainder of the term, which expires December 31, 2026. Because the vacancy occurred within 90 days of this year’s general election, the special election will take place on November 4, 2025, pending approval by Louisa County Circuit Court.
McCarthy resigned from the seat on August 29, writing in an email to council that she was “spread too thin.”
“The demands of my current employment prevent me from being able to serve the town at the capacity that it deserves and the capacity that I would want to give if I were able,” she said.
Four days later, McCarthy tried to rescind the resignation, saying in an email she’d made a “rash decision.”
Town officials initially allowed her to remain on the body. But a citizen pointed out at council’s September 9 meeting that, under state code, McCarthy couldn’t revoke her resignation after its effective date. Mayor Ed Jarvis informed McCarthy on September 17 that she was no longer on council and that council members would make an interim appointment.
Before casting their votes to appoint McCarthy, Vice Mayor Ron Chapman and Councilor Bernice Kube said that she was the right choice because she had been “duly elected” to the seat. McCarthy won one of the six council seats up for grabs in 2022, collecting 70 votes and finishing fifth among the five candidates on the ballot.
In brief comments to council prior to the appointment, McCarthy said that she was first compelled to run for office two years ago after getting to know her neighbors and out of a desire to transform Mineral from a town that operated based on “the way things had always been done” into a town that conducted public business “how things are meant be done.” She referenced the need to comply with state code and town ordinances.
McCarthy suggested that, after serving two years, she still wants to help Mineral navigate its challenges, including improving the town’s water system and other infrastructure in the face of residential and commercial growth.
“I, like many of you sitting in this room, want to see the Town of Mineral grow and progress. But we need to ensure that growth doesn’t end up handicapping the town itself and its citizens,” she said.
McCarthy also addressed her resignation, telling council members that her job as a social worker is, at times, stressful and emotional. She said that, on the day she submitted her resignation, she was grappling with a difficult case and missed a special council meeting, which made her feel like she wasn’t fulfilling her duty to the town. McCarthy said she regretted her resignation and she’s ready to return to public office.
“After no longer being in that moment of overwhelm and high emotionality, I do feel that I have the time and energy to dedicate to the seat that I was duly elected for on this council,” she said.
Spedden and Von Arb also made their case to council just prior to the appointment.
Spedden, who was appointed to council in July to fill the seat vacated by Becky McGehee a month earlier, resigned from his seat in September to pursue the vacancy created by McCarthy’s resignation.
Spedden has said he opted to resign after missing the filing deadline for the November 5 special election, which will fill the seat through 2026. With his interim appointment set to expire next month after the special election results are certified, winning an appointment to the most recent vacancy would’ve allowed him to serve on council for at least another year.
Spedden has blamed his failure to get on this year’s ballot on former town attorney Catherine Lea.
In his comments to council and a letter of interest, Spedden, who retired to Mineral from Nebraska four years ago, cited his military service and decades as a business owner as reasons council should choose him. He served in the US Air Force for more than 20 years and ran a concrete business for about four decades.
“My experience taught me to be patient with everyone regardless of background. I have attended a few meetings and listened to the disagreements flying around. I feel you need a referee and believe I could fill that role,” he said in his letter.
Von Arb, a real estate agent, said that she had attended several council meetings and grown frustrated with how public business has been conducted in the town. She said she’s encouraged to see some signs of change among town leaders and wants to be part of an effort to improve local government.
“I want to be part of that change and be on the council with you and work for this. Again, respect, integrity, trustworthiness, transparency, it’s all part of being a successful town and town leadership,” she said.
While McCarthy’s seat won’t be on the ballot for another year, two other council seats are up for grabs via special election this November: the seat vacated by Nipper in March and currently held by Hempstead, and the seat vacated by McGehee in June, which Spedden briefly filled.
Three candidates are on the ballot. McGehee and Nipper are running to reclaim a spot on council while Hempstead is vying to retain his seat.
In a message to Engage Louisa, McGehee, who cited stress as her reason for resigning, said she decided to run again “because everything is going so bad in Mineral.”
Nipper, who resigned due to health concerns, said in a Facebook post that should she get re-elected, she’ll focus on “accessibility and inclusivity in public meetings,” infrastructure improvements and economic development.
After passing over Von Arb for the appointment, several council members encouraged her to run as a write-in candidate in November’s election.
“I had a long talk with Ms. Von Arb over the weekend and agree 100 percent with everything she said. If you don’t put up signs in this town that say, ‘Write in Von Arb,’ I might make them for you,” Chapman said, addressing Von Arb. “I think you need to be sitting up here with us. I think you have a lot to say, and [there are] a lot of ways you are going to be able to help this town.”
Louisa Town Council continues search for interim mayor
While Tuesday’s Mineral Town Council meeting had plenty of fireworks, the Louisa Town Council meeting on the same night was a far quieter affair.
Like their counterpart in Mineral, council members are working through an interim appointment process, seeking a resident to serve as mayor until a special election in November of 2025.
As of Tuesday night, no one had applied for the job.
Former Mayor Garland Nuckols, who led town government for a decade, resigned at council’s September 17 meeting, midway through his third term. The resignation prompted council to initiate the search for a temporary replacement.
State code allows council 45 days to fill the job and, under a new state law, requires the body to hold a public meeting seven days prior to making an appointment. At the meeting, council is required to announce the names of the candidates under consideration and share with the public their resumes and any other materials submitted as part of the application process.
Anyone interested in applying for the position must be a qualified voter in the town and has until Tuesday, October 29 at 5 pm to submit a letter of interest and resume to Town Manager Liz Nelson. That information can be dropped off at the Louisa Town Hall, 212 Fredericksburg Avenue, or emailed to lnelson@louisatown.org.
Council will hold a public meeting to announce the candidates on Tuesday, October 30 at 6 pm in council chambers at the Louisa Town Hall. They’re set to make an appointment during a special meeting on November 6 at 6 pm.
Though that meeting comes after the 45-day deadline, Town Attorney Jeff Gore said in an interview with Engage Louisa that localities are typically allowed some flexibility. He also said that the new state law requiring an additional public meeting makes it harder to fill a seat within 45 days, noting that local officials need time to advertise the vacancy.
Nelson said during Tuesday’s meeting that, so far, no one has submitted a letter of interest. She said the town is advertising the vacancy for three weeks in The Central Virginian and has posted a notice on its website.
Council member Vicky Harte asked what happens if no one applies for the job.
Gore said that, per state code, council is still tasked with making an appointment.
“For mayors, you have to appoint an interim, whereas for other council members, you wouldn’t have to appoint an interim. It could go vacant until the special election,” Gore said.
According to code, if council fails to fill the seat, the judges of Louisa County Circuit Court are permitted to do so.
Vice Mayor Jessi Lassiter is currently serving as acting mayor. Lassiter is one of four candidates vying for three seats on council in this November’s general election. Council member Sylvia Rigsby is also seeking reelection while Roger Henry and Daniel Crawford are vying for their first term.
News roundup: Amazon announces deal with Dominion to develop a small nuclear reactor
Engage Louisa focuses on Louisa County government. We recognize that we can’t cover everything and there’s plenty of other news in our neck of the woods. With that in mind, we occasionally include a roundup of links to the work of other journalists and organizations covering noteworthy events and issues that impact our community.
Amazon announces deal with Dominion Energy to develop a small nuclear reactor -Virginia Mercury
Louisa parents seek change after autistic son allegedly hurt by school bus aide -WRIC
McGuire and Witt offer contrasting views in first and likely only 5th district debate -Cardinal News
Democrat Gloria Witt surpasses GOP rival John McGuire in latest fundraising -Virginia Mercury
Advisory group talks ‘tourism support request’ -The Central Virginian (metered paywall)
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