Departments provided updates to the Board of Supervisors at the meeting on April 8. The following, abbreviated version of the report reflects an interesting evolution of the continuity of business and services in our new normal shaped by COVID-19. The ever-changing work is just a snapshot but shows the commitment to mission while grappling with budgetary, logistical, and economic challenges, not necessarily a new phenomenon for government but a situation tinged with greater intensity in this time of uncertainty.

Commissioner of Revenue:

Real Estate

• All homeowners that qualified for tax relief for the elderly and handicapped program last year were called multiple times during the last two weeks. All but four finalized their information and were qualified by April 1. Of the four that did not, two were applicants that no longer had telephone service.
• All deeds and wills were finalized and the real estate book is being balanced and readied for the 2020 tax rate to be set after which tax bills will be calculated and printed.

Personal Property

• Approximately 62,000 Personal Property forms were mailed on March 18. By March 23, we started receiving multiple mail trays arrived each day. This week alone we received 34 trays. We are receiving assistance from the Treasurer’s office and Administration to open the returned mail. As of April 3, we’ve scanned approximately 11,000 returns into Laserfiche; all mail received has been opened and sorted and prepped for scanning.

State Income Tax

• State Income Tax returns continue to be processed as received. Currently, the State deadline has not been extended due to the virus.

• Meals tax and lodging tax are normally due on the 20^th of each month for the previous month’s activity. The office is fielding calls from restaurant owners inquiring about the payment of these taxes.The Code of Virginia holds that businesses are collectors of the Meals and Lodging Tax and are advised to keep this money in trust to remit for payment. At this time, the meals and lodging tax remains due by the 20th of each month or penalties and interest begin to accrue.

Treasurer:

Deposits from County departments for county fees are less. Delinquent tax notices were mailed several weeks ago, and payments are being made.  Debt set-off reimbursement, individual tax refunds that offset delinquent taxes owed by taxpayers to the County, of $203,000 were filed.  State funds for education and constitutional offices were received at the end of March.

The drive-up window has been busier with three departments working out of it - the Treasurer’s office, Commissioner of the Revenue, and Community Development. We thank the public for directing business through the window and drop-box.

HR drafted and disbursed policies and notices related to the Families First Coronavirus Response Act and are fielding questions from staff related to the policy. 

Staff have been consumed with department preparations for implementing Continuity of Operations Plans:

• Met with every department to review their telework needs
• Enabled telework access for 40 staff
• Upgraded sonic wall and procured additional licenses
• Purchased and installed more DUO licenses (2 point authentication)
• Worked with Sycom to get VPN working on the firewall for county owned laptops
• Addressed web requests from Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office, Circuit Court, Headwaters, Sheriff, Social Services, Middle River Regional Jail and other departments
• Reconfigured Toughbooks for Sonic wall access
• Tested phone usage at home and ordered 30 power injectors
• Utilizing Team Viewer to work on pc’s remotely
• Monitoring help desk calls for internal and telework staff.

Server upgrades are canceled due to social distancing, which will affect the timing of other projects.

Other projects underway:

• Capital plan- working with finance to update
• New servers are being set up and worked on remotely
• Fielding better usage of PGRT monitoring (security sensors)

Ongoing project work:Augusta County Service Authority, Finance and HR

Library:

It has been very strange and more than a bit depressing to run a public library without any public.

Curbside service, which was in effect March 17-31, has been suspended. In that time, 5,076 items from Fishersville, Churchville and Stuarts Draft were checked out.

Three libraries have the Meraki wireless access points that provide a count of usage.  Total sessions during the same two-week period was 1,041.

Staff has kept busy with many tasks:

• Inventoried items lost and missing and cleared up the catalog data base
• Deep cleaning everything
• Physically examining items for repair, replacement. Children's department is looking at items for a diversity/inclusion audit
• We have a daily posting of programs, book talks, how-to videos on the ACL YouTube channel.
• Scanning old scrapbooks, photos, program guides
• Taking webinars and online classes
• Churchville repainted the interior and is rearranging the entire library
• We plan on conducting a complete inventory at all libraries.

Rosetta@Home has been installed on the public computers and this allows research institutions to use our computer idle time to crunch calculations. 

Library staff is creating face shields and masks with the 3D printer for Augusta Health and other regional hospitals are interested in receiving them. We are pursuing grants for the filament material.

We are in discussion about the summer reading programs including the possibility of doing something online.

I am sure this creative and hardworking staff will remain productive and do what they can to serve the citizens of the county during this trying time.

Parks & Recreation:

All programs, activities, events, and essentially all services are cancelled through June 10, including: Sweet Dreams Day (June 6), opening of campground at Natural Chimneys Park postponed until at least June 11 and swimming pools (Natural Chimneys Park & Stuarts Draft Park) until at least June 11. A decision about Summer KIDS Camp has not yet been made. 

Registrations or reservations are suspended for now. These will resume only when there is great confidence that the risk from the spread of Coronavirus is minimal. 

The quarterly Summer Activities Guide, a $17,000 expenditure, will not be published since programs have been canceled.    

Refunds of $71,000 have been processed through our department since the start of measures taken against COVID-19.  We are expecting to refund another $3,100 next week (4/7 – 4/9) for camping fees for reservations up through May 21. 

Twenty part-time staff affiliated with the RecCreate (Afterschool) Program have been off/out of work since March 16.  Seventeen employees averaged 12-20 hours/week.  Three are substitutes and could average 5-10 hours/week.  Bus drivers and site coordinators have been off since then as well.

Community Development:

Building Inspection workload actually increased in March compared to March 2019 permits:

Building permits were up 50%, electrical permits up 20%, plumbing permits up 33%, and mechanical permits up 21%.  At this point, we do not know if it is a coincidence or if people were rushing to get permits a shut-down of services. We will have a better feel at the end of April. 

Zoning workload is staying close to normal. Customers are calling in or emailing requests for administrative permit forms.  There is suddenly a renewed  interest in backyard chickens.  Complaints are rising with more people staying at home and actions of their neighbors or the sight of junk cars becoming more of a nuisance.

Subdivision plats are just slightly less, March (15 plats) compared to February (18 plats).

Engineering workload is a little slower but are still accepting plans and getting phone calls.  Hearthstone Dam project is nearing substantial completion.

Planning is receiving less calls about re-zonings.  Three new companies inquired about large scale solar facilities in the last week.

Administration:

Updated Continuation of Operations Plans for County departments were drafted and compiled.

Administration has participated in two teams that manage the COVID-19 crisis: 

• Emergency Management – attended initial kickoff meetings and viewed webinars held for local government (White House, Senator Warner’s office), Governors updates, Augusta Health regional initiatives, and regional updates with Cities.Approved expenditures.
• Human Resources Management – assist HR and County Attorney in policies and procedures related to new federal laws (including participation in webinars), assist IT in decisions and purchases related to telework abilities, send weekly updates to department heads and/or employees, and monitor changes related to public meeting requirements. 

Assisted Finance in calculating potential shortfall in FY20 budget related to COVID-19.  Administration is also monitoring stimulus funding for local grant opportunities.   

Normal operations continue, including presentation of the budget, filing Arts Grant, updating leases and contracts and preparation of minutes and agendas. 

Communications manager has compiled County resources onto a COVID-19 website page, drafted public notices/news releases, and is working on set up of Board of Supervisors meetings while public access to the building is restricted by Governor’s Orders. Communications continues to work with departments on public information and website content revisions. 

Finance:

Finance is performing the usual work for this time of year, including presentation of the budget.  The department is working with public safety to review purchases related to the pandemic.

Animal Control:

Starting April 6, ECC Dispatchers are handling all animal control calls so that calls in areas affected by COVID-19 can be identified. Traps will not be loaned to the public in order to prevent the spread of the virus. Officers are taking precautions as outlined by the Health Department/Governor.

Maintenance:

Facility Maintenance has been extremely busy with COVID19 protocols while still preforming maintenance and working on projects. Purchased additional cleaning protection and gloves for staff.  Cleaning products are being disbursed to the Sheriff’s Office and Fire/Rescue as appropriate.

• Conducting cleaning as recommended by VDH and CDC.
• All maintenance staff, not just janitorial staff, has been conducting disinfection and cleaning in county-owned buildings. Staff has also been working hard to facilitate changes for other departments and facilities in order to meet the needs of each of the individual directors, fire chief, sheriff, ECC, and others during this time of uncertainty.
• Grounds maintenance is “status quo” and has started mowing and completing projects, including the pool and visitor center at Natural Chimneys.  The department is working to have the parks ready to open the day that restrictions are lifted.
• Holds have been placed on hiring summer employees for ground maintenance.
• Swimming pool renovations at Natural Chimneys Park are just about complete. 
• Visitor Center renovations at Natural Chimneys Park should be completed by the end of April.  The office will be functional in that building in May.

Emergency Communications Center:

As of April 7, 2020, Emergency Management is reporting (10) confirmed cases in Augusta County reported by the Va. Department of Health.  The VDH maps of confirmed cases on the internet is not populating daily, the data is behind.   

ECC has submitted requests to the State for PPE and supplies.  The State currently does not have a cache but PPE has been requested from the strategic national stockpile and are exploring all options for procuring additional PPE.   As a jurisdiction, we are looking for local resources for filling our needs and reaching out to the community for donations.  We daily track the amount of inventory that our emergency service providers are using and this report is submitted to the State daily at 4 p.m. 

We are tracking and compiling a list of expenditures to report to the State to potentially secure FEMA funding. 

Economic Development:

• Released Augusta County Disaster Relief Loan Fund- $50,000 total fund, interest-free loans of $1,000-$5,000
• Sent out two COVID-19 Resources newsletters -  goal of 1 per week as relevant resources are released
• Heavy economic development project activity has continued, updates coming soon
• Future budgets likely affected by loss of meals tax and lodging tax revenues
• Hired Nick Grow (formerly the project coordinator from Parks and Recreation) as Project Manager starting April 16 

Voter Registration Office:

• The June 9 primary has been moved to June 23. 
• The ELECT annual training was scheduled for June 23, but that may change due to the date change of the primary.
• The department is working with at least one person in the office each day with the others working from home.