Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 11, 1995 TAG: 9501110050
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Three members of the local chapter of the Izaak Walton League, a national water and forest conservation group, last month asked the county Board of Supervisors to help them become tax exempt.
The General Assembly would have to approve such an exemption, and would only do so with the supervisors' endorsement. Many other nonprofit and charitable organizations, such as the Nature Conservancy, the Christiansburg Kiwanis Club and the Loyal Order of the Moose Inc., already enjoy tax exemptions.
The total value of nontaxable property in Montgomery County was $788 million as of the 1990 reassessment and increased to $975 million last year. Only $12 million, or 1.5 percent, of the 1990 figure was from land owned by nonprofit and charitable groups, said Ed Combs, county assessor.
The bulk of tax exempt land belongs to Virginia Tech, but the Radford Army Ammunition Plant, other federal and state property, churches and schools are also tax-exempt. Countywide, 28.6 percent of all land is tax exempt, Combs said.
The estimated assessed value of all taxable county property was $1.97 billion a year ago and has increased to $2.13 million in the reassessment, which was completed in November. Property taxes are the major local source of revenue, most of which goes to support the public school system.
The Izaak Walton League, which has 200 members locally, owns land and an old farmhouse off Den Hill Road near Shawsville. It paid $562 in county property taxes last year, said secretary Wallace Scott. The recent reassessment only heightened worries that the club may not be able to cover the expense with its dues and fund-raising events, league members said.
The supervisors will hold a public hearing on the request on Jan. 23. If the board approves the endorsement, it would then be up to state Sen. Madison Marye, D-Shawsville, to introduce the requested exemption in the legislature.
In other business Monday, the board:
Supported the county School Board's request to the General Assembly that it be allowed to pay its members a maximum of $3,600 a year. The current cap is $1,800, and was last increased in 1984. The School Board chairman would earn up to $1,100 a year. The legislature would have to approve the change.
Discussed, but came to no conclusions on proposals to increase the pay of the 23 county employees who earn less than $12,500 a year. Under one scenario, the bottom level of the pay plan would be shifted upward at a cost of $36,600.
Approved a $42,504 contract with Chesterfield Insurers for insurance coverage for the county's volunteer fire and rescue squads.
Rejected a request for $500 from the Appalachian Railroad Heritage Partnership, which is seeking money from local governments to support the preservation of old railroad sites for education and tourism.
Approved the final plan of a 60-lot subdivision, Parkview Estates, at the end of Blair Street and Gallimore Street in the Plum Creek area off U.S. 11.
Memo: ***CORRECTION***