The Henry County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday, Sept. 23, to support a resolution that endorses Patrick & Henry Community College (P&HCC) to take over operations of the New College Institute (NCI) and convert it into the Patrick & Henry Workforce Economic Development Building. The item was added to the county’s 2026 legislative agenda that will be forwarded to the upcoming General Assembly.
County Administrator Dale Wagoner said the request came from NCI Board of Directors member Dr. Mark Crabtree.
Crabtree “and two other members of the board have taken up an aggressive approach, a proactive approach, to decide the direction of the New College Institute. As you know, over the past two General Assembly budgets, funding for the New College was stricken from the Governor’s budget on both occasions and had to be handed back by the new General Assembly,” Wagoner said.
Because of this, Wagoner said there has been uncertainty over NCI’s future.
Crabtree and some “others are lobbying for a cause to ensure that we have an institution of education here in our community in that building, and that it be turned over” to P&HCC, he said.
Wagoner noted the plan requires approval by the General Assembly, the Council for Higher Education, and the Virginia Community College System.
“There’s a lot of steps in this process, but they are asking for your support upfront,” he added.
County Attorney George Lyle said the transition would be revenue neutral.
“The money spent on NCI would go to Patrick & Henry, an equal amount. It wouldn’t be like an unfunded gift,” he said.
Vice Chairman Joe Bryant, of the Collinsville District, said he supports the idea and believes P&HCC is well-suited to take over.
Wagoner explained that the county’s legislative agenda lists priorities the board believes the General Assembly should act on for the county.
“The broader categories kind of identify what’s important to us: economic development and infrastructure, education and workforce, public safety, housing, and recreation and natural resources,” he said, adding the board will also ask the state to continue investing in economic and site development to attract industry.
“Another thing was to get the General Assembly to remove” the Compensation Board “requirement that penalizes the sheriff’s office for housing inmates from out-of-state or federal inmates. They can house other Virginia jurisdictions, but not federal inmates or out-of-state inmates without getting penalized. You may recall when they built the jail, that was kind of built under the premise that they would take in some other inmates to help offset the revenue and stuff and the state actually penalizes them for doing that,” Wagoner said.
Other priorities include continued support for funding education, P&HCC, the sheriff’s office, water and sewer infrastructure along U.S. 58 West to the Blue Ridge Regional Airport, secondary roads and rural transportation, and a dedicated funding stream for fire and EMS.
“One thing kind of new is we got to find a dedicated funding stream for fire and EMS. That’s something we pushed last year, and it never worked out,” Wagoner said. He added that a General Assembly study two years ago recommended a plan to fund fire and EMS, but no action has been taken.
The county’s 2026 legislative agenda will be posted on its website.
The board also heard Melanie Hampton, who spoke about derelict and unkempt properties in the Villa Heights area of Collinsville, and urged the county to enforce ordinances and hold property owners accountable.
“I have been on this journey for about a year and a half. I started in February ‘24, I sat down and met with (Sheriff) Wayne Davis in his office for about two hours one evening. I had gathered information, GIS, property cards, tenant information or homeowner information contact information, pictures of the current situation of the properties, and many of them were a disaster to say the least,” she said.
Hampton said she was referred to Timmy Robertson, who is the deputy over the trash and such ordinances over the county.
“I’ve been told by many different people” including Bryant, Davis, and Robertson, “that when we try to enforce these laws, or we try to enforce these fines, the judge” decides the case. “I can’t hold the judge accountable, and I can’t hold the judge’s feet to the fire if it doesn’t get to him,” she said.
Hampton showed the board pictures of homes in her neighborhood that she believes are an eyesore, including a mobile home, multiple vehicles without tags, messy, overgrown grass, and more.
Hampton believes the county needs to amend its ordinances and start holding peoples’ feet to the fire.
“I think it’s time to start throwing fines and start making people accountable,” she said.
Hampton noted the county is building 14 homes in that area.
“These people are going to look at those homes, ride through our neighborhood, and they see all mess and they’re going to think one of two things: they’ve going to think I don’t want to live over here or they’ve going to think, ‘they won’t mind if I have trash in my yard, or if I have cars stacked one on top on another.’ We’re not setting the bar very high for the new houses that are coming in as well,” she said.
Chairman Jim Adams, of the Blackberry District, told Hampton the deputies in the back of the room were aggressively taking notes while she spoke.
Bryant said he’s tried really hard to get the Villa Heights area cleaned up.
“It’s like a never-ending battle trying to clean this place up, but we need to come up with some kind of plan, whether it would be we need to get with you (Hampton), to get with the community, an organizational meeting with your community. We can all sit down and come up with a gameplan on how we as a community move forward with it,” he said.
Noting the area is unkempt, Bryant said what he’s scared will happen is the wrong crowd will be attracted to the homes that are being built.
“She makes a perfect point, she lives there. Would we want to live there? Would we want to live beside that,” Bryant asked, adding it’s not that the county hasn’t worked to get the problem fixed, but that there’s multiple moving parts.
“It’s difficult, but I understand exactly where you’re coming from. Trust me, I’m not trying to put it off to the side,” he said.
In other matters, the board:
*Presented the Henry County Headliner Award to Deputy Ashley Norton for her induction into the Ferrum College Sports Hall of Fame for 2025.
*Approved a $500 donation from the Iriswood District impact funds to Worship on the Lawn, focused on breast cancer awareness.
*Heard from Director of Elections/General Registrar Dawn Stultz-Vaughn about early voting.
*Awarded a $1,975,117 construction contract to Haymes Brothers, Inc., for Reservoir Road reconstruction near the Commonwealth Crossing Business Centre.
*Approved additional appropriations: $10,000 for a part-time clerical position in the Clerk of Court’s office; $25,968 from an insurance settlement to replace a shelter at Jaycee Park; $239,100 for school nutrition programs; $1,859,700 from the 1% Sales Tax fund for elevator installations and electrical upgrades at several schools; $915,846 from VDOT Revenue Sharing for Reservoir Road.
*Approved participation in opioid-related settlements against multiple pharmaceutical companies.
*Appointed Cherisse Hairston to the Blue Ridge Regional Library Board through June 30, 2027.
Heard updates on delinquent tax collection, economic development, and general highway matters.
*Heard updates on delinquent tax collection, economic development, and general highway matters.
