The Page County Board of Supervisors‘ September 8, 2026 work session included the following agenda items and actions:
CALL TO ORDER
Supervisors Jeremy Baldwin (District 1), Allen Louderback (District 2), Ryan Cubbage (District 3), Susan Kile (District 4), Jeff Vaughan (District 5) and Chairman Bucky Thomas (At-Large) were present.
CLOSED SESSION
Supervisors entered a closed session for a discussion of acquisition of real property, pursuant to the Code of Virginia, Section 2.2-3711(A)(3) and for consultation with legal counsel for legal advice, pursuant to the Code of Virginia, Section 2.2-3711(A)(8).
EXIT CLOSED SESSION / CERTIFICATION OF CLOSED SESSION
Supervisors exited and unanimously certified the closed session.
PRESENTATION OF THE AFID GRANT
Page County Director of Economic Development and Tourism Nina Fox presented information about the county’s recent award of $50,000 through the Governor’s Agriculture and Forestry Industries Development (AFID) Fund Infrastructure Grant for a Page Valley Food and Visitor Hub — a proposed commercial kitchen, restaurant incubator space, food truck commissary and micro visitor center on Main Street in downtown Luray in the former Uncle Buck’s restaurant building.
She reported that the idea for the project originated after the economic development and tourism department received a $12,000 AFID Planning Grant in 2021 to support a Fresh Food Project aimed at strengthening the region’s food system.
Roundtables conducted through that project identified two chief goals for Page County: establishing a meat processing facility and utilizing a commercial kitchen space.
Fox reported that the proposed Page Valley hub features multiple components including a visitor center in order to utilize restricted Transient Occupancy Tax revenue, noting that the project would be fully funded by grants and TOT and would not utilize local tax dollars.
She noted that the county is approaching the end of its contract for visitor center services with the Luray-Page County Chamber of Commerce at the restored train depot building in downtown Luray and that the county is not the lease holder of that building.
Supervisors discussed aspects of the proposed Page Valley Food and Visitor Hub, including location, lease agreement terms, parking, overall cost projections, the possibility of utilizing the space to launch a culinary program for tech center students and plans to meet with representatives of the town of which owns the train depot building where the county-funded visitor center is currently located.
Supervisor Cubbage said that “the county needs to know what direction the town of Luray plans to go in with the building,” noting that “if the town decides to do something else with the building” then the county’s options would be to either move the visitor center to a different location or not have one.
Fox noted that the county must sign a memorandum of understanding with the state by Sept. 25 in order to accept the AFID funding for the proposed project.
Supervisors agreed to make a decision at that their next meeting, scheduled for 7 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 21, at Luray High School.
The meeting agenda will include two public comment periods.
CLERK OF THE COURT UPDATE
Page County Clerk of Circuit Court Grayson Markowitz presented an overview of the past decade during his time in office, touting a full staff, annual office savings, grant funding, online access to public land and court records through a secure remote access system and ongoing efforts to digitize Page County records.
COMMONWEALTH’S ATTORNEY UPDATE
Page County Commonwealth’s Attorney Chapman Good presented an overview of the local commonwealth’s attorney office, noting compensation board funding, staff vacancy savings, recent court proceedings and the work of deputy and assistant attorneys, paralegals and a part-time receptionist.
He touted the work done by Page County Victim-Witness Program Director Rosalyn Good and gave a brief overview of that department and how the department and his office work in collaboration.
FIRST ENERGY PAGE-SPERRYVILLE TRANSMISSION LINE REBUILD PROJECT
Kyle Hart, Mid-Atlantic Senior Program Manager for the National Parks Conservation Association, shared insights about community concerns over FirstEnergy’s Page-Sperryville Transmission Line Rebuild Project — a project that consists of rebuilding about 13.8 miles of existing 40-year-old, 138-kilovolt transmission line between the Page substation in Luray and the Sperryville substation to enhance service reliability for customers by reducing the risk of unplanned outages because of equipment failure.
Hart reported that the National Parks Conservation Association is asking FirstEnergy to release visual simulations to the public, share environmental studies, consider alternative engineering designs that would reduce visual impact and engage with local communities for feedback.
He noted concerns about the possibility of FirstEnergy widening a cleared right-of-way along the route, noting that the current 78-foot right-of-way could be widened up to 100 feet because of an existing 100-foot right-of-way easement with Shenandoah National Park.
SCHOOLS LOCAL COMPOSITE INDEX UPDATE
Superintendent of Page County Public Schools Bryan Huber presented an update on the school system’s Local Composite Index (LCI), which measures the ability of a locality to pay for its share of the Standards of Quality costs.
He reported that the funding formula continues to require more local funding than state funding based on the locality’s “ability to pay,” adding that enrollment is declining while the LCI rises and that student need is rising with the LCI.
Dr. Huber gave an update on the school system’s facility master plan, touting a new landing page on the school system’s website that includes information about facility planning discussions and answers community questions.
He noted intermediate solutions and presented other revenue options for consideration, including the possibility of utilizing new grant funding and sales tax revenue.
NORTHWESTERN COMMUNITY SERVICES FY27 PERFORMANCE CONTRACT
Supervisors unanimously approved a fiscal year 2027 performance contract with Northwestern Community Services, which provides mental health, developmental and substance use disorder services to community members in Page, Clarke, Frederick, Shenandoah and Warren counties and the City of Winchester.
Collectively, the localities are contributing about $1.6 million for the services in the current fiscal year, with Page contributing $118,442.
DISCUSSION OF TIMELINES FOR SPECIAL USE PERMITS
Supervisor Cubbage led a discussion about special use permit application timelines and the possibility of tightening timeframes for public hearings and recommendations by commissioners to supervisors after an application is introduced to the Page County Planning Commission.
The changes, he said, would streamline the permitting process for applicants and particularly for common SUP requests.
Supervisors and Page County Attorney Michael Helm discussed the possibility of developing a standard practice that outlines shorter timelines.
Supervisors by consensus requested that Helm research and draft a standard practice for review by supervisors.
ADJOURN
See minutes from previous meetings and agendas for upcoming meetings at pagecounty.virginia.gov/AgendaCenter.
EDITOR’S NOTE: The livestream for the September 8 meeting was not broadcast. At press time, there was still no video of the meeting posted on the Page County government page.
There is not yet an agenda posted for the September 21 meeting.