Welcome to Martinsville Field Notes, where you can find quick updates on what’s happening in Martinsville and Henry County every Friday. In this week’s column, you’ll hear about a budget increase for Henry County Public Schools and an update on progress at 51 Lester. Don’t forget to check out the last edition if you missed it.
If there’s something you’d like to see in next week’s column, you can reach me at julianna@cardinalnews.org. There’s always something happening in Martinsville and Henry County, and I’d love to hear from you!
Henry County schools get final budget as need for more communication is raised
The Henry County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a $2.6 million budget increase for its school system, with $2.1 million in additional revenue coming from the state, after its eleventh-hour budget approval.
Virginia approved its budget in June just before the start of the fiscal year. Henry County passed its original budget in May, but the new state budget requires an increase of over $615,000 in local matching funds for public schools. To balance the budget, county staff suggested using about $532,000 in local carryover funds from fiscal year 2025 to meet the local requirements.
Superintendent Amy Blake-Lewis requested that unexpended funds be reappropriated for identified school needs, including significant capital needs.
“Ending a fiscal year with unspent funds should not automatically be viewed as evidence that a school division was overfunded,” Blake-Lewis said. “It is evidence of careful management.”
Henry County voters passed a 1% school sales tax referendum in 2020, which has generated $28 million in revenue for school projects, according to county documents. In 2025, the tax brought in more than $5.5 million.
Blake-Lewis said the school division’s “repeated experience has been that carryforward requests are not supported.”
“We do not spend money simply for the sake of spending money,” Blake-Lewis said. “But when a school division knows that dollars responsibly saved at year end are unlikely to be reappropriated for legitimate school needs, the system is unintentionally creating an incentive to spend rather than to save.”
Several board members said more conversations need to take place between the two entities.
“I would love to see somebody take the initiative to organize and coordinate that so that when we get back to this point next year, we’ve had the conversations and we feel better about the budgetary process,” said supervisor Garrett Dillard, who also works for the school division. “We feel better about the decisions that were made as opposed to all of the tension that is in the air.”
The overall budget for Henry County Public Schools increased to more than $120 million.
Progress made on housing units at 51 Lester
Martinsville’s Economic Development Authority has received four grants to turn an abandoned plant into at least 62 housing units, including one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments.
The city of Martinsville gave the EDA $500,000, and the EDA spent $403,000 to buy the plant.
The EDA has received four grants:
- $1 million from the Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission to stabilize the building.
- $935,000 from The Harvest Foundation to replace the roof and get rid of the asbestos on the roof.
- $50,000 from Virginia Housing for community engagement to ask Martinsville residents what they would like to see for housing and commercial activities at the building.
- $150,000 from Virginia Housing to contribute to stabilization work.
(Disclosure: The Harvest Foundation is one of our donors, but donors have no say in news decisions; see our policy.)
The EDA is hoping to reach a goal of 500 new housing units, with the 51 Lester project to mark the beginning, said Eric Payne, the authority’s executive director.
Payne said officials are excited to create additional revenue for Martinsville and rehabilitate a building that would otherwise have ended up dilapidated. Since it’s a historic site, it must undergo a state and federal review process.
The EDA hopes to finish stabilization by the end of 2026, and the building will be in the construction and development phase for most of 2027. There is currently no date for when the building will be completed.
Historically, EDAs could not complete housing projects alone. State Del. Eric Phillips, R-Henry County, is the chairman of Martinsville’s EDA and led the effort to get legislation passed this year to allow EDAs to take the lead on developing housing.
“We have a critical housing crisis, and we need all hands on deck,” Payne said.
