10-09-2026 2:35pm

Election 2026: Spotsylvania County Bond #3

John Williams Editor

Photo courtesy of the Spotsylvania Gazette

QUESTION 3 — PUBLIC SAFETY BOND
EXACT BALLOT WORDING

Shall the County of Spotsylvania, Virginia (the “County”) contract a debt and issue its General Obligation Public Improvement Bonds in the maximum amount of Sixty-One Million Nine Hundred Ninety-Three Thousand Five Hundred Ninety-Two Dollars ($61,993,592) to provide funds, together with other available funds, to undertake a program of Capital Improvement Projects for public safety purposes, including without limitation (1) the construction and equipping of (a) a fire training and logistics center, including classrooms, office and storage space and related facilities, (b) a replacement burn building for live fire training exercises, (c) a new fire station in the area of West Catharpin Road and Pamunkey Road, (d) Four Mile Fork Fire Station improvements to provide more accessible shower and locker room facilities for the projected number of station crew that will be staffing the station; and (2) replacements of fire and EMS equipment, including new fire trucks and ambulances?

VOTERS TO DECIDE $61.99 MILLION PUBLIC SAFETY BOND

Question 3 would fund fire training, a station, emergency vehicles and equipment

By John L. Williams | The Spotsylvania Gazette

QUESTION 3 AT A GLANCE

Maximum borrowing authority: $61,993,592
Purpose: Fire and emergency medical services capital projects
YES: Authorizes the county to issue bonds up to the amount listed.
NO: Does not authorize this borrowing.
The four county bond questions are decided separately.

SPOTSYLVANIA COUNTY — Voters will decide Nov. 3 whether to authorize up to $61,993,592 in general obligation bonds for public safety projects, including fire and rescue facilities, emergency vehicles and equipment.

Question 3 is the third of four separate county bond questions. It asks for borrowing authority for capital projects. It is not a vote on the Fire and Rescue Department’s annual operating budget, and approval would not mean the full amount is spent immediately.

WHERE WOULD THE MONEY GO?

The county lists these estimated project costs. Amounts are rounded and add to about $62 million; the ballot sets the maximum borrowing authority at $61,993,592.

$8.3 million — Fire Training and Logistics Center. The planned facility would combine classrooms, offices, storage, equipment bays and support areas for Fire, Rescue and Emergency Management personnel. The county says it would bring together functions now split between an outdated county facility and rented space.

$8.3 million — New fire and rescue station. The county’s project page describes a 15,000-square-foot station intended to serve the Shady Grove area, where emergency response now comes from stations farther away over a limited road network. The ballot wording describes a new station in the area of West Catharpin Road and Pamunkey Road. The county’s project page uses the name Shady Grove Fire Station; voters can compare both descriptions in the official materials.

$3.0 million — Replacement burn building. The county says the current regional training facility has been operating since 2007. The replacement is a joint purchase among the jurisdictions in the Rappahannock Regional Training Commission and is intended to support realistic live-fire training and meet applicable standards.

$0.7 million — Four Mile Fork Fire Station restroom, shower and locker-room modernization. The county says the work would reconfigure existing space to provide more accessible facilities for station crews.

$3.0 million — Fire and rescue equipment replacements, including items such as cardiac monitors, automated chest-compression devices, ventilators and ambulance patient-loading systems.

$27.2 million — Fire and rescue apparatus, including fire trucks and other emergency-response vehicles.

$11.5 million — EMS apparatus, including ambulances and other emergency-response vehicles.

The ballot says the bonds may be used for the listed projects “including without limitation.” It does not assign a fixed dollar amount to each project. The county’s project page provides estimates, while the county would determine project schedules and spending through its capital planning and budget processes.

HOW DID IT GET ON THE BALLOT?

On May 26, the Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to establish the amounts and categories for a four-question bond referendum totaling about $400.6 million, according to the Fredericksburg Free Press. The public safety question is Question 3 and is separate from the schools, transportation, and environmental and solid-waste questions.

WHY SUPPORTERS SAY IT IS NEEDED

The county says the proposed facilities, vehicles and equipment would support emergency response as the community grows, replace aging assets and improve training and operational capacity. It says a new station would place personnel and equipment closer to the Shady Grove area and help the county work toward its goal of arriving at emergency scenes within eight minutes 90% of the time.

Bond financing lets the county pay for long-lived capital assets over time. The cost is spread across future budgets rather than collected entirely in one year.

WHAT ARE THE CONCERNS?

Question 3 would authorize nearly $62 million in additional borrowing. The amount on the ballot is principal; repayment also includes interest. The county’s estimated debt-service figures help illustrate the potential effect, but they are not an individual tax bill.

The wording also gives the county flexibility: it describes the projects as included “without limitation” and does not guarantee that every listed project will be completed on a particular schedule or at the estimate shown. Residents can follow future capital plans and budgets to see how the county sets priorities and tracks spending.

The county’s ballot wording identifies a new fire station near West Catharpin Road and Pamunkey Road, while its project description calls the proposed station the Shady Grove Fire Station. Voters may reasonably want the county to clarify how those descriptions correspond.

WHAT COULD IT MEAN FOR A HOMEOWNER?

The county estimates the public safety bond’s gross debt-service equivalent at 2.1 cents per $100 of assessed real-estate value. After accounting for scheduled reductions in existing debt, the county estimates the net equivalent at less than 0.2 cents per $100.

At the gross estimate, the equivalent would be about $21 a year for each $100,000 of assessed value. At the county’s net estimate, it would be less than $2 per $100,000. For example, a home assessed at $400,000 would equate to about $84 using the gross figure and less than $8 using the net figure.

These are illustrations of the county’s debt-service estimates, not an automatic tax increase or a prediction of an individual bill. Supervisors set the real-estate tax rate through the annual budget, and other revenues and spending decisions affect how debt is paid.

THE DECISION BELONGS TO VOTERS

A YES vote authorizes the county to issue up to $61,993,592 in bonds for the purposes described. A NO vote rejects this borrowing authorization. Either way, the question is decided separately from the other three bond questions.

Voters are weighing the proposed public safety projects and their priorities against the long-term cost of borrowing. The Spotsylvania Gazette does not endorse a YES or NO vote.

The decision belongs to Spotsylvania voters. The Spotsylvania Gazette does not endorse a YES or NO vote. This is the third article in our series examining the county bond questions. Tomorrow, the Gazette will look at County Bond No. 4: Environmental and Solid Waste.
SOURCES

Spotsylvania County 2026 Bond Referendum and project descriptions:
https://www.spotsylvania.va.us/3255/2026-Bond-Referendum

Spotsylvania County potential tax-bill impact:
https://www.spotsylvania.va.us/3302/Potential-Impact-on-Tax-Bill

Fredericksburg Free Press, May 28, 2026, “Spotsylvania supervisors set amounts and categories for November bond referendum”:
https://www.fredericksburgfreepress.com/2026/05/28/spotsylvania-supervisors-set-amounts-and-categories-for-november-bond-referendum/

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

The Gazette welcomes letters about the bond questions. Use the Gazette QR code to reach the publication’s submission page. Letters may be edited for length, clarity and style. Publication is at the editor’s discretion.