The IAC will hold a meeting on Thursday, May 2, 2024 at 5:30 p.m. in the Arthur Campbell Room of the
Municipal Building.

To view the DRAFT agenda, click here.

Three or more members of the Abingdon Town Council may attend the 2024 YWCA Tribute to Women event on Thursday, April 25, 2024, at 6:00 pm
Bristol Train Station,
101 Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd.
Bristol, Virginia

Three or more members of the Abingdon Town Council may participate in the presentation of
The Best of Abingdon awards to local businesses on
May 6, 2024, at 9 am – 4 pm
May 7, 2024,  at 8 am – 10:30 am
May 8, 2024, at 8:30 am- Noon

Sanitary Sewer Maintenance and Repairs Project

The Town of Abingdon is pleased to announce the granting of funds from the DEQ Virginia Clean Water Revolving Loan Program to conduct over $5 million dollars in upgrades to the failing sewer infrastructure, identified as Phase 1 repairs, within the corporate limits of Abingdon. On April 6th the Town of Abingdon will be releasing an Invitation to Bid, for Phase 1, of a multiyear Sanitary Sewer Maintenance and Repair Project.

The Town has secured additional funding to address related infrastructure issues reconciled from a comprehensive study being conducted by The Lane Group. Additional phases will target additional areas within the Town Limits over the next several years.

The Phase 1 target areas will be in the Whites Mill area of Town and the eastern end of Valley Street along Town Creek. The Town will make every effort to communicate the level of construction and access to various parcels in these target areas. The Town of Abingdon and/or its selected contractors will work with each property owner impacted to minimize the construction needs and time allotted to each segment.

The goal is to ensure the sewer system each resident relies on continues to function as expected. However, the system is aging, and many lines will need to be removed and replaced. The Town assures residents that minimizing the impact is the top priority. The contractor chosen to complete this work will be required to provide a top level of service to the residents. Extensive closed caption tv work has been conducted on the infrastructure in this target area and recommendations to the extent of the repairs have been provided to warrant these specific types of repairs.

The Town estimates that the selected contractor will begin work on or after July 1, 2024. Phase 1 construction ranges from manhole repairs, spot repairs to underground sewer lines, maintenance and relining inadequate segments and areas where lines will be dug up and replaced. The Town and/or its contractors will inform and reasonably accommodate each property owner, as to where and how specific types of repairs and impacts associated with the Town’s sewer mains and lateral connections will be made within each parcel. Included in this press release is a map of the target area for the Phase 1 repairs.

Please use the links below to learn more about this project.

About This Project
Sanitary Sewer FAQs
Project Updates
Project FAQs 
Advertisement for Bids
Project Contacts

THE ABINGDON ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY WILL MEET THURSDAY, MAY 16, 2024, AT 3:00 PM AT VIRGINIA HIGHLANDS SMALL BUSINESS INCUBATOR, 851 FRENCH MOORE JR.  BLVD.,
ABINGDON, VA 24210

Are you looking to make a meaningful impact in your community? Consider volunteering your time and
expertise by joining one of Abingdon’s various Town boards, committees, and commissions!

These citizen-led bodies play a crucial role in shaping the direction of our Town, in accordance with the
Town Charter. If you’re passionate about serving your community and want to contribute to its growth and
development, I invite you to apply to become a member of one of these vital groups. Please note that appointments to these positions are subject to the majority of the Town Council, and your application will remain on file for one calendar year. You will be contacted when an opening on a board, committee, or commission becomes available to confirm your willingness to serve.

If you’re ready to take the next step in serving your community, please download and complete the Board and Commission application available here and submit it to Kim Kingsley, Clerk at kkingsley@abingdon-va.gov

Your involvement can make a significant difference to Abingdon’s future. We look forward to receiving
your application and welcoming you to our team of dedicated volunteers. The Town’s Boards, Committees and Commissions are:

• Abingdon Arts Commission
• Board of Building Code Appeals
• Board of Zoning Appeals
• Historic Preservation Review Board
• Planning Commission
• Tourism Advisory Board
• Economic Development Authority
• Infrastructure Advisory Committee
• Veterans Advisory Board
• Sinking Spring Cemetery Committee
• Recreation Advisory Commission
• Sustain Abingdon
• Tree Commission
• Housing and Redevelopment Authority
• Virginia Highlands Small Business Incubator

Questions? Contact Kim Kingsley, Clerk (276) 492-2138 or kkingsley@abingdon-va.gov

The Town of Abingdon, population 8,300, operates the Abingdon Fire Department (AFD). The AFD has been serving the residents of the town and surrounding area since 1808. For over 200 years, the AFD was staffed by generations of volunteers and operated on a very minimal budget. Over the past 20 years, it has become increasingly difficult to find part-time/volunteers to serve in the department. Recognizing this, the Town created a full-time, paid fire chief in 2016. This position was created so that we could build an organization that would be sustainable as the future unfolds.

As part of the county’s annual budgeting process, the Town of Abingdon requested that Washington County pay for the costs of providing services to the 8,800 residents in the Abingdon Fire Service District. The Town has paid fire professionals and spends over $743,000 on providing fire services to both Town residents as well as to the homes and businesses in the Abingdon Fire Service district. Each year, the disproportionate number of calls that the AFD answers is not inside of the Town. Each year, the percentage of time spent on calls outside of the Town grows. Each year, the funding from the county remains flat.

Of the 1,801 fire calls dispatched in Washington County in the last year, the Abingdon Fire Department answered 700 calls (38.86%) in the last year.  The calls outside of the Town of Abingdon represent 52% of the personnel costs and 57% of staff time responding to and handling these calls.

The Town of Abingdon residents pay taxes to Washington County and to the Town of Abingdon. With the Town’s tax revenues, the AFD have been providing fire services outside of the Town for decades. The funding provided by the county is approximately 19% of what the cost of providing the service is. This is depicted below:

Since 2014, the Abingdon Fire Department has responded to 5,209 calls for service with 2,807 (53.8%) of them being outside of the Town limits. This is a consistent situation, not a single month or year. To date, no substantive actions have been taken to address this disparity.

The funding request was submitted to the county on December 15, 2023 and was simultaneously mailed to the two members of the Board of Supervisors who represent the Town on the Board. On February 13, 2024 AT 2:59 PM the Town was notified by the county administrator that our funding request for $546,471 would be funded with $33,750 of the additional $300,000, the AFD was granted 11.25% – despite answering 38.6% of the calls in the county.

As stewards of the Town’s tax dollars, it is not possible for the Town to continue to provide services at a deficit of over $500,000 per year without a path forward. To date, the county has made no indication that they are intent on increasing the funding over time so that they can pay for the services the AFD provides. To put this into a scaled perspective, this is like the county spending $9 million per year in Smyth County. The county taxpayers should not and would not tolerate it.  No business can operate this way as it is not a sustainable model.

As the members of the Board of Supervisors stated many times during the February 13, 2024 meeting, they have “kicked the can” on fire services for decades. The Board of Supervisors had a needs assessment fire study done in 1988 by the Washington County Fire Services Study Committee and the Virginia Fire Services Board in a study titled “ASSESSING WASHINGTON COUNTY’S USE OF ITS 1988 FIRE SERVICES IMPROVEMENT PLAN”.  In October of 2011, the Virginia Fire Services Board produced another study “A Report of Findings and Recommendations: County of Washington Fire & EMS Study.” To date, many of the recommendations from these studies have not been implemented. It is now 2024.

While the Town of Abingdon will continue to respond to verified fires as a ‘second due’, we will no longer respond to calls outside of the Town unless there is a verified fire. We will be ‘second due’. What this means is that we will respond after the dispatch protocols have been followed and the ‘first due’ does not respond. Last year, the AFD answered more than 350 such calls. If you are in a second due area and there is a verified fire, the AFD will still be responding. We will not allow life or safety to be imperiled by fire because of lack of funding.

The Abingdon Fire Department provides excellent service and the Town has one of the lowest ISO ratings in the county as evidence of this.

The reports mentioned above are in the linked PDF file and tabbed within the file. Please refer to that file for this relevant information.

Follow this link to view the PDF. 

Three or more members of the Abingdon Veterans Advisory Board may attend the following events:

Celebration commemorating
Don Parker’s 100th birthday and service to his country during
WWII and on D-Day. The event will take place on
Sunday, April 28, 2024 approximately 11:00 am
Cleveland Presbyterian Church
18076 Cleveland Church Road, Abingdon, VA

NOTICE OF MEETINGS

The Abingdon Town Council will hold the following meetings:

January – June 2024

For information concerning an agenda, please contact:

Kim Kingsley, CMC

kkingsley@abingdon-va.gov

(276) 492-2149

The Town of Abingdon is offering volunteers the opportunity to adopt historic plots in Sinking Springs Cemetery located at 123 Russell Road NW, Abingdon, VA 24210. Once a plot is adopted, individuals or groups will undergo an adoption ceremony as well as plot management training to ensure that they are fully prepared for the task.

If you are interested in adopting a plot, please print and bring the Volunteer application and T-Shirt forms listed below or fill out in person at Abingdon Town Hall located at 113 West Main Street, Abingdon, VA 24210.

For more detailed information, click here.
For a list of available plots, click here.
For the application form, click here.
For the online T-shirt form, click here. 

To view the T-Shirt designs, click here.

For more information regarding the Adopt-A-Plot program, please contact:
Gabe Cristofari
gcristofari@abingdon-va.gov