Residents urge Lynchburg City Council to boost school funding; cemetery and Red Cross seek modest FY2027 allocations

Lynchburg residents urged the City Council on April 23 to increase funding for public schools and consider modest targeted grants for local organizations as part of the city’s FY2027 budget process.

Jay White, executive director of Old City Cemetery, told council members he is seeking full funding of the cemetery’s FY2027 request and outlined the site’s history and economic role. “Founded in 1806, Old City Cemetery is the oldest municipal cemetery still in operation today in the Commonwealth,” White said, noting the property encompasses about 27 acres and tens of thousands of graves and attracts roughly 33,000 visitors a year. He cited an estimated economic impact between $7 million and $39 million depending on visitor type and asked council to consider the cemetery’s request as a return on the city’s annual investment.

The hearing’s largest theme was education funding. Michael Bremmer, a Ward 4 resident, called a municipal budget “a moral document” and urged the council to fund the Lynchburg City Schools’ request for an additional $2.4 million above the manager’s proposal. Bremmer said the city experienced an $18 million drop in federal funds in fiscal 2026 and expects to recover about $4 million this year, and he argued that a 2-cent increase in the real-estate tax rate would cover most of the schools’ request while restoring balance between public safety and education spending.

“For us to invest more of the public’s money in the school system, we need measurable returns,” Bremmer said, urging accountability and periodic reviews of programs to confirm they are improving student outcomes.

Local public-health needs also surfaced. Bren Thabbit, representing the Red Cross Blue Ridge Chapter, asked for $8,927 to fund donor testing and recruitment aimed at increasing the supply of blood matched for sickle-cell patients. Thabbit said about 27% of Lynchburg’s population is African-American but only about 5% of local blood donors are from that community, and that roughly 87% of the matched blood the city needs must be shipped in from outside regions. “For less than $9,000, you can directly strengthen Lynchburg’s emergency response and save lives,” Thabbit said. Michelle Dowdy, executive director of the American Red Cross serving the area, also urged support for the proposal.

Other speakers pressed procedural and transparency questions. Peter Seferlis (Ward 1) expressed surprise at the low turnout for the hearing and asked staff to review advertising and outreach; he also asked whether reserve-fund balances could be used instead of increasing tax rates. Molly McLennan, a longtime resident, urged support for alternative-education programs, and Deborah Trevsger (Ward 2) urged caution on tax increases while demanding measurable outcomes for any increased school spending.

No formal votes or budget decisions were taken during the hearing; staff closed the FY2027 budget public hearing after all registered speakers were heard and confirmed there were no voicemails. The council will consider the manager’s budget proposal and any recommended changes through its regular budget process in the coming weeks.

The public hearing had multiple speakers and spanned community requests from heritage preservation to targeted public-health funding, with recurring calls for clearer measures of program effectiveness and fiscal transparency.