Goochland mourns former supervisor Susan Lascolette, who died at 76

Susan Lascolette left Goochland with a county able to borrow at the highest level while keeping the real estate tax rate at 53 cents per $100 of assessed value. The former District 1 supervisor died June 21, 2026, at 76, after helping shape the county’s finances, voting lines and infrastructure during 12 years on the Goochland County Board of Supervisors.

Her obituary said she was of Goochland County and that service information was still forthcoming. County and party leaders remembered her as one of the defining local officeholders of the past decade, a supervisor whose work was measured less in slogans than in bond ratings, budget growth and the practical details of how residents live and vote.

Lascolette served three consecutive terms on the board starting in 2011. County records say she became the first female chair of the Board of Supervisors in 2015 and returned to the role in 2020, when Goochland was managing the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. During that period, county communications credited her with helping guide the county through an emergency that reshaped schools, public meetings and daily routines across the region.

Her tenure also overlapped with a major financial expansion. County budget figures show Goochland’s spending was about $67.6 million in fiscal 2012, Lascolette’s first year on the board, and had grown to $141.05 million in the current fiscal year cited in county commentary. Through that growth, the county held its real estate tax rate steady at 53 cents per $100 of assessed value and continued pursuing top-tier credit.

County materials say Goochland earned a third AAA bond rating from Fitch with leadership from the Board of Supervisors, county employees and residents. Records also describe Goochland as the smallest U.S. county to hold AAA ratings from all three major bond rating agencies, out of 3,244 counties.

Lascolette’s record also included a boundary fix with Louisa County that had long affected where some residents were assigned to vote. County materials say she played a pivotal role in the agreement approved in 2019, aligning voting boundaries more closely with tax parcel lines and allowing hundreds of Goochland residents to vote in the jurisdiction where they live and pay taxes. County records also credit her with support for broadband internet initiatives, a change with lasting impact in a county where reliable access remains central to work, school and emergency response.

Goochland recognized Lascolette and two other departing supervisors with Resolutions of Recognition at the Board’s Dec. 5, 2023 meeting before she retired from public office on Dec. 31, 2023. Her death closes a chapter of county government defined by fiscal restraint, administrative details and a set of decisions that still shape Goochland’s roads, ballots and balance sheet.