March 28, 2018
Our 201st year
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Vol. 201, No. 13
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www.Fauquier.com
Pages 15-21
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Tax bills going up for schools, public safety — but not new library By James Ivancic Times Staff Writer
Fauquier real-estate owners will see their tax bills rise an average of $375 next year, an 11.1-percent increase, to support the county’s $330.9 million operating budget for fiscal 2019, which begins July 1. In approving a new budget Thursday, March 22, the Fauquier Board of Supervisors reduced the tax rate from $1.039 to 0.982 per $100 in assessed valuation. Still, tax bills are up because property
values rose an average 17.7 percent in countywide reassessments earlier this year. Rising property values, plus a last-minute request to hire school-safety specialists following the Florida school shootings, complicated the supervisors’ annual effort to balance funding requests against county tax revenues as they considered whether — and how much — to adjust the real-estate tax rate. The school division will get an additional school-resource officer — a sworn law-enforcement officer — plus 11 school-security specialists next school year. Whether the latter group will be
armed, and whether the funds to pay them will come from the school division’s or sheriff’s office budget, are still to be determined. The school division has already advertised for three additional school-safety specialist positions, one for each of the county’s high schools. All schools — whether elementary, middle or high school — will be staffed with security personnel. Currently, only the high schools and middle schools have sworn sheriff’s deputies acting as school-resource officers.
See BILLS, page 5
GOOD EGGS Ancient art celebrates the symbols of spring By Anita L. Sherman Community Editor
TIMES STAFF PHOTO/ANITA L. SHERMAN You’ll find Carolyn Wysocki’s craft throughout her Amissville house; filling the nooks and crannies of her life. She was introduced to Ukrainian-style egg-decorating through a friend.
The art of decorating eggs is old, very old, dating back thousands of years when early man painted symbols of animals on eggs as a way of ensuring their capture. Decorating eggs in those primitive times took on a form of worship and spirit-snatching so that the essence of the animal or plant portrayed could be kept close to mind and heart. As man developed, so did the range of his color choices, techniques and motives. Decorated eggs, or pysanky, were given at special times like marriages, births and deaths as a gesture of good thoughts and well wishes.
See EGGS, page 4
STICK-TO-ITIVENESS: The Fauquier, Liberty and Kettle Run boys lacrosse teams are previewed in Sports. Pages 26, 27, 30 INSIDE Calendar.............................................32 Classified............................................36 Communities......................................33 Farming................................................8
IT’S ALL ABOUT SHOWING: Chickens, horses and houses. Page 8
Libraries.............................................14 Opinion...............................................12 Obituaries...........................................23 Public Safety.........................................3
Puzzles...............................................25 Real Estate..........................................31 Religion..............................................24 Sports.................................................26
4773610 APPLETON-CAMPBELL INC. March GV PW Strip 4x2