college success
almost here
historic home
king george native off to a fast start at his new university. Page 5
Don’t let ol’ man winter get you down — fishing season is close at hand. Page 7
alexander graham bell’s former house is now a thriving business. Page 10
T he
Volume 39, Number 10
POSTAL CUSTOMER
King George
Wednesday, March 4, 2015 50 Cents
helping you relate to your community
Supervisors unveil $38.5M 2015-16 budget Phyllis Cook The King George County Board of Supervisors reviewed its approximately $38.5 million budget for 2015-16, finding a potential gap of $2.2 million as revenues were estimated at about $36.3 million. Those numbers will change since the state revenue numbers for the locality will be adjusted because the General Assembly approved a final budget late last week that was signed into law by the Gov. Terry McAuliffe. The county’s potential budget gap incorporated various other elements subject to adjustment on the expenditure side by county administrator Travis
Quesenberry and the board. Those include more than $700,000 for 14 new or expanded positions in county government. “These are new positions requested by departments for next year. This is not a budget recommendation, just for your information,” Quesenberry said. “On March 10, we’ll ask you to make some decisions on these positions.” Requests include seven full-time positions for emergency services, accounting for the bulk of the possible increase, estimated to add more than $500,000 to the budget. Two other positions would be part time at the two landfill convenience centers for residential trash drop off.
The remaining five would expand existing part-time positions to full time for office assistants in finance, paralegal, deputy registrar, grounds maintenance and facilities technician. Other elements added into the $38.5 million include 1 percent pay increases for county employees, a 6.9 percent increase in health insurance cost, a 2 percent increase to complete the phase-in for required payments to the Virginia Retirement System, small adjustments to requests from outside agencies and more than $200,000 in miscellaneous reductions made by Quesenberry. In addition, revenue estimates and expenditures for the school board are
expected to get closer scrutiny. Quesenberry told the board those numbers were provided by Superintendent Rob Benson and would cost nearly $860,000 more than in the current fiscal year. He said the school numbers included costs for the first year of a new twoyear teacher scale proposal designed to make pay more competitive with other divisions in the region. Quesenberry also said it included revenue calculated for an “average daily membership” of 4,210 students. Benson is known for using a low estimate to calculate state revenue. “What’s enrollment now? I want to know what that is,” Supervisor
Joe Grzeika said. “Because bringing that down too low really distorts the revenue picture.” There also were questions about an additional cost range for teacher pay scale improvements. “He owes us another teacher salary plan,” Chairman Jim Howard said. That had been requested from Benson at a Jan. 26 joint meeting. Quesenberry said he’d remind Benson and also get the current enrollment number to get a better idea for next year’s estimate to be supplied for the next budget session The updated budget numbers will be reviewed at next week’s budget session, set for 6 p.m. March 10 at the company
#1 fire station on Route 3, next door to the Citizens Center building. That meeting will be the fourth budget session this year for the county board, with another special budget session scheduled for March 24, when Quesenberry is slated to unveil his recommended budget for next fiscal year. After that, the board is expected to authorize a budget and tax rate March 31, which will be advertised for a public hearing tentatively set for April 21. The board also is expected to adopt a final budget during the last week of April with the requirement to approve a school budget by May 1 for the fiscal year beginning July 1.
father/daughter princess ball KG crews work
around the clock vs. Mother Nature Phyllis Cook
Photos courtesy of Keith Lee
The King George Parks and Recreation Department hosted a Father/Daughter Princess Ball event Feb. 28 at the Citizen’s Center. More than 170 participants enjoyed an evening that included walking the red carpet, a grand introduction, games, crafts, dinner and dancing. It was the third such event the department hosted in February — the others being a Mother/Son Dance and a Father/Daughter Dance — with more than 500 area residents participating.
Those seen cutting ball fields and the grass at public buildings across King George in the summer are the same people called to clear snow in the winter. They are county employees who push snow as part of the job when the winter white stuff falls. “We do what we have to do to get the buildings open for employees and the public,” said Matt Clift, the county’s general properties manager. He ensures driveways and parking lots at the courthouse and Revercomb building, sheriff ’s office, animal pound, Citizens Center and Smoot Library are cleared. Yet, there’s more going on to county snow removal than meets the eye. Little seen and mostly unheralded are the men who clear another 77 county facilities not visited by the public. They include five sewer plants, 36 pump stations and 36 well lots. Those system facilities need to be accessible to the 29 men and women who work for the Service Authority. That department produces the fresh water and processes the waste water for about 2,200 residential and business customers in King George. King George Superintendent of operations Scott Sweeney said the ounty was prepared for the recent bouts of sustained high winds an snow. “We had three trucks with snowplows ready to go,” Sweeney said. “And then it was chaos, and it was constant.” It seemed to start when a strong gust blew the top off the ‘doghouse’ well roof at the Circle. “It froze the whole well house,” Sweeney said. That same night brought problems with freezing at the Chatham pump station. Maintenance Chief Chris Cox and
his crew attended to those problems as more and more customer calls of ‘no water’ came in. “That first snow after the high winds, I personally pushed snow 14 hours straight at all five sewer plants, 36 pump stations and 36 well lots while my crew was attending to calls,” Cox said. “My men had to go out on all service calls — that’s a first. Most were for frozen meters, many were leaks. We go out to all of them.” In addition to those ‘smaller’ problems, there also were some major leaks, including those at Owens, Fairview Beach and in Dahlgren at Potomac Drive. “The Owens leak — we started working on that at 3 a.m. and finished at 3:30 p.m.,” Cox said. “When you start digging up the highway, you can’t take breaks and sit in the truck to warm up. Working on water leaks means getting soaking wet, and they’ve been fixing them in subzero temperatures. In an emergency situation you just have to get the job done. “We understand in this job you end up putting your life on hold. If you have plans to go somewhere, whether it’s your anniversary or Mother’s Day, it goes on the back burner. When you sign on here, you know that.” Cox praised his crew. “I have a small group of men who are dedicated this,” he said. “And in the last couple of weeks, I have four people who’ve worked an ungodly number of hours.” He cited the dedication of Raymond Webb, Barry Ketchell David Miller, newly hired as a utilities mechanic, and Ronnie Bell, a meter reader. “When I came here I told them I was going to stay on and work through it all,” Cox said, who has been with the department for six years. “It’s all about the public and keeping the public happy. And keeping them happy, means keeping the water on.”
School board mulls retirement plan Phyllis Cook King George Schools Superintendent Rob Benson last week asked the school board to be prepared to make a decision at its next meeting about going forward with a proposed retirement
incentive plan in its 2015-16 budget request proposal. The next meeting is at 6 p.m. March 9 at the Revercomb building, the date tentatively set for the school board to adopt its budget submission to the county. Benson is expected to provide
more cost and savings information at that time. The retirement incentive is designed to reduce the overall cost of salaries by replacing higher-paid employees with those at lower pay rates. If approved, the incentive would
give eligible employees a onetime lump sum payout equal to 30 percent of their contracted salary upon retirement at the end of this current school year. The school board also agreed See RETIRE, page 4
Phyllis Cook
This sentiment was shared by the many King Gerge County workers who had to toil away during the recent storms.
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