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Volume 39, Number 20
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Colonial Beach • Westmoreland
Wednesday, May 13, 2015 50 Cents
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Colonial Beach Council proposes real estate tax increase Linda Farneth Colonial Beach Town Council recently held a special meeting on to discuss solutions to balancing the proposed 2015-16 budget. Mayor Mike Ham opened the May 7 meeting by laying out the town’s budget status for the upcoming fiscal year The proposed budget is currently unbalanced with projected revenues at $6.8 million and projected expenditures at $7.2 million. “Bottom line of where we are sitting right now, between the town budget and the local school cost, we are at a deficit of $404,633,” Ham said. Projected expenses show a 2 percent increase for the town’s budget over the current fiscal year and a 9.25 percent increase in the school system’s budget request for local contributions.
Ham suggested cutting the town’s budget by $50,000 and for the school division to cut its local request by $150,000. “If we went down to a 2 percent increase for both the general fund and the school contribution, that would cut the deficit from $400,000 to 250,000,” he said. He then proposed a 2-cent real estate tax increase, which could generate another $100,000 and proposed that the town manager to cut the budget another $50,000 and take $100,000 from reserves. He encouraged the council look at a five-year plan to increase real estate taxes by two cents per year. “That’s not going to kill anybody, and it would get us where we don’t have to operate out of our reserves,” he said. Council members questioned staff
in various areas of the budget where they felt costs could be cut or revenues could be bolstered by better collection efforts. Councilman Wayne DiRosario questioned police expenses, and Councilman Eddy Blunt asked staff if tighter efforts could be implemented to collect delinquent taxes. Blunt proposed lowering personal property tax and raising real estate tax in order to capture revenue from parttime residents who “shop around for the best personal property rates.” “I don’t understand why the community who almost 45 percent of homes in this community are not owned by full time residents, charges such a high personal property rate to its full time residents, who end up being the only ones to pay the personal property tax,” he said. Residents residing in the corpo-
rate limits of the Town of Colonial Beach pay both personal property tax and real estate tax to the town and to Westmoreland County. Per hundred dollars of value the combined personal property tax for in town residents is $5.81 and for combined real estate tax is .96 cents per hundred. Colonial Beach Finance Director Joan Grant reported real estate collection at roughly 97 percent. Grant said personal property tax is a little tougher to collect because there are a lot of abatements during the year. People either fail to report their personal property or they file it incorrectly with the commissioner of revenue, resulting in the need to perform billing corrections. The council also has to explore raising real estate taxes another 5 cents to pay for the building of a permanent elementary school. Those taxes
Taxes CB Residents pay per $100 of value: Personal property charged by Colonial Beach Personal property charged by Westmoreland
$4.00 $1.81
Real Estate tax charged by CB Real Estate tax by Westmoreland
$ .62 $ .34
Proposed Budget Projected revenues Projected expenditures Budget shortfall would be in addition to taxes raised for the operational budget and Ham proposed an ordinance that would earmark that 5-cent raise school construction.
$6.8 million $7.2 million $404,000
The council must decide whether to advertise a higher tax rate, hold a public hearing, then vote on a tax rate. Any tax increase requires four votes to pass.
Oliff lawsuit dismissed Richard Leggitt
A Virginia circuit court judge has dismissed a pair of lawsuits seeking $15 million from a Westmoreland County Deputy Sheriff on charges of malicious prosecution. At the same time, Judge William Hamblen admonished law enforcement officers for their behavior in the 2012 arrest of Bryan Oliff, owner of Montross-based Angelo’s restaurant. Nevertheless, Hamblen ruled last week that Oliff ’s suit against Deputy Anthony Darby did not meet Virginia criteria for malicious prosecution. Lawsuits filed by Oliff and one of his employees, Joshua Sanford, had alleged that Darby and others engaged in malicious prosecution when they arrested Oliff and two of his employees in 2012 and accused them of distributing drugs despite the fact
that video and audio recordings obtained by law enforcement showed no criminal activity. The arrests occurred after law enforcement officers gave money to a confidential informant and sent him into Angelo’s to make drug buys on five different occasions. The informant, James Newsome, provided Darby and other law enforcement officers with a white powder that officers thought was cocaine, but turned out to be flour. “The only thing the plaintiffs sold the confidential informant was a sandwich and a couple of bottles of beer,” Judge Hamblen said in his ruling. “But this litigation, like all litigation, has to be resolved in accordance with the law.” Under Virginia law, Hamblen said, the plaintiffs had not proved Darby and others “acted with malice.”
“This is not to say this investigation was exemplary or without flaw,” Hamblen added. “There were a number of things that might have been done here to affect the result. There were a number of things that should have been done. However, I am constrained to rule in favor of the defendant and dismiss these actions.” The ruling came May 5 at the end of a five-day trial in Middlesex County Circuit Court in Saluda, where the civil suits had been moved on a change of venue. During testimony at the trial, Newsome, the confidential informant, testified that he had lied to officers about buying drugs from Oliff. Newsome was facing felony drug charges for grand larceny and agreed to serve as a confidential informant See LAWSUIT, page 8
Wittman tours O’Gara Group facility George Whitehurst First District Congressman Rob Wittman recently got a first-hand look at one of the facilities where military and diplomatic personnel learn cutting-edge techniques to protect American lives and property from the dangers of terrorism. The overview came during a tour of The O’Gara Group’s training compound in Montross. Led by a group of staff, Wittman got a detailed overview of the 380acre tactical training facility, which has developed into a virtual city. There members of the U.S. military’s elite fighting units, along with security personnel from America’s military and diplomatic allies, learn the ins and outs of defending diplomatic posts and staff from terrorist attack. Rob Ford, who manages the facility for The O’Gara Group, noted that facility staff not only train international visitors, they expose them to American culture, thereby strengthening ties between the United States and its allies. Terrorists, he noted, often try to recruit military personnel to their
Photo by George Whitehurst
Congressman Rob Wittman (left) gets insights on defense tactics from Mark Olson, lead instructor, at The O’Gara Group’s Montross facility. ranks. Developing good relationships with those training at the O’Gara facility can counteract terrorist overtures. “[I]f someone tries to radicalize them, they think, ‘Those folks down in Montross are nice. I don’t want to do something bad to them’,” Ford said.
The tour included a look at the onsite hotel The O’Gara Group has created for housing, feeding and even entertaining those who come to train at the facility. The tour group then took a ride around portions of the facility’s offroad courses, its firing ranges and the defensive tactics training area.
Photo by Linda Farneth
Marquis Smith, 9, sits with his grandmother, Jacqueline Jones. Marquis recently saved his grandmother’s life by performing the Heimlich Maneuver as she was choking on a hamburger bun.
Young boy saves grandmother Linda Farneth At first glance Marquis Smith is a typical nine-year-old boy in fourth grade, even to his grandmother, Jacqueline Jones. However after May 2 it was clear that Marquis is no ordinary boy but a very bright hero. His quick thinking saved his grandmother’s life. It began that Saturday morning when Jones was cooking pancakes for her two younger grandchildren, who were visiting. The two toddlers and Marquis were lounging in the living room watching television. “I was cooking pancakes for the little grand-kids that I had visiting,” Jones recalled. “I happened to bite off a hamburger with a bun.” Marquis then chimed in. “She was choking it down,” he said, drawing a laugh from Jones. But Jones wasn’t laughing during the incident. When she started choking, she tried to cough to dislodge the food but couldn’t do it. “The more I coughed the more my air was closing off. I knew then I was in trouble,” she said. Jones’ is on a level about four steps above the living room. As she came around the corner of her kitchen and into view of the living room,
Marquis was laying on the carpet watching TV. He looked up and saw his grandmother was in distress. Marquis said he heard her gasping for breath. “When I was watching TV I heard her making the ‘Uuhhhhh’ sound. I jumped up and asked her what was wrong and she couldn’t talk,” he said. “So I put my arms around her belly and did the Heimlich Maneuver. I knew she was choking.” Jacqueline continued, “He just jumped right up, came upstairs. I was looking at him like, what is he doing? He grabbed me like that. I’m gonna tell you if it was not for him doing what he did I don’t think I would be here today telling that story.” Marquis didn’t realize that he was a hero and had saved his grandmother’s life until she talked to him about it the next morning. Jones’ husband, Oneal, was in his office a few rooms away but didn’t realize his wife as choking. “I tried to speak but no words came out,” Jacqueline said. She didn’t call the rescue squad or go to the hospital but was tired, sore and stiff for a couple of days after the incident. Jacqueline asked her grandson
how he knew what to do. Marquis said he learned the Heimlich Maneuver by watching “Lab Rats.” “Lab Rats” is a sit-com in which teenager Leo Dooley interacts with Adam, Bree and Chase, bionic robots created by his stepfather. Marquis recalled an episode in which a character saved someone from choking, using the Heimlich Maneuver. He said he was never taught the move in school. “You can not disregard what children do or say because they are going to somehow imitate what they see.” Jacqueline said, “To me that was a blessing that he knew what to do.” When he is not saving lives and watching TV, Marquis plays third base and left field for the Westmoreland Minor League Blue team. In this case, Jacqueline is grateful that her grandson remembered something he saw on television. “I’ll be turning 64 in June, thanks to Marquis,” she said.
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