Inside Business and Professional Guide Powhatan, Virginia
1B #SEANSTRONG BSH student Sean McQueen’s battle with FA continues
Vol. XXXII No.. 39
March 20, 2019
Fire and rescue needs could be costly for Powhatan By Laura McFarland News Editor
P
OWHATAN – The state of fire and rescue coverage in Powhatan County has become increasingly alarming, but fixing the problem could cost as much as 3.5 cents on the tax rate, the board of supervisors heard last week. On Monday, March 11, county administrator Ted Voorhees and fire and rescue chief Steven Singer laid out a picture of fire and EMS coverage in the county that spoke of calls going unanswered and average response times that are increasing in length. The options they presented, which involve increasing paid staffing in the administration office and at four of the fire companies, would almost double fire and rescue’s current budget. The presentation at the board’s second budget workshop came a week after Voorhees presented his proposed fiscal year (FY) 2020 op-
PHOTO COURTESY OF FIRE AND RESCUE
Members of Powhatan Fire and Rescue respond to a house fire near South Creek One in Powhatan.
erating budget, which is both balanced and did not represent a tax increase. However, Voorhees told supervisors at the March 4 budget workshop that he would have a pre-
sentation on fire and rescue on March 11 that would present supervisors with options on how they could deal with fire and rescue in Powhatan. The presentation was a followup to the department’s 2018 annual update, which Singer presented to the board on Feb. 25. At that meeting, Singer painted a picture of the increasing difficulty in covering fire and EMS calls in the county using the current level of paid and contract employees and volunteers. (See Levels of Service story.) The March 11 presentation recapped some of the annual report and provided three possible options on how to get the coverage Voorhees and Singer said the county needs to better protect its citizens. But all three of those options would require finding $1,180,770 in additional funds that were not in Voorhees’ proposed FY 2020 budget, or a 43.2 percent increase in the fire and rescue department’s overall budget. Currently, fire and rescue is see FIRE, pg. 4
School board approves its budget By Laura McFarland
intendent, presented an update on the balanced budget to the school board last week, $245,996 had POWHATAN – The Powhatan been trimmed from the budget to County School board was ready make sure it was not overspent. Jones pointed out that last week to present a budthe school district was able get to the board of supervito look for cost-saving measors that was reduced by sures and still keep a 3 per$246,000 to make sure it cent salary increase for all was balanced. school employees in the When the school board budget. got its first look at the fiscal The school board was year (FY) 2020 budget, on scheduled to present its Feb. 12, projected expendiJONES budget to the board of supertures outpaced revenues by visors after press time on $135,245, and that was without knowing how much the divi- March 18. Despite the cost cutting, the sion would receive from the state. But when Dr. Eric Jones, super- $48.2 million budget for the
schools still represents a $1.2 million increase from the adopted FY 2019 budget. Of that increase, $301,674 is set to come from the county. When planning the budget, the biggest unknown in the last few weeks was finding out the state contribution to the schools. Larry Johns, assistant superintendent for finance and business operations, built the budget around the governor’s proposed budget but let the school board know from the start that both the House and the Senate versions of the budget had less funding allocated for Powhatan. In all, the state contribution is see BUDGET, pg. 6
PHOTO COURTESY OF FIRE AND RESCUE
Members of Powhatan Fire and Rescue respond to a house fire near South Creek One in Powhatan.
By Laura McFarland News Editor
POWHATAN – Two recent presentations given to the Powhatan County Board of Supervisors have highlighted potential issues with fire and EMS coverage in the county. The board heard an initial 2018 annual update on the fire and rescue department on Feb. 25 from fire and rescue chief Steven Singer. A presentation given by Singer and county administrator Ted Voorhees on March 11 followed up on some of that data and gave proposals on how to address the problem with staffing. Some of the data highlighted in the presentations included: In 2018 Powhatan County Fire and EMS responded to 3,272 calls. Of those, 2,190
calls were for EMS, 134 calls were for fires, 193 calls were for hazardous conditions, 256 were calls for service, and 58 were for special incidents, according to the annual report. The other 499 calls mostly consisted of good intention calls that were canceled or false alarms and false calls. The annual report Singer presented on Feb. 25 featured a great deal of data dealing with a few key questions when a call goes out: how many people are responding, if at all, and how long is it taking them to get there? In response to those, he talked about how the department is meeting the standards adopted by the board in 2015. When talking about assembly of force related to fire suppression, the county has a stansee SERVICE, pg. 6
Local spellers compete at bee
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News Editor
Levels of service
PHOTO BY LAURA MCFARLAND
PHOTOS BY LAURA MCFARLAND
Cabrey Forward, left, an eighth-grader at Blessed Sacrament Huguenot Catholic School, and Matthew Phillips, a seventh-grader at Powhatan Middle School, represented Powhatan County at the 45th annual Richmond Times-Dispatch Regional Spelling Bee on March 9 at the Library of Virginia. Cabrey made it to Round 3 and Matthew made it to Round 2 of the competition against 30 other bee contestants.
Abbie Tinsley, left, was the winner and Eva Crane the runner up in the Sodexo Future Chefs Contest.
Young chefs cook up fun in the kitchen By Laura McFarland News Editor
POWHATAN – The kitchen at Powhatan Middle School was recently buzzing with activity as six young chefs created a Mexican-inspired fiesta for the taste buds. Six local elementary students donned chefs coats and hats on Friday, March 15 to compete in the Sodexo Future Chefs Contest. Abbie Tinsley, a first-grader at Flat Rock Elementary School, was named the winner of the competition with her Orsee CHEFS, pg. 5