Inside A6 Girl Scouts hold final drive-thru cookie sale
Powhatan, Virginia B1 Greenhow wins national championship in 200-meter dash
Vol. XXXIV No. o. 37
March 17, 2021
Budget talks center on employee compensation By Laura McFarland Editor
POWHATAN – The issue of employee compensation dominated the Powhatan County School Board’s most recent discussion on the fiscal year 2022 budget. While Dr. Eric Jones, superintendent, gave a presentation that covered different aspects of the budget at the board’s meeting on Tuesday, March 9, the discussion that followed focused primarily on employee raises. This included both the discussion had by the board and the comments heard from the public. As board members weighed their options, the discussion touched on not only how much of a raise division employees should get – 3% vs. 5% were the most popular figures used – but who
should get them. Although still not balanced, the budget Jones presented had some key information it was missing the last time the board discussed it in February. On the revenue side, county staff has given the school division the projected local county transfer, which at $24.1 million is an increase over the current fiscal year of $979,963. This number is not final as the board of supervisors has been discussing school funding at its own budget workshops. Jones’ budget also had a new figure for the state contribution to the budget, $24.3 million, which is an increase of $686,584. This figure was an estimate between the House and Senate versions of the approved budget as PCPS was still waiting on final calculations from the Virginia Department of Education. Just as there were some significant
changes on the revenue side, there was also a noticeable change on the expenditure side. When Jones presented the budget on Feb. 9, he recommended spending $869,900 for a 3% salary increase for all employees, which corresponded with a 3% raise county administrator Ned Smither was recommending to the supervisors for county employees. But when Jones brought an updated presentation back before the public hearing, he was recommending a 5% salary increase for all employees with a price tag of $1,499,833. The new recommendation was highly influenced by the recommended state budget, which gives 5% raises to teachers, state employees and state-supported local employees. However, the state would only pay its portion of the Standards of Quality (SOQ) funded positions, leaving the locality to make up the
difference. Jones said 62% of PCPS employees are SOQ positions. Powhatan would be eligible for the state funding if it gives the 5% raise during the current biennium, which is in its second year. Since Powhatan didn’t give its employees any raises in the current fiscal year, to draw down the money from the state, the locality would have to give the entire 5% this year. Jones explained that the language the state is using means a division can either give a straight 5% raise to all employees or give targeted raises to employees that add up to the total amount of the 5% raise for all employees. That distinction is what created greater layers in the budget conversation as board members weighed in on where they feel the most need is with employee compensation. see BUDGET pg. 4
Powhatan library reopens for in-person services By Laura McFarland Editor
Prsrt. Standard U.S. POSTAGE PAID Powhatan, VA Permit No.19
POWHATAN – Almost a year to the date it first closed because of COVID-19 safety measures, Powhatan County Public Library reopened this week for in-person services. The library resumed inperson services on Monday, March 15 and will continue its limited operation hours moving forward. The library is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday and Saturday. This is the second time in the last year that the library has reopened after a long closure, said Whitney Berriman, library director. The building was initially closed on March 16, 2020,
PHOTO BY LAURA McFARLAND
Powhatan High School employee Carol Lucas gets her second dose of the Moderna vaccine.
County shifts approach to vaccination clinics By Laura McFarland Editor PHOTO BY LAURA McFARLAND
Michelle Wells, library clerk, sanitizes the Powhatan County Public Library’s children’s area in anticipation of the building’s reopening.
out of an abundance of caution once the World Health Organization de-
clared a pandemic while staff awaited guidance and information from the
local authorities. see LIBRARY, pg. 5
POWHATAN – At the end of March, Powhatan County will be taking a step back from its temporary foray into the vaccination business. Curt Nellis, the county’s emergency manage-
ment coordinator, shared last week that after five second shot Moderna clinics in the last few weeks of March, the county is prepared to fully turn back over any responsibility for vaccinating citizens to the Virginia see VACCINATION, pg. 8
FIREFIGHTERS DE-STRESS WITH COFFEE VENTURE By Laura McFarland
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Editor
POWHATAN – The three Powhatan firefighters behind the newly formed Triple Tap Coffee plan to live up to their company’s name. When a firefighter hooks three hoses up to a fire hydrant, the goal is to maximize water flow to create high performance hydrant operation, said Jeffrey Wallace, a career lieutenant paramedic with Powhatan County Fire and Rescue. In the same way, when Wallace and his co-workers, Art Tate, career firefighter EMT, and John Menc, career firefighter medic, decided several months ago to start Triple Tap Coffee, they wanted to have the same approach. “That is the best we can do. It is going all the way for us,” Wallace said. “If someone triple taps a hydrant, that is the most effort involved. It is not the easy way; it is the complex, hard way.” It helps out that there are three of them, too, agreed Menc with a smile. “The double meaning is a constant reminder of the product we want to create,” he said. The three men launched their new business on March 5 as a part-time job separate from their full-time work with Powhatan County. Since all of them at one time in their careers have simultaneously worked full-time and part-time jobs in different localities’s fire services to make ends meet, they are loving the idea of having a new endeavor that is something completely different but still a shared passion. “One thing that we all agreed on was that the fire service puts a lot of mental stressors on us. It is important to have an
PHOTO BY LAURA McFARLAND
Powhatan career firefighters Art Tate, from left, Jeffrey Wallace, and John Menc recently launched a new coffee roasting business, Triple Tap Coffee.
outlet that is not the fire service,” Wallace said. “I think this was something the three of us could do. We all thought this was a great way for us as individuals to get out of the fire service, gives us something to do on our days off, and gives us joy.” Coffee is generally an important part of the fire station tradition, Tate said. Often the morning transfer from one shift to the next starts with the firefighters sitting around a table together discussing what was done the day before and what needs to happen in the day ahead, he said. “One of my biggest things about this is to instill conversation because I think it is really missing in our society today where we actually sit down and have a
conversation,” he said. Coffee can also be a decompressor for the men and women who sometimes deal with intense and distressing situations, Wallace agreed. “After a bad call it is has been common for decades that we sit down at the table, brew a pot of coffee, and just talk. Coffee has always been that thing that brings guys in the fire service together to talk. We all think that conversation is super important,” he said. Tate said the idea to do something like this had been bouncing around in his head for a while, but the timeline for the creation of Triple Tap Coffee is surprissee COFFEE, pg. 6