What a difference a day makes

Playing to the home crowd

On Monday, October 5, District 5 supervisor Jim Eads continued his fine tradition of holding town meetings at the Manakin Fire-Rescue Station to discuss local government issues and chat with his constituents. He began the practice after he first took office almost 10 years ago.

Eads is to be congratulated for holding these meetings. The other four supervisors should follow suit to encourage greater interest in county government.

With an eye on the clock, Eads kept the agenda moving so that his constituents could get home to watch football.

The meeting, which featured remarks by the new county administrator Rebecca T. Dickson, was cordial, informative and an excellent example of community spirit.

Dickson, giving what has become her introductory stump speech, briefly listed some of the challenges that the county faces in the near future.

Goochland, she said, like everywhere else in America, will face trying fiscal times as the floundering economy works its way out of recession. Dickson estimated that the county could face a budget shortfall of more than $5 million in the 2011 fiscal year, about the same in percentage terms as neighboring jurisdictions.

Dickson reported that she and county staff are working very hard to get their arms around the problems that beset the Tuckahoe Creek Service District.

Eads glossed over the whole TCSD mess stating that the check fiasco was a very unfortunate, and concluded episode. No criminal activity was uncovered so the county should move forward, he said.

Eads reiterated the county philosophy that the TCSD is paid for by those who benefit from it, which is sort of true. In fact, the following afternoon, the supervisors voted to loan the TCSD $3 million from the general fund to pay for a water line, located entirely in Henrico County. It would have been nice to have that money available to help offset the coming budget shortfalls.

The $63 million in bonds that funded construction of TCSD infrastructure are general obligation bonds taken out in the name of Goochland County.

That means every taxpayer is on the hook should the byzantine debt service scheme currently in place default and plunge the county’s credit rating to the basement.

Eads also fanned the fire of a sore point among his constituents who took matters into their own hands to negotiate a municipal water supply from Henrico. This occurred about 30 years ago when homeowners in the Lower Tuckahoe Community were told that the county would not help them find an alternative to an inadequate private water system.

Eads believes that a fairness disparity exists between people in the Courthouse and those along River Road who pay the same water rates.

Public utilities in Courthouse Village are provided by agreements between the county and the two nearby Department of Corrections facilities. The county ran water and sewer lines from the prisons to the high school, county administration building and J. Sergeant Reynolds Community College campus. Due to limited capacity, some, not all, property owners along those lines were permitted to connect and charged hefty fees to do so. They did not initiate installation utility lines as did River Road residents.

In response to questions about building a new elementary school, Eads believes that new schools and parks should be funded only by bond issues approved by a ballot referendum. Because Eads’ constituents tend to be either empty nesters or send their children to private schools, their only interest in county education policy is the impact of the school budget on their property taxes.

If the voters indicate approval to financing new parks and schools, said Eads, the county should buy a large tract of land, perhaps on Rt. 250, to build a major recreational complex.

Although there was no legal requirement for the supervisors to secure voter approval when they created the TCSD, given the serious threat to the county’s rural nature posed by intense development, there was certainly a moral obligation for the board to seek the taxpayers’ blessing incurring a debt greater than the entire annual county budget.

So far, development in the TCSD has been disappointing. Eads laid the blame for this entirely on the bad economy, even though development in the TCSD was dead in the water when the regional economy was in hyper expansion mode.

One gentleman waved a copy of the next day’s board meeting agenda and asked why the supervisors attempted to address at least 14 items during a three-hour meeting.

Too bad he was unable to attend the next day’s board meeting where another Jim Eads seems to have been in attendance.

This one took little heed of the new streamlined board procedures, which he strongly supported.

Eads wrested control of the meeting from board chairman District 1 supervisor Andrew Pryor during an informational presentation about options for commercial development at the Oilville Interstate 64 interchange made by Don Charles director of community development.

Continuing a long held objection to development at the Oilville interchange, various iterations of which have been on the drawing board for a least 10 years, Eads interrupted Charles and badgered and bullied a landowner who is seeking ways to work with the county to develop his land.

Eads has every right and obligation to ask questions.
However, his comments and their tone, suggest that his only agenda was to derail efforts at creating a mutually beneficial partnership between landowners and the county.

He feigned ignorance of options for providing limited wastewater treatment at the interchange, independent of the VDOT participation that was featured in earlier development plans, even though they had been vetted by the new county engineer.

Eads’ interruptions consumed at least 40 minutes of the three and one-half hour meeting, leaving even less time for other agenda items.

To keep board meetings from degenerating into time consuming rants, workshops should be conducted outside the regular meeting agenda.

Important issues like development of the Oilville interchange deserve thoughtful and public discussion by the supervisors. In a perfect world, these discussions would be held in the evening to permit attendance by the greatest number of citizens possible.