TOP STORIES
Rain dampens community 4th celbration but doesn’t stop it
By Sharon Kilpatrick
Rain threatened or poured throughout the day on Friday, July 4, but the celebration went on regardless. A thunderboomer in late afternoon sent some vendors packing up, but most of the food vendors stayed, and the high school band boosters stayed, and the juggler stayed.
The fireworks were delayed because organizers said they couldn’t preload them during the
rain, but eventually they went off and were spectacular. Then organizers asked the crowd to be patient for 10 or 15 more minutes while they loaded the grand finale, and most stayed for that also.
The crowd seemed significantly smaller than last year, but there was more food and more choice of food. The sponsors tents offered grand hospitality, and several churches were doing good business in typical holiday foods. The band boosters offered $5 haircuts, $10 massages, fancy fingernails and a dunking booth. They also went about the grounds soliciting business. Read more »
School cafeteria operation lost $78,395 in past school year; soaring fuel costs also bite into school budget
By James P. Gannon
Food service operations at Rappahannock County Public Schools racked up a net loss of $78,395 in the past school year, according to final 2007-2008 budget figures approved Friday by the School Board.
This was the largest operating loss by the school cafeterias in recent years–possibly ever–and was up from the $69,799 loss recorded in the prior year. A nearly $20,000 increase in the cost of food purchased deepened the loss, while cash receipts from students declined.
The public schools’ food service has been a chronic money-loser in recent years and has been subsidized by the School Board by transferring funds from other parts of the budget to cover losses. At its Friday meeting, the board authorized transferring $107,693 from the classroom instruction category to the school food account.
The food service operations were sharply criticized in the School Efficiency Review report made public last February by MGT of America, Inc., the educational consulting firm that reviewed all operations of the Rappahannock Schools. MGT cited poor management, inadequate employee training, low student participation and overstaffing in recommending steps to cut the annual losses.
In reviewing six years of results, MGT found that food service operations showed small profits in school years ending in 2002 and 2003, but losses of $38,595 in 2004, $47,029 in 2005, and $22,771 in 2006. The losses deepened to $69,799 in 2006-2007, and $78,395 in the year just ended. Read more »
School Board approves lighting proposal for sports fields, asks supervisors to guarantee payments
By James P. Gannon
The Rappahannock County School Board approved Friday a proposal to install lights for night games at three school athletic fields and recommended that the Board of Supervisors sign a contract guaranteeing $511,000 in payments over 10 years to cover the costs of the system.
The vote was 4-0, with one member–Jackson District’s Wes Mills–absent at the Friday morning board meeting.
The athletic field lighting plan was put forward by the Rappahannock County School Sports Association, which says it plans to raise the funds needed to make annual payments of $51,132 over ten years. But these financing terms are available only if the county signs the lease-purchase contract, which means the county government would be obligated to make the annual payments or cover any shortfall if the association fails to raise the money privately.
“I think it is the best thing for the schools,” said Piedmont District board member Aline Johnson, who made the motion to send the request to the Board of Supervisors with a favorable recommendation for approval. “I think we should send it to the Board of Supervisors. We can’t make their decision.”
Johnson acknowledged that there was some degree of risk that RCSSA’s fund-raising efforts could fall short of making the annual payments. “The county may have to put up the money if it doesn’t come in” as donations, she said. Read more »
Supervisors approve $22 million Fiscal 2009 budget and 1-cent increase in real estate tax rate
By James P. Gannon
After debating ways to avoid a property-tax increase, the Rappahannock County Board of Supervisors Tuesday approved a $22 million budget for the year starting July 1 and a one-cent increase in the real estate tax rate–a 1.7% hike.
The vote was 4-1, with Supervisor Roger Welch of Wakefield District voting against both the budget and the tax increase. Welch urged the supervisors to make an across-the-board cut in the budget–one affecting all departments–large enough to avoid any property tax increase this year, but found no support for his eleventh-hour appeal.
The increase raises the county’s overall real-estate tax rate to 60 cents from 59 cents per $100 of property value. For a home and lot valued at $300,000, the increase will add $30 to the homeowner’s annual tax bill.
Tuesday evening’s budget-adoption meeting was conducted in a nearly-empty courthouse before an audience of two news reporters and one other citizen. The board had previously held its public hearing on the budget, which was also sparsely attended and produced little public comment. Read more »
Scrabble School restoration attracts keen interest from contractors; work could begin in August
Ten construction contracting firms sent representatives Monday to a pre-bid conference on the county’s plans to restore the historic Scrabble School building for use as the county’s Senior Center and a heritage site commemorating African-American history.
County Administrator John McCarthy briefed the contractors interested in the job, which will attempt to restore the building to a state close to that when it was used from the 1920s to the 1960s as a school for black children in the era of school segregation in Virginia.
The project, which is budgeted at $544,000 in the county budget for the year beginning July 1, is financed almost entirely by grant money from the state and private foundations and donors. The county will provide some infrastructure for the project, including well and septic system. Read more »
New partners plan to bail out Tom Gordon’s internet service business, make refunds and hook up customers
By James P. Gannon
Tom Gordon’s troubled internet broadband service has been taken over by two new business partners and investors who vow to solve its problems, including making cash refunds to customers who want their money back and getting broadband service connected to those who still want the service.
As RappVoice reported on May 15, Gordon’s e-Office Experts internet service was being pursued by angry customers who had paid $795 in advance for wireless internet service, but had never been hooked up and had been unable to get refunds. Numerous Rappahannock County customers of Gordon complained to the Sheriff’s Office and at least three filed civil suits against Gordon, seeking refunds, in Rappahannock County District Court.
At the time, Gordon said he was encountering “cash flow problems” and “business difficulties,” and denied any intent to defraud customers.
Now two outside investors have formed a three-way business partnership with Gordon to solve his business problems, refund deposits and install service for those who still want it, according to Rich Shoemaker, a Fauquier County businessman who is the lead partner in the new arrangement. Read more »