Due to our recent census count, Colonial Beach will now be in charge of maintenance, repairs and new road construction for secondary roads in the town starting July 1.

This does not mean that taxes will go up, since quarterly reimbursements will be sought after from VDOT for all roadwork.

For now the town will advertise for bids on roadwork until they decide what repairs can be handled by town staff and if new employees will be brought on for roadwork. All work must be completed to VDOT standards. Yearly inspections by VDOT will determine if funding remains available. 

In the case of paving new roads, the road must be first adopted into the highway system by VDOT then will be paved by the town if it is a secondary road. 

VDOT will continue to maintain Colonial Ave. and the ‘Y’ at the Beach Gate where it connects to Route 205. 

The Westmoreland County Board of Supervisors conducted the annual hearing on the 2012-2013 budget last Thursday night and will reconvene at 9 a.m. this Friday morning in the George D. English Building to officially adopt the budget that becomes effective as soon as July 1.

County Administrator Norm Risavi began the May 17 deliberations with an overview of 2012-2013 budget considerations. The real estate tax rate will be two cents higher, but the school division’s additional $558,447 will be utilized to support school employee salary enhancements.

Wanda Goforth presented the council with a petition signed by 160 citizens challenging the council to oust town manager Val Foulds and began looking for a replacement at last week’s town council meeting. 

Mayor Rummage wrapped his gavel and warned Goforth, “You gotta be very careful what you say because I will not allow anyone to stand up there and attack.”

Feeling challenged, Goforth interrupted and continued while trying to keep her composure, “I believe that the citizens need to be heard and this is what they are doing. They are showing the council members who are supposed to represent them, what they find.” 

Goforth then read the petition naming voters and business owners as the signers which read, “We petition the town council to re-evaluate the position held by the town manager. 

The King George Board of Supervisors is expected to this week review a draft “Request for Information” (RFI) contained its meeting packet for May 15 (following our press time).

Supervisors will take a look at the RFI as part of its continuing efforts to find any lower-cost alternatives to bus service provided by FREDericksburg Regional Transit (FRED). 

FRED bus service is being discontinued in the county at the end of June. There is not expected to be any new service options available immediately. But the county is continuing to explore possible options to see if any are viable. 

It has become clear that efficient and economical provision of mass transit requires masses of people that simply don’t exist in a rural county. 

At a meeting in early April, a report was provided to Supervisors on two options currently being explored by a group of county officials that includes Supervisors Cedell Brooks and Dale Sisson, county administrator Travis Quesenberry, director Tim Smith of the county’s Parks & Recreation department, and director of Social Services Dave Coman. 

The two alternative options are being explored simultaneously for feasibility. 

The current task is to try to at least find low-cost transportation for getting around the county and within the region for those residents who need transport for routine medical appointments and possibly for employment commutes.  

Part of that idea might include helping county residents to get to the Ferry Farm Walmart to link up with a FRED bus to go further west, or to get riders directly to FRED Central, located on Route 1 in Fredericksburg.

One idea is for the county to see if they can find service providers that might be willing to offer a fixed 

District Planning Office Director Jerry Davis briefed the Westmoreland County Supervisors on a land use study involving the Patuxent River Naval Air Station and nearby jurisdictions. After considering the information Davis provided, the Supervisors agreed to participate in the land use evaluation. The commitment was expressed in an adopted resolution.

The adopted resolution of May 14 supporting the joint land use study for the Naval Air station explains that the “Naval Air Station (NAS) Patuxent River, Webster Field and the Inner Atlantic Test Range [located on southern Maryland’s lower end] is host to more than 50 tenant activities, including the Naval Air Systems Command and the Naval Air Warfare Center aircraft Division and [is] home to the full spectrum of Research, Development, Acquisition, Test and Evaluation (RDAT&E) for all of Naval Aviation, which are critical for the U.S. Navy and other branches of the American military and our allies.”

The resolution states that “the Naval Air Station (NAS) Patuxent River, MD is affected by growth and development around a perimeter of the installations that could eventually 

You have reached THAT age. Your children have gone, you may or may not be retired, you paid off your mortgage, and now you look around and say, “We don’t need this large house anymore.”

Your house was made for a good-sized, active family, whether or not you had one child or several. So, what should you do, pack up and leave for a warmer climate, look for a condo, move away?

Finally, you decide you don’t want to move away but you don’t want to stay in the large house you have to clean and dust. And all those empty rooms!  Don’t they bring on memories that  you would just rather not think about. The kids are gone. They have their own lives and you are not just their parents any more. They have their own lives and you have to accept that.

Virginia Broadband, L.L.C., failed to get an injunction against the King George Wireless Authority at a court hearing it had requested on last Friday. 

The company unsuccessfully argued for an injunction against the county’s Wireless Authority for barring access to the middle school tower on which it had installed equipment. 

Circuit Court Chief Judge Gordon F. Willis ruled against Virginia Broadband, saying its argument failed to meet any of the four standards set by the Fourth Circuit necessary to grant such an injunction. 

Those standards require the plaintiff to establish that the case is likely to succeed on its merits, it is likely to suffer irreparable harm in the absence of the relief sought, that the 

Capital Improvement Plan

The planning commission performed their annual review of the town’s Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) and sent a favorable recommendation to the council.

The council will review the five-year plan totaling almost 23 million dollars for town improvements and another 35.7 million for the school system.

Capital project or items are defined in the Virginia code as buildings, construction, studies, equipment, materials, renovations and maintenance or replacement items at a