Supervisors Maintain intergrity of Rural Crescent
Well folks, here is a great recap from the Prince William Conservation Alliance about Tuesdays Board Meeting. Corey, John Stirrup, Mike May, and Frank P all held true to their pledge to protect the Rural Crescent from high density development. At least from that land use perspective, they maintained the integrity of the best smart growth land use tool this County has in its “back pocket”. On the Lueking property CPA, it was a unanimous denial by ALL supervisors. Classic Concepts CPA was able to garner two votes, Jenkins and Covington, all other six Supervisors voted to deny.
However, the buffer areas were not so lucky. Why are buffers so important? It isn’t just about creating a workable transition from the development area to the rural areas, but MORE importantly, its about protecting the Occoquan Reservoir and its ability to survive as a healthy water supply for millions of citizens! It will take some time, but I will get the votes for the SRR also.
Semi-Rural Residential properties, intended to buffer the Rural Crescent and protect the Occoquan Reservoir, did not fare as well. Supervisors initiated five of the eight proposals to increase densities in Semi-Rural areas, on properties covering approximately 155 acres.
Just click here to read more of PWCA’s comprehensive analysis!
Cheers or Jeers?
Today’s New York Times has an opinion piece that is sure to bring cheers or cheers from our not so subtle readership. Obviously the writer had chosen sides, so it is very much an opinion.
Notes From the Immigration Battlefield
Published: March 18, 2009
Here’s a thought. What if illegal immigrants really aren’t America’s worst nightmare? A lot of energy has been spent insisting that they are, but are they really as dangerous as, say, zombie banks? Or as evil as retention bonuses?In truth, our biggest domestic menace never was waiting outside Home Depot, hoping to clean your basement. Unauthorized immigrants are not about to destroy anything, not even when they get angry and loud and march in large groups. On the contrary, they are inspiring. Their ethic of self-reliance and hard work is one that Americans should recognize and celebrate.
School Board Adopts Final 2009-10 Budget of $831,889,954
Hot off the press from PWCS-an overview of the final budget.
At tonight’s meeting, the Prince William County School Board unanimously adopted the 2009-10 General Operating Budget of $782,126,633. This amount includes recent adjustments in both expenditures and revenue following the recent addition of $34.5 million in federal stimulus funds and Title I low income and Title VI-B special education monies. Included in the budget is a 2.9 percent Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) made possible by the reduction of other expenditures in the budget, including a reduction in other benefits and compensation such as decreasing the 403(b) employer match from five percent to four percent. It is important to note that no stimulus money will be spent for the COLA.
“Never in the history of Prince William County Public Schools has there been a budget challenge of the magnitude we faced this year,” said Dr. Steven L. Walts, Superintendent of Schools. “As a context, approximately 82 percent of our budget directly supports instruction through salaries and benefits of our employees, making it quite a challenge to maintain the excellent programs we have in place while preserving as many jobs as possible.”
Expected revenues for PWCS are going down while the costs associated with educating 1,423 additional students and other normal factors for a growing school division are going up. This originally resulted in a gap of $94 million, which had to be cut from next year’s budget, including substantial position reductions across the School Division.
The federal stimulus funds provided welcome relief but still left significant cuts in place. However, the federal stimulus package will offset the funding reductions from the state. At this time, the reductions in the 2009-10 budget now come as a result of reductions in county revenue; the stimulus has replaced only the state cuts. Additional federal revenue for Title I and Title VI-B are intended for program improvement and generally cannot be used to offset previous budget reductions.
These most recent budget adjustments have also allowed us to improve regular education class sizes from the Proposed Budget. While the ratios are still increasing, they won’t be increasing as much as originally planned. This still leaves the School Division very close to the maximum allowable class sizes in all grade levels and there has been an incremental increase in recent years to help balance previous budgets.
Other highlights of the approved budget are the restoration of positions to minimize and hopefully avoid employee layoffs, the restoration of funding for students to take tests such as IB and AP, and the restoration of the middle school athletic program (with the addition of a participation fee).
With tonight’s approval, the School Board will now submit the 2009-10 Budget to the Board of County Supervisors for appropriation, which will occur by April 30.
PWC Property Taxes Set at $1.21: 2nd Highest in Metro Area
In a rather anticlimactic move yesterday, PWC supervisors locked in a $1.21 tax rate per hundred. The tax rate can always be lowered but cannot be raised. The vote was predictable. According to the Washington Post:
The spending plan County Executive Craig S. Gerhart proposed last month would reduce services, suspend road construction, freeze salaries and tap reserves to close a $190 million shortfall projected for the fiscal year that begins in July.
The $1.21 rate is the second highest in the metro area. However, looking at the bottom line, it certainly is not the most expensive real estate taxation. Plummeting property values have caused an overall reduction in property taxes. Most homes will find the real estate taxes cut by about $400.
Chairman Stewart, who opened the meeting by commenting on the federal stimulus package money, had this predictably partisan remark to say about the new tax rate:
“I believe the way to spur the economy is by cutting taxes, not raising them. It comes down to a philosophical divide,” board Chairman Corey A. Stewart (R-At Large) said. “Prince William is the only Republican-led jurisdiction in the D.C.-metro area. It shouldn’t be too much of a surprise we’re cutting taxes.”
Politicans Living in a Paper World?
Don’t any of these Supervisors recognize the old truthyism (for you Stephen Colbert fans)…..You can’t DIG yourself out of a hole!
The current direction of Prince Wiliam County’s land use policies are simply unsustainable for a healthy community. We are not, and will NEVER be, a Fairfax County, NOR do we want to be. We must create a new vision for this county, based on OUR unique assests in Prince William County, of which there are many. To understand the complete and utter craziness of our entire planning process, click here,and you will wonder if our county is creating just paper plans or a healthy community based in a 3D world where REAL people live.
Doesn’t our County, with its beautiful landscape, and interesting features, deserve a viable land use plan, that takes ADVANTAGE of our assets instead of just the old tired cookie cutter approach (which, by the way, got us in the current fix to begin with!)
Like Charlie Grymes said in his blog post:
The Planning Department must like the “ready-fire-aim” approach. They are recommending approvals of CPA’s now, basing their advice on the draft chapter produced by the Land Use Advisory Committee that the Planning Commission did not accept. Wow, Rube Goldberg must be their favorite designer for household furniture.
If you like unrestricted development, initiate CPA’s out of sequence with plan revisions.
If you like comprehensive planning, do not initiate any CPA’s now.
Prince William County Tax Assessments In
County tax assessments are now available on-line. The County had estimated an average drop of $112,500 per property. How does your property compare?
http://www4.pwcgov.org/countymapper/
Now is NOT the time for the BOCS to dismantle the Rural Crescent!
For the fourth year in a row, yes folks, the fourth year, Classic Concepts Ltd, along with a few other land owners, will be asking to change several hundred acres of land, witin the Rural Crescent, to high density housing. Most of this land is located in Nokesville. This Tuesday, March 17, the Board will once again have to make a decision on several major proposed land use changes. Given the amount of foreclosures in PWC, does ANYONE really believe that a responsible choice would be to rezone ANY parcel of land from 1 home per 10 acres to multiple homes per 10 acres? Can you imagine if we had not had the Rural Crescent zoning restrictions in place ,how many more homes would have been built, only to end up sitting vacant, dragging our real estate values even further into the proverbial grave? The Rural Crescent demonstrated, in this last “feeding frenzy” of home building, what a great smart growth tool it can be. Furthermore, PWC already has 35,000 homes that have been approved for build out! How much longer can this county sustain itself on real estate alone? I would suggest that WE CANNOT and must not continue down the same broken path anymore.
No Comprehensive Plan Amendments should be initiated by this Board that would approve any changes in current land use designations, not in the Rural Crescent and not in the Suburban Rural Residential zoning categories either!
I hope that Chairman Stewart and Supervisors Stirrup, May, and Principi will hold steadfast to their pledge, signed prior to the last election, that they would deny any changes to the Rural Crescent Boundaries and would hold to the 1 home per 10 acre density. I think we’ve all had enough of “building gone wild” !
http://www.pwcgov.org/documents/bocs/agendas/2009/20090317.pdf
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Remade in America pt 2: Is Perception Reality?
From the New York Times, Sunday, March 15, 2009
Then there is Hylton High School’s home county, Prince William. What was once a mostly white, middle-class suburb 35 miles southwest of the nation’s capital has been transformed by a construction boom into a traffic-choked sprawl of townhouses and strip malls where Latinos are the fastest-growing group.
Neighborhood disputes led the county to enact laws intended to drive illegal immigrants away. White and black families with the means to buy their way out of the turmoil escaped to more affluent areas. Hispanic families, feeling threatened or just plain unwelcome, were torn between those who had legal status and those who did not. Many fled.
By last March, educators reported that at least 759 immigrant students had dropped out of county schools. Hylton, whose 2,200 student population is almost equal parts white, black and Latino and comes from working-class apartment complexes and upscale housing developments, was one of the hardest hit.
The New York Times is a large, well-funded newspaper that has national stature. Is the above excerpt from the article how things really happened here in Prince William County? Is this how our county looked to those outside the region? Is this how we want to be perceived?
Would you want to relocate in Prince William County after this description? If you were a business, would you want to move here?
At what point does it really matter what really happened? Has perception become reality?
Hylton High: Where Assimilation and Education Collide
Limited English Proficiency students at Hylton High School are placed in mostly ESOL classes to learn as much English as fast as they can. At the same time they are taught content subject area and their teachers explain much of the specialized, esoteric vocabulary. The students make rapid progress educationally and SOL test scores seem to get better each year.
However, the cost of the educational achievement is delayed assimilation. ESOL classes at Hylton are creating a new segregation. If you are a newcomer and have limited skills in English, you are kept apart from American students.
The New York Times is running a series that examines how institutions are being forced to adjust from mandates like No Child Left Behind and what the effect is on students who are in essence, kept separate from the rest of the student body by virtue of the fact that they are in ESOL classes.
Some features of this mega-article are an excellent video of several Hylton High students, a blog, and some excellent charts. I have never been able to embed NYTimes vidoes so it won’t be making it to this blog. Use the link above to reach the article.
Another Ultimate Immigrant Story
Yes, President Barack O’Bama is part Irish. His maternal grandfather’s ancestors were from Moneygall, Ireland. Right smack dab in the middle of the Emerald Isle.
I tried to figure a way to post the song, There’s No One as Irish as Barack O’Bama, by the Corrigan Brothers. The embedding was removed from youtube and I found how to download the song but not the video. Alas, you will just have to go to youtube.com by clicking on the song title.
Definitely a fun song that will stick in your brain. Sing it at the parade.
There seems to be some discrepancy on how many ‘greats’ in that great grandfather claim to Irish fame, but who’s counting. So know that in Moneygall, County Offaly, Ireland, they take their Amrican politics seriously. Ironically, ‘Moneygall’ (Muine Gall) means ‘grove of the foreigners’ in Irish.
According to that great source, Wikipedia:
Falmouth Kearney, the great-great-great grandfather of United States President Barack Obama, emigrated from Moneygall to New York City at the age of 19 in 1850 and eventually resettled in Tipton County, Indiana.[2]Kearney’s father had been the village shoemaker, then a wealthy skilled trade
Now for those of you who want to be able to speak a little Irish during the next few days, I am going to leave you another website. You can learn to say ‘kiss me arse,’ ‘Erin go Bragh’, or ‘My trousers are on fire.’ I have no clue why anyone would want to say the last one or what its connotation is. However, the first 2 …obvious.
Fire Chief McGee Grand Marshall in St. Patrick’s Day Parade
It’s that time again. Wearing o’ the green, pinching, shamrocks, green beer and Leprechauns will be out in full force tomorrow and into next week as another St. Patrick’s Day rolls around on March 17.
The 10th Annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade will be held in Old Town Manassas will be held this Saturday, March 14 2009 beginning at 11 am. This years’ parade marshall will be none other than Fire Chief McGee, a second generation Irishman from Buffalo NY. According to News and Messenger,
As a youngster growing up in Buffalo, N.Y., Kevin J. McGee’s parents always took him and his siblings to the city’s annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade.
Now years later, much to his surprise, McGee gets to head up a St. Patrick’s Day parade as grand mar-shal.
“I always enjoyed going to the parade in Buffalo … but never did I think one day I would be in one,” McGee said.Vincent T. Fitzpatrick, president of parade sponsor Inisfail, said organizers chose McGee—an “Irish gentle-man” and local fire chief—to pay homage to the Irish, whose descendants have made up “the core of fire departments in many municipalities throughout the country for decades.”
St Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland. He lived during the 4th century and is credited for driving the snakes out of Ireland. There is much myth and folk lore surrounding this beloved saint. For most of us, on March 17, everyone is Irish or just a wee bit so.
More Information on St. Patrick from a religious/historical perspective
More Stimulus $$ from the Feds for PWC Schools
Those of us who subscribe to School board news via email got a good news email Wednesday night:
At the March 11 School Board work session on the proposed 2009-10 budget, Superintendent Steve Walts presented proposed revisions to the budget based on adjusted state revenue and the federal stimulus funds. The School Division will be receiving almost $25 million in additional revenues, with most coming from the stimulus and about $134,000 coming from the state.
Dr. Walts’ proposed expenditure adjustments include:
– Restoration of certain positions to avoid employee layoffs;
– A 2.9 percent COLA for all employees;
– Restoration of all regular education class sizes to current levels;
– Restoration of middle school athletics to the current program, but still with the participation fee; and
– Restoration of funding for IB/AP/ICT/ACE/PSAT test payments for all students.
Other recommended adjustments to balance the budget include a reduction from 5-percent to a 3-percent match for those participating in the matching 403 (b) deferred compensation program, and postponing the implementation of the middle school intramural sports program.
“We are feeling pretty good, in fact, quite a bit better than when we first proposed the budget,” said Dr. Walts, Superintendent. “We believe that this proposal will allow us to restore positions, avoiding employee layoffs.”
This is indeed very good news. Prince William County School Systen was about $57 million short for next year. Of course all school money is dependent on the final budget for Prince William County so that $57 million was very much of an estimate. The county schools will receive more than was originally announced. They were expecting about $19.1 million in additional funds from the stimulus money. As it turns out, the schools will receive about $6 million more than expected. $134,000 comes from the state. The rest is federal.
So is this additional money to also be considered a ‘drop in the bucket?’ Teachers get a 2.9% raise, class size is restored to current levels and restoration of certain positions sure sounds like a mighty good size drop to me.
I hope every last person with a kid in Prince William County Schools at least silently thanks Congressman Connolly for his part in procuring this money. I have a sneaking suspicion Supervisor Principi might have a hand in it also. Until I hear otherwise, I am going to say thank you to both gentlemen for making it happen. Corey Stewart needs to write another thank you note and follow it up with…silence?
Do We Have a BAAAAD Reputation?
Apparently Businessweek has even heard of Prince William County’s dirty little secret. In a March 6 article entitled, “ Signs of Life from the Real Estate Market,” Prince William County is highlighted as being abuzz with real estate buyers. That was the good news. Read on hear the bad news:
Across the country in Prince William County, Va., outside Washington D.C., buyers are out in force. The market, where subprime loans and boom-time construction were rampant, was badly damaged in the downturn. Making matters worse, a controversial law in Prince William County that allowed police officers to enforce immigration laws helped drive out many of the Central American immigrants who came in to work on building the new homes during the boom. Many of those immigrants who moved to neighboring Fairfax County allowed their Prince William County homes to go into foreclosure, said John McClain, senior fellow at George Mason University’s Center for Regional Analysis.
Proximity to D.C. Helps
The good news now is that inventories of unsold homes are shrinking because of the accelerating sales, though homeowners who could afford to have also likely taken their properties off the market, McClain said. In January, 3,346 homes were on the market compared to 5,355 in January, 2007, McClain said. In January, 647 homes sold in Prince William County compared to 312 a year earlier. Home prices, however, fell 34%.One factor that could help Prince William County toward recovery is its proximity to Washington D.C., one of the few local economies with relatively good prospects thanks to its federal government and defense contractor jobs. Woodbridge, Va., in Prince William County, came in at No. 14 in our ranking. Woodbridge sales jumped 32% in the fourth quarter while median home prices dropped 18% to $215,500, according to First American CoreLogic.
The drop in inventory and the rise in sales are “good signs” for Prince William County, McClain said.
“We are at that point with that trend [in Prince William County] where the economics have to kick in,” McClain said. “Prices have to stabilize and then start up again.”
Erick Blackwelder, associate broker with Exit Realty in Woodbridge, said buyers have flocked to the market and have already bought many of the foreclosed homes that were in good shape. The remaining foreclosures are largely “junk,” he said.“It started in April 2008,” Blackwelder said. “It was like all of a sudden, somebody flicked on a light switch and there were buyers galore.”
How many people would find Prince William County an attractive place to relocate after reading an article like this one? “To make matters worse….” seems to say it all.
