Gloucester supervisors voted to hold a referendum on the November ballot on the question of funding long-range capital projects.

The board approved adding the referendum by a 5-2 margin during Tuesday’s monthly meeting in the colonial courthouse. Chairman Chris Hutson, Dr. Robert “JJ” Orth, Mike Hedrick, Kevin Smith and Ken Gibson voted in favor, with vice chair Ashley Chriscoe and Phillip Bazzani casting the two nay votes.

The long-range funding plan on the ballot would see the county have a total borrowing power of $59 million to fund $39 million in capital projects through 2033. To afford this level of borrowing, the board would have the power to increase the real estate tax rate to as much as $0.02 per $100 of assessed value.

The board would have the power to pause or even end the funding of projects included in this plan at any point during the 10-year cycle. The plan does not account for other possible revenue sources to fund the borrowing that could arise in the future. If new revenue sources were to become available, the board could take advantage of them.

During supervisor discussion, Bazzani made a motion to remove the Woodville Park water and sewer and bathroom projects from the list of projects under consideration and to instead add the installation of pickleball courts at Woodville. This motion came after a number of Gloucester residents, including Carlos Morales, founder of the Gloucester Pickleball Club, voiced their desire to see Gloucester fund pickleball courts in the county.

Bazzani said he’d guess that the pickleball players in the county would prefer to see courts installed at Woodville Park over bathrooms. County Administrator Carol Steele pointed out that the Brown Park project included installation of pickleball courts and water and sewage connections to build restrooms at that park as well. There was no second to the motion made by Bazzani.

Gibson said while he would support the construction of more pickleball courts, he believes that working rest-rooms at Woodville Park are needed. He said that the county had already done a lot of work to improve the park and that bathrooms are a reasonable addition to the park as it could be a facility for future sporting events. Gibson also voiced his support for the referendum, stating that giving the voters the power to tell the county how to fund these projects was appropriate.

Gibson said Davenport & Company, which crafted the borrowing plan, said the long-range plan is a low-risk tool used by other counties. He said the board has the power to pause or completely stop projects in the future if the economy were to take a turn for the worse. He also said the long-range plan was fiscally responsible because it doesn’t kick projects down the road. Gibson said as projects remain unfunded, their costs’ rise.

Smith said he was supporting the referendum to give citizens a chance for their voices be heard. He said he believed they would not only hear from many in the county, but that the referendum would bring more voters out on Election Day, as well.

Chriscoe said he didn’t outright oppose the referendum, only language that would allow the board the ability to raise the real estate tax by a maximum of $0.02 to fund these projects. He said he believes there was a way to remove the two fire department projects from the long-range plan and fund them through a different borrowing cycle and fund the other projects without raising taxes.

“Optimism does not put fuel in my gas tank, nor does it put food on my table, nor does it pay my power bill,” said Chriscoe. “That’s why I tried to get us to a point where we have to burden our citizens with a known increase. There are a couple of different ways around this,” he continued. “I would be happy with the referendum if it didn’t automatically include a $0.02 tax increase.”

Bazzani stated that since he was elected to the board, he had never taken a cavalier attitude with the people’s taxes, which is what increasing the real estate tax by 2 cents would be. He said that some of the projects listed in this plan were wants, not needs. If the economy goes south, Bazzani added, the county could find itself struggling to pay the bonds tied to these projects.

Hedrick said he was pleased to see that this referendum will be presented to voters during his soon-to-be-ending lone term on the board. When he was elected to the board, he made a promise to serve only one term on the board and his term will end in January 2024. He said he supported the referendum as it was affordable and would see long-delayed projects get funded sooner rather than later.

Hedrick also said the debt associated with the long-range projects would at no time hit the county’s maximum borrowing capacity. He said the debt would peak at 8.5 percent of the county’s 15-percent borrowing limit in 2027 and would decrease after that.

Orth also voiced his support for the referendum as well. He said the board makes a lot of decisions but rarely does the board ask the people of Gloucester for their input. He said if approved, the economy will dictate how the board moves forward with these projects. He said the county would only borrow money as needed which may or may not require a tax increase.

Hutson said if the county improves, everyone will benefit. He said there is a lot of work that needs to be done in the county and in the past the board has not funded projects like these in a timely fashion.

“We have the opportunity of utilizing a lot of the things immediately or near immediate that would take us years if we ever had the fortitude as a board to try to fund,” said Hutson.

Smart meters

Also during the meeting, Bazzani voiced his concern for Dominion’s smart meters that are being installed on homes throughout the county by listing three key issues. He claimed that these meters emit four times more radiation than cell phones and that the American Cancer Society said that the radio frequency coming off smart meters could be carcinogenic to humans. He also mentioned that the recent fires that devastated the island of Maui are theorized to have been started by smart meters. He also said these meters could be hacked, leading to a failing in the power grid throughout the county.

Bazzani said he would opt out of the smart meter program and have Dominion replace his recently installed meter with one similar to his old meter. He suggested that others do the same.

During the citizen comment period, a number of Gloucester residents also voiced their concerns over the smart meters, making similar points to Bazzani’s. Susan Austin said she didn’t have the ability to opt out of the smart meter installation because her home has solar panels. She said she would fight it as she doesn’t want radiation from the meter to enter her home. Austin added that wireless radiation has harmful effects to plants, animals and in humans can lead to cancer.

Bazzani said he would like a representative from Dominion Power to come to a board meeting to talk about the possible hazards of smart meters.