Gloucester County will be facing many tough issues over the coming year, from balancing a budget with projected shortfalls in revenue to fulfilling capital needs that have been waiting several years to be addressed. The county’s staff is also expected to finish the update of the county’s comprehensive plan and the board of supervisors will make some tough decisions regarding real property assessments.
Budget
For the second year in a row, Gloucester County will face a tough year balancing its budget. County Administrator Brenda Garton said she is looking hard at revenue projections for the coming year and is afraid the school system will fare just as badly, if not worse, than it did in its current budget.
Garton said economic forecasts she has heard remain bleak, as there has been very little bounce-back in housing or other main drivers of the economy.
She said this remains a major issue for Gloucester County. County employees, Garton said, have not seen a raise in a number of years, "and that’s very hard on employee morale," she said. "County employees are dealing with the financial difficulties of the economy just like everyone else."
Garton said the economic conditions also have the county facing a challenge to provide the same level of service to its residents. Many vacant positions have been frozen and others left unfunded because of the economy, leaving departments such as public utilities and public works not fully staffed.
Capital needs
Garton said the county has also not been able to fulfill many of its capital needs over the past several years. Such needs include county vehicles, computers and various software programs. "You can’t just keep letting that stuff go," she said.
A Capital Improvements Committee has been formed, she said, and has met three times and will continue to meet in 2011 to make recommendations for any capital projects. Once the committee forms a list, the items will go before the planning commission and then the board of supervisors for approval.
Redistricting
The county will face a redistricting process in 2011, Garton said. This is a requirement which follows each general census. The county is seeking volunteers to serve on the diverse committee that is being established to help in this process. Garton said she doesn’t anticipate any major changes, but said it is a very important process.
A county committee will continue to work on the state-mandated Urban Development Area that is being proposed at Gloucester Point.
Election
Four seats on the Gloucester County Board of Supervisors are up for election in November. Garton said that even if only one new member is elected, it can change the entire dynamic of the governing body. She said the county will host an orientation in November or December for any new board members that are elected.
Alternative sewage regulations
Garton said an important and complex topic the county will likely spend a lot of time on in 2011 is the changes to state legislation regarding alternative sewage disposal systems. "The major issue will be to see what is allowed and how the regulations will be monitored," Garton said. She said the changes could have a big impact on a community like Gloucester, localities with a lot of waterfront acreage, lacking soil that will perk, and with few areas served by public sewer.
Reassessment
Garton said the county will likely make two major decisions in the upcoming year that will affect how property is assessed. First, the board of supervisors will receive a report from a consultant reviewing how Gloucester’s reassessment department handled the latest reassessment. The board will decide whether or not to continue to perform a reassessment in house or to dissolve the department and return to using an outside contractor to perform the reassessment.
Currently, the next reassessment is scheduled for to begin Jan. 1, 2012. However, Garton said the board will have to decide whether it will postpone that for another year, depending on whether it decides to keep or dissolve the reassessment department.
Special consent order
Finally, Garton said because of a Federal Consent Order by the Environmental Protection Agency, the Hampton Roads Sanitation District is required to address sanitary sewer overflows in the HRSD localities, which include Gloucester. The portions of the system that need to be upgraded have been identified. The initiation of the repair or replacement work will begin during 2011. Garton said she expects the costs to comply will impact current and future budgets.
Gloucester schools
Gloucester Public Schools officials struggled to deal with an almost $5 million reduction in state and federal funds in formulating the current fiscal year budget. School division superintendent Ben Kiser said putting together a budget for the 2011-2012 fiscal year is "going to be another challenge.
"We’re not expecting any new revenue, but state funding should stay steady and the Jobs Bill money was a godsend," said Kiser, referring to the $1.2 million the division received late last year through the Education Jobs Fund Program.
Kiser recommended the Gloucester School Board use $500,000 of the Jobs Fund money in FY2011 to fund instructional positions as needed along with a nursing position. The funds can be used over two years, so the board agreed with Kiser’s suggestion to set aside the remaining $700,000 to help offset any budget shortfalls in the FY2012 budget. The School Board will receive Kiser’s initial FY2012 budget recommendations on Feb. 8.
One measure taken by school officials to meet the FY2011 budget shortfall was to reduce the number of school days for students from 180 to 160. The measure has cut expenses, as predicted, and will likely stay in place for the 2011-1012 school year. "The board wants to stay with the 160-day calendar for next year. We don’t want to put people on a roller coaster by changing the calendar every year," Kiser said.
Part of the $5 million shortfall was due to federal stimulus dollars the division received for fiscal year 2009-2010 which were not available in the next budget year. But Kiser said that money was very beneficial, particularly the dollars that targeted Title I and special education programs. At that time, the division had 18 teachers certified as reading specialists, and those teachers were re-assigned to provide intervention and additional support for reading instruction.
"Test scores improved," Kiser said as a result. "We had struggled with moving special education students forward; now their scores have improved 15 to 20 percent across the board. And there were gains among African-American students. Many of these students had struggled because of their reading skills, and now we expect to see continued gains this spring. That’s been a real shot in the arm."
Kiser said another effort that has proven successful is the implementation of the Response to Intervention approach to instruction. First used at Petsworth and Botetourt elementary schools, the method is being implemented in the other elementary schools and the middle schools this year.
The method aims to detect struggling students early and provide them with immediate, effective intervention and assistance. Kiser said the method has helped teachers to serve children in their classrooms before they are labeled as special education candidates. As a result, he said fewer students need special education services.
Also to be continued and expanded is the use of virtual curriculum at Gloucester High School. Kiser said over 200 students took online courses at GHS during the last school year and another 200 or more employed online learning in support of their traditional classroom courses. He said 20 teachers have now been trained in the delivery of online content.
Kiser said the school division has been working with WHRO public television in developing online curriculum for its member school divisions. He said a virtual high school online is a possibility for Gloucester students, or a blended program of online and classroom instruction.
Sheriff
Gloucester County Jail inmates will soon contribute to the costs of their stay in the local lockup. As allowed by law, Gloucester Sheriff Steve Gentry plans to begin charging each inmate $1 per day during their incarceration. In a time of constrained government agency budgets, Gentry expects the fee to bring in $20,000 to $25,000 this year. Most jails do charge the daily fee, Gentry said, which can be up to $3 per day.
To make collection easier, Gentry said the vendor who services the jail canteen and its accounts will deduct the daily fee from canteen deposits. Each inmate is allowed a canteen account. They can contribute to it when they first check into the jail or friends or relatives may make deposits on behalf of the inmate by mail. Gentry said most inmates establish the accounts so they can purchase snacks, coffee or other allowed items while incarcerated.
Gentry said he is also charging inmates for the equipment required to have them on electronic monitoring. He said those charges brought in about $30,000 in 2010 and the funds go back into updating and improving the remote monitoring program. Gentry said the newest monitoring bracelets have skin sensors that can detect whether the wearer has used alcohol or drugs and conveys that information, along with the wearer’s location, back to the jail.
Last fall, Gentry requested that county supervisors allow him to spend $390,000 in rollover funds from his fiscal year 2010 budget. Recently, he said most of those funds came from a reduction in inmate medical costs realized by placing inmates with chronic or otherwise expensive medical conditions on home monitoring. Gentry said he is also attempting to recoup medical costs from jailed inmates who require medical attention and have health insurance.
The sheriff was granted the $390,000 and plans to spend it on new patrol cars and new laptop computers for police vehicles. Gentry’s office made the switch from Ford Crown Victorias to Dodge Chargers three years ago. "The new cars will probably be Charg-
ers. They’ve met the expectations. Some blind spots have been detected by police users and they are being corrected by Dodge," he said of sticking with the Chargers for patrol use.
Regarding the need for new computers, Gentry said more confidential data is now available online to officers, but federal guidelines call for more secure systems to handle it.
The Gloucester Sheriff’s Office also has a new communications system in place that is shared with nearby Peninsula localities. He said the new voice to data to voice system is "crystal clear" and countywide there are no more "dead" areas where the system cannot reach.
In another new arrangement, Gentry said his office has renewed agreements with the Virginia Department of Transportation to pay Gloucester inmates for roadside work. A previous agreement with VDOT was ended by Gentry in a dispute over compensation. He said VDOT budget cuts provided an opportunity for new negotiations as the state agency faced manpower reductions.
Regarding investigations, Gentry said his investigators are putting together a "child friendly" interview room because of more internet and other crimes involving local children.
Gentry said his investigations department has been unusually busy in recent months, particularly with an increase in unsolved residential burglaries, and patrol deputies have been asked to do more.
Although shorthanded due to state budget reductions, Gentry said his office will "continue to face budget constraints head-on without reducing services to the public." He said the success of the SIDNE campaign to raise funds for driver education equipment and of the Shop With A Cop program to help provide Christmas gifts for needy children says a lot about community support for his office.
Gentry also said he has enjoyed his first three years as sheriff and will definitely seek another term in office.
Public works
Ground-breaking for construction of an emergency communications/operations center for Gloucester is anticipated in late winter or early spring, after the project goes to bid, said Garrey W. Curry Jr., the county’s public works director.
Part of the building will serve as an emergency communications center, housing the county’s emergency services dispatch (E911) equipment and personnel. Upon completion, dispatch equipment and personnel will be moved from the adjacent law enforcement building and the sheriff will reassign the space currently housing the emergency dispatchers for other purposes.
Because the building site slopes considerably, the design includes an economical "walk-out" style basement which will be constructed as an unfinished shell, but will ultimately be outfitted as an emergency operations center. Funding for the emergency centers is part of the county’s capital budget for the new 800MHz public safety communications system which was put into operation in 2010.
Village enhancement
Curry said that federal Transportation Enhancement Grant dollars will fund the final phase of the Gloucester Colonial Courthouse Village Enhancement Project. This will be the project’s fifth phase.
The project will combine an 80 percent federal grant with a 20 percent county match, with the program designed to provide amenities such as sidewalks, lighting and landscaping to enhance the quality of life, Curry said.
Plans for Phase V were recently approved by the Virginia Department of Transportation, which administers the grant program, Curry said. The county is preparing an invitation for bid. Construction is anticipated to commence after the Daffodil Festival in late March and is projected to be completed before the Christmas parade in the village in early December.
Phase V will begin at the south end of court green, Curry said, and will extend north around both sides of the circle and continue to Justice Drive.
Gloucester parks
Work should begin this year on a memorial garden walkway and landscaping at Woodville Park, under development at Ordinary, said Carol Steele, Gloucester’s director of parks, recreation and tourism.
Park Partners Inc., a charitable group which helps support park development, is planning to hold an event at the park this spring to make the public aware of the park and to encourage donations, Steele said.
Also, Steele said park officials are considering adding a piece of skateboard equipment at Brown Park, but have not made a final decision because the skateboard facility has experienced continued vandalism.
Economic Development
The Gloucester Economic Development Department anticipates construction to begin this year on a new business at the Gloucester Business Park, White Marsh, which it manages and markets, said director Douglas Meredith.
Meredith said that he also expects that one current business at the park will expand this year and that Commerce Drive might be extended.
County officials will continue to work with Hampton University this year on the T.C. Walker property on Main Street, with final plans still being worked out for the former home of the late attorney and civil rights leader.
In other business, Meredith said the county will continue to work with the Main Street Association on façade improvement and revolving loan projects for Main Street enhancements.
The Gloucester Economic Development Authority has several committees at work on specific projects, Meredith said, including the Small Business Committee compiling results of a recently-conducted business survey and the Gloucester Point Committee continuing to work with private developers on projects in the lower county.
Planning department
The biggest item on Gloucester County Planning Department’s plate in 2011 will be revisions to the county’s comprehensive plan.
Planning director Anne Ducey-Ortiz said she expects all of the revisions to the plan to be completed this year. The revisions have been delayed, in part, because of staff turnover at the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission, which has been serving as consultant for the update.
"We are in the final leg," Ducey-Ortiz said of the revisions that staff and a review committee have been working on for more than two years.
The document is important for long-range planning purposes, she said, and is updated periodically.
Other issues that planners will discuss this year include broadband Internet regulations for the county, as well as setting regulations for wind turbines that might allow them to operate in areas other than the agricultural district.
In addition, planners may review the county’s noise ordinance this year, and will continue to revise the sign ordinance, Ducey-Ortiz said.
Civil War
The Gloucester Sesquicentennial Committee is planning three major events during 2011 in recognition of the county’s involvement in the Civil War that began in 1861.
Carol Steele, director of parks, recreation and tourism, said the first event planned will be Saturday, May 7, at Gloucester Point Beach. Titled "First Shots," this program will re-create the first shots of the Civil War in Gloucester by the Richmond Howitzers, based at Gloucester Point, firing on a Union boat in the York River. Re-enactors will take part in the event.
The Alliance, a schooner based at Yorktown, will take part in the program, Steele said. Also, John Quarstein, Hampton’s director of museums, will present a lecture at Watermen’s Hall on the nearby Virginia Institute of Marine Science campus.
On June 19, a Juneteenth program will be held at 2 p.m. on the court green, which will re-enact the reading of President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. Steele said that program also will bring attention to the 32 sailors from Gloucester who served in the Union blockade along the Atlantic seaboard.
Steele said an August program, with no date set yet, will be held on court green to recognize the valor of James Daniel Gardner, who was born in Gloucester and was this county’s only recipient of the Medal of Honor.
Gloucester library
Offering more programs during 2011 will be a goal of the Gloucester Library staff, said library director Diane Rebertus.
Not only does Rebertus say that she wants to offer more programs, but she also hopes more people will contact the main library in the village and branch at Gloucester Point to offer suggestions on programs they would like to see offered.