Swap details surface slowly

By Allison Brophy Champion

Published: August 19, 2008

Culpeper Town Council meets again in closed session this afternoon for private updates on three issues monumental to the town’s future: the proposals for one government, a water and sewer service authority and a bigger town.

The town and county agreed to the latter two, in theory, at an open meeting in late July.

But public details since have emerged in a trickle; same for consolidation.

Town resident Jeff Bigelow told Town Council at its regular meeting last week that he felt like he was in the dark.

“There’s such apathy in this community with voters,” he said during the public comment session.

“There seems to be a communication breakdown,” Bigelow added of the lack of public details about the town plan’s to join with the county to form an independent utility authority and grow its borders.

“I don’t know what the pros and cons are,” Bigelow said.

As for consolidation — businessman Joe Daniel’s proposal to combine the town and county into a bigger county form of government — movement on that seems to have stalled.

One big barter
In the past few weeks, town and county staffs and attorneys have met and conferred on the development and legitimization of a “memorandum of understanding,” approved July 29, which would allow the town to grow by nearly 1,900 acres, mostly in the new commercial area along Bus. 29.

As part of that, the town would relinquish sole control of its water and sewer systems to an independent Culpeper Service Authority, a seven-member board that would own, operate and set rates for town and county water and sewer customers.

The county, facing deadlines from the state limiting its ability to treat wastewater on its own, wants to seal the deal with the town by early next month.

But a growing number of town officials, including the mayor, remain doubtful about what the town stands to gain and lose in the utility-land swap.

In fact, according to Acting Town Manager Tom Huggard, the town would operate at a deficit for a few years after absorbing the new areas around Target — including some 350 additional homes, according to county projections.

That’s because the town estimates its cost to serve the new areas — with trash pickup, road maintenance, police service, utility billing, etc. — at between $1.2 million and $1.35 million annually over the next five years, Huggard said in an e-mail earlier this month.

“In addition, we also expect start-up costs of approximately $500,000 during the first year, especially in the public works and police areas.”

On the other side, the proposed new town areas would generate between $800,000 and $900,000 annually in new town tax revenue, Huggard said.

He said the estimates are based on the “boundary map as currently drafted, not necessarily as it will be finally approved” by Town Council and the Board of Supervisors.

Behind the scenes, however, there appears to be some debate among the attorneys as to what map was in fact approved and if the town needs to expand further in other areas to make up for the expected deficit.

“Revenue balancing” between the town and county in that regard will be part of the discussion. Another consideration is the estimated value of more than $100 million for the town’s water and sewer systems, a rough figure provided by Huggard.

The county seems interested in a fair exchange.

“This is not an agreement which should be viewed as a deal in which one government may benefit and the other government may lose,” wrote Bill Chase, chairman of the Culpeper County Board of Supervisors in an Aug. 8 letter to Mayor Pranas Rimeikis.

“It is an agreement which will benefit all citizens of the town and county,” he said.

One government snag?
It’s been more than a month since Town Council last met in closed session for an update on a draft plan for one government.

Since then, there’s been no public update.

The town’s “consolidation manager” Dan Boring, former police chief, could shed no light earlier this month on the status of the process. Town Council reviewed the first draft in early July, he wrote in an e-mail Aug. 4, and then it went to the town attorney for further review.

There were also “some additional legal and strategy questions to be resolved” before the draft was to be handed over to the county for its review, Boring said.

“It may be that the current discussions regarding the Water Authority/Boundary Line Adjustment memorandum of understanding have been given higher priority and the consolidation plan temporarily set aside pending the outcome of those negotiations,” he said.

Or, sources say, the consolidation process could have been initiated improperly, sparking a redo of the one-year timeline for development of a plan.

Town Council, at its meeting tonight, could also name a new town manager; the position has been vacant since December.

Allison Brophy Champion can be reached at 825-0771 ext. 101 or .