Greetings Colonial Beach Residents – Since Wednesday’s meeting was all of 8 minutes due to a power outage, I will use this blog to give some general updates.
WWTP Tour – The new plant operator gave me a tour of the Waste Water Treatment plant Friday and we were accompanied by the town manager. I’m happy to report we appear to be in good hands. This was my second tour and I will say I was much more impressed the 2nd time around. I’m not sure if the average citizen realizes how massive the WWTP is. There are 8 large open tanks, a large room with a sand filtration system, walkways, numerous stages of treatment, massive generators and pumps all working in conjunction to ensure the raw sewage is clean enough to be released back into our waterways. As we were shown around the plant, we were told what each step entailed, where improvements were made e.g. solids are being hauled 5 days a week vs 2-3 days, pumps that were not previously being used were brought back on line. At the end I asked to see the new SCADA system and was shown the computer where all processes are monitored; numerous graphics showing tanks, pumps and other systems were showing on the screen. We were shown where a 500 gallon spill occurred the night before and it appears the spill was well controlled (all but 50 gallons recovered and nothing released into the water). I learned that the SCADA is used to monitor the plant only and there is another system that monitors pump stations and systems throughout town. The plant operator did acknowledge that we have upgrades and repairs to make but those are not uncommon for WWTPs. Not everyone realizes that Imboden’s primary function is to operate the plant so they are working closely with Public Works to ensure all systems are functioning and repairs are coordinated. I’m a firm believer in hiring the right people to do a job is critical to success and while I’m not a fan of the rushed decision to turn plant operations over to a private company it appears to be working well.
Budget and Taxes - In my opinion it’s not going to be a good year for Colonial Beach residents and guests with even more tax increases coming. A couple years ago the real estate tax was increased, last year a trash tax was added to the water/ sewer bill and the personal property taxes increased due to vehicle values. This year’s proposal is to increase meals, lodging and cottage tax by 2% or more and increase the water/ sewer bill by $17 a quarter. While I sympathize with the position the town government and council are in, I do not believe sound fiscal practices have been implemented over the last few years. I’m repeatedly told costs are going up which is true but it’s also true that spending is outpacing revenues by over 7%. You may ask what do I think the problem is and I’d say there are many issues. #1 it’s easy to spend other people’s money. Examples of waste in my opinion: $550k for a rundown motel, $20k for a food truck court on Town Hill where most vendors never wanted to be, $40k for gateway signage, $225k for a North Park when $125k may have done the job, $90k for Eleanor Park because a special interest group bought a dozen benches, $100k in studies that went almost nowhere, creating several new town positions while some employees were making under $13 an hour and spending hundreds of thousands on legal fees and contract services. I hope to finish my review of the budget this weekend and provide suggestions for cuts that will get ignored like my suggestion to remove the new $2k town donation to radio station. Wednesday Council set the public hearings for the proposed budget May 15th to raise the rates, if people don’t come speak, rates will surely go up. I will admit town government has gotten themselves into a bit of a pickle with School costs going up $576k, the WWTP operations going up $350k, town wide raises, hiring even more employees and wasteful spending.
Planning Commission – As their liaison I have enjoyed attending their meetings and look forward to seeing what they will be working on next. I encourage people to attend their meetings (2nd Thursday of each month 5:30p) and provide feedback. The CIP Capital Improvement Plan budget is one of the big items they are currently working on so feel free to provide your opinion on what town priorities should be. If for example you don’t think the town should spend millions on a new town center you could speak on that or if you think sidewalks are severely neglected you could speak on that. One of their priorities this year will be reviewing zoning and possibly making suggestions for inclusionary housing. More to come here but please get involved, the mayor once said the PC is the bridge between the people and their government.
Local Politics – We need good candidates to run for Mayor and Town Council this year (4 total seats open: Schick, Self-Sullivan, Roberson and Brown). The deadline to get signatures is around mid-June so please consider joining me on Council because I need more common-sense, fiscally conservative folks to join me 😊. I honestly don’t care what party someone is from as long as they are “Honest”, thrifty with the taxpayer’s money and will put the citizens interest above their own. I say this often and believe it to be true, “bad things happen when good people do nothing”. The election is in November and currently Town Council is controlled by a solid majority. In my 4 years of attending nearly every council meeting and running 2 successful campaigns I have learned that local politics is complicated and that a small group has it figured out. Each election season one person is hand-picked to be their candidate; this group has a lady they use as their campaign manager (she used to be a politician in MD) and they activate all their people. Signs go up in one day, groups of people knock on doors for this person who is virtually unknown to the citizens and next thing you know they are a WINNER!! Their other candidates are promoted but it’s more low-key for them. If you’re lucky enough to get hand-picked to be on Council prior to an election, even better. Unfortunately, they can be a little dirty in their politics and have been known to recruit citizens to maliciously attack candidates (yes, I experienced this in 2022). This is all based on my observation over the last few years.
Current projects on my radar are: Safety issues (Crosswalks and safer parking in Castlewood and by the schools), Business Parking (advocating for businesses to help them compete with the all-day beach parkers), Fiscal responsibility (pushing the town to keep from taxing citizens so severely they leave town), Public parking (advocating for the town to keep the Wilder Beach Parking Lot). Following up on the North Beach erosion project and sidewalk repairs. Transparency (posting blogs after every meeting and putting out as much information as I can to the public).
Please email or call with questions or comments:
540-604-4335
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