The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday is scheduled to adopt the county’s 2011 budget. The meeting begins at 10 a.m. at the county administration building.
Last week, County Administrator Frank Bossio presented an updated budget of $125.89 million, about $534,000 less than this year’s advertised budget of $126.4 million and less than last year’s adopted budget of $126.9 million.
However, at last week’s public budget hearing, the supervisors indicated that they might implement a few last-minute changes.
Those changes may include restoring a portion of $200,000 cut from the library. If no funding is restored, li-brary head Susan Keller said that will mean reduced evening and weekend hours and the end of various community and children’s programs. Specifically, the supervisors and other community members have expressed concern about the reduced evening hours.
The county is required by law to advertise the budget and tax rates. They can be lowered but not raised once published. The tax rates are essentially unchanged from last year.
Bossio told the supervisors the update was due to several recent budget-related developments. They include a reduction in Virginia Regional Transit bus expenses, funding of the Rappahannock River Basin Commission and changes to employer funding for health insurance.
To balance the 2011 budget, the county has also reduced the Building Department to three full-time and four part-time employees (down from 14), eliminated the Risk Management Department and moved full-time em-ployees throughout the county to part-time.
Following the adoption of the budget, the supervisors are scheduled to discuss the latest details regarding the ongoing water and sewer talks with the town starting at 11 a.m.
At an April 19 meeting, the county tried again but did not succeed in getting town leaders to agree to join a regional utility authority.
Instead, it appears the two governments will work towards a service agreement. Under that arrangement, the town, which holds most the area’s water and sewer infrastructure, would sell its service to entities around the town borders at a slightly higher rate than in-town customers.
Another joint meeting on the utility issue is set for May 6 at 4:30 p.m.
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