Politics & Government

Residents Ask For More Sidewalk Funding,Closer Look at Water And Sewer At Town Budget Hearing

Proposed FY 2011-12 budget will be adopted June 20

Vienna's proposed $29.8 million FY 2011-12 budget features lower water rates, higher sewer rates and a slight decrease in property taxes, Acting Town Manger Phil Grant told Town Council members and residents at a public budget hearing Monday night.

The budget is a 2.36 percent increase over the current fiscal year's budget, Grant said. Grant said higher property values, which increased by 5.69 percent during the 2010 calendar year; the rate of new construction; sales and meals tax collections; and other trends in the proposed budget show that the town is coming out of its "recessionary period."

And, the proposed budget is $62,000 less than it was four years ago in FY 2008-09, Grant said.

Find out what's happening in Viennawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"We've weathered the economic  downturn of past two years very well as compared with surrounding localities," Grant said. "We haven’t had to resort to layoffs and have been able to maintain service levels."

It was Grant's last meeting as acting town manager. , and will oversee the rest of the budget process, including the June 20 budget adoption.

Find out what's happening in Viennawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The proposed tax rate is 24.35 per $100 of assessed value, an increase of one-half of one cents over the no rate increase of $23.82, but one-tenth of a cent lower than the current tax rate, Grant said.

That rate, combined with a 15 percent cut in water rates and a 50 percent increase in sewer rates, will mean an increase of $70.19 on the average taxpayer's bill per year, though most residents will pay more or less than that, Grant said.

Town staff were able to separate water and sewer rates in this year's proposed budget for the first time, making it easier to track consumption and spending, Grant said.

"It made the budget structure more accurately reflect" the systems, Grant said.

The water and sewer fund budget as a whole totals $6.48 million, less than one percent increase over the current year total.

Whether or not the Town still needs to be in the water businessResident George Creed told the council he was glad to see water rates slightly decrease, but was troubled by the hike in sewer rates.

"I understand we’re no longer the highest water rate folks in the area, but we’re not far from it," Creed said. "I think we need to keep working on it."

A separate public hearing on the water, sewer and property tax rates is scheduled for June 6.

Fund Budget
FY 10-11 Adjusted Budget
FY 10-11 Proposed
FY 11-12 Net Change General 20,769,965 21,085,085 21,322,648 552,683 Debt Service 1,978,945 1,978,945 2,081,909 102,964 Water and Sewer 6,452,770 6,379,653 6,486,947 24,177 Total 29,201,680 29,443,683 29,891,504 689,824

 

Other highlights of the budget include:

  • The return of full-step anniversary date increases for salaried employees, after two years of frozen salaries, Grant said
  • a 28 percent reduction in use of the previous years' reserve
  • Increased funding for snow removal and concrete repairs
  •  A transfer of $101,700 from the town share of the telecommunications tax to the capital projects fund for sidewalk construction

But the budget did not feature sidewalks as a funded priority, something resident Sean McCall  s and other council members to include in this year's budget.

McCall , who spoke Monday night on behalf of , said at the current funding rate -- even assuming 100 percent grant matching by the Virginia Department of Transportation -- it would take 66 more years to complete a sidewalk on one side of every street in Vienna.

That would be nearly 90 years since the town's first pedestrian task force began to develop plans for a network of sidewalks in 1990. 

"This is why we’re asking that Council tries to get a handle on how large this problem is," McCall said.

The initial task force created a sidewalk project list designed to form a "pedestrian network" throughout Vienna. It  was updated again in 1998 and 2006-2008.

The spending on sidewalks in that time has been "erratic to say the least," McCall said. Based on numbers he compiled from town documents, he said spending ranged from $280,000 a year to "close to zero."

"We’re in a position today where  there are still 36 sidewalk segments within 3,600 feet of Vienna Elementary School that have not been built, and that’s just around [Vienna Elementary School]. Of those, 17 are in areas where we have students walking to school. This is the heart of town," McCall said.

McCall also cited the National Association of Realtors Community Preference Survey, in which 77 percent of people polled"consider sidewalks and places to take walks  as one of the important characteristics of a neighborhood when deciding where to live."

He asked the council, public works and the planning and zoning department to research ways the town can move the initiative forward more quickly -- in time for next year's budget cycle, since it did not act in time for this year's proposed budget.

"A lot of you are going to be re-visiting the Maple Avenue vision, and I hope that vision includes that people have a way to get to those nice broad sidewalks and shopping," he said.

A copy of the proposed budget summary can be found on the  agenda of Monday night's meeting on the town's website.

Correction: The area of sidewalk segments around VES is 3,600 feet.


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