One big item dropped as CIP heads to NK supervisors

Although some members expressed dismay over removal of one big ticket item, New Kent’s Planning Commission voted Monday to forward a $12 million Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) for the next fiscal year to the county’s Board of Supervisors with recommendation for approval.

Commission members took the action by a 9-0-1 vote following a public hearing at which no one spoke during the group’s regular monthly meeting.

The proposed plan now heads to supervisors for consideration during the upcoming budget-building process for next year. Supervisors have final say on which projects, if any, become part of the 2014-15 (FY15) budget.

Last month, Hathaway unveiled his CIP recommendations totaling almost $17 million, but Monday night a revision eliminating a $5.9 million project to upgrade the county’s public safety radio system was handed to commission members just before the meeting’s start.

Before the meeting convened, Hathaway said the county has received a $1.6 million grant for the project, but having to borrow the remaining $4.3 million cost has torpedoed the project for now.

“I’m sure there’ll be a lot of discussion when supervisors meet to consider the budget,” he said. “This an important project, but we need to find a way to fund it.”

Some of the commission members, and in particular group chairman Jack Chalmers, agreed.

“This is a very important safety feature that the county absolutely has to have,” he said just before the commission took its vote.

Areas exist within the county where radio contact for sheriff’s personnel and emergency workers is minimal at best, he said. He added that county officials who do not take seriously the task of providing for public safety are not doing their jobs.

“Public safety of the citizens should be number one on that list,” he stressed, pointing to Hathaway’s CIP recommendations.

The matter now falls into supervisors’ laps, but Hathaway said possibility exists that the project could be reinstated.

New Kent, meanwhile, has $7 million in cash on hand set aside for capital improvement work. Of that amount, Hathaway is proposing to utilize just under $3.5 million during the next fiscal year. Cash on hand, he said, would go toward paying for several big ticket items including integrated software for the county’s financial department ($600,000), purchase of a fire engine ($600,000), replacing vehicles in all departments ($390,065), and developing a county park on Pine Fork Road ($200,000).

The county would have to borrow $5 million to help pay for another big ticket item — renovation work to convert part of the county’s Historic School complex into an elementary school.

Just over $4 million to help pay for CIP projects would come through federal and state grants while proffer allocations would account for the remainder of the $12 million total, he added.

A $989,000 allocation for buying a 100-foot tower ladder truck for the county’s fire department also appears on the list. But Hathaway said that purchase hinges on the county receiving over $900,000 in federal grant money. If the grant is not awarded, the truck will be struck from the list, he said.

Commission member Howard Gammon took issue with the request, questioning the need for the truck since no tall buildings exists in the county. Fire chief Rick Opett responded that the vehicle is needed to deal with structure setback distances from highways.

“We need the extra feet to reach laterally rather than for height,” he said.

County school officials, meanwhile, submitted a list of over $2.6 million in proposed CIP projects for next year. Hathaway has whittled the total down to a little over $1 million.

The overall plan, which covers the next five years from 2015-19, includes 77 individual requests with a five-year estimated cost of $43.6 million. Another 26 requests totaling $42 million appear in a category that falls beyond the next five years, making the combined CIP bottom line a whopping $85.6 million.