New Kent Board of Supervisors plan to opt into Spring VRA pool to address water issues

By Robb Johnson | September 9, 2025 6:24 pm

New Kent’s Board of Supervisors have elected to wait until Spring 2026 to address issues regarding water concerns within the county.

County leaders declined joining the VRA Fall pool at Monday night’s regular meeting, electing to opt for the VRA Spring pool to invest in.

Over the last month at both the August regular meeting and August work session, New Kent Public Utilities Director Mike Lang addressed county leaders about water issues plaguing the Brickshire subdivision and New Kent Highway systems. Lang spoke about the need for both projects due to the lack and dwindling water pressure, emphasizing that the Brickshire project is the top priority among the two. The public utilities director added that cost for the Brickshire elevated storage tank and waterline replacement would come with a price tag of $10.25 million, while the New Kent Highway waterline project comes in with $5.5 million to construct.

At Monday night’s meeting, County Administrator Rodney Hathaway spoke about the process and the decisions being made to address both projects.

“Speaking with our department and speaking with the director of public utilities, we would like to go ahead and put the Brickshire tank out to bid now,” Hathaway said. “The engineering is almost complete and as soon as it’s complete, we would like to put that out. That way, when we come back in the Spring to borrow, we’ll know exactly how much money we need to borrow and then we will be ready to go.”

District 3 representative Amy Pearson asked representatives of Davenport Inc., the county’s financial advisors, the negatives of waiting until Spring. Representatives responded by pointing to the monthly cash flows and that the county will be okay until May or June. They also expressed concerns about fluctuating interest rates but believe the market will go down. The group also said they feel comfortable with the county waiting until the Spring, but advised supervisors that the county is growing faster than expected and the Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) projects are expected to grow in cost by 25 percent.

District 1 leader and board of supervisors Chairman Thomas Evelyn made comments about the decision after reviewing the numbers and information he had to digest tin 10 days.

“We are not going to go broke between now and May,” he said as he referenced the decision to wait.