Falmouth Roads Hot Topic at Cole Town Hall

By Marty van Duyne
For PotomacLocal.com

Falmouth, Va. ––  A small crowd turned out at England Run Library for Del. Mark Cole’s third Town Hall Meeting.

The 88th District Delegate scheduled four meetings to discuss the newly established district lines.

Cole has served in the House since 2002 representing parts of Fauquier, Spotsylvania, and Stafford Counties.

Though Cole will still serve part of each of the three counties, all the boundaries have changed.

“I lost most of north Stafford and some of Fauquier,” said Cole. “But my district now also includes the City of Fredericksburg and more of Spotsylvania.”

The Delegate said some of the southern areas of the state have lost population, but Northern Virginia and the surrounding county suburbs have grown.

“All of our districts are based on a population base of 80K with a 1 percent variation,” said Cole.

The northern portion of Stafford County along with a portion of southern Prince William County has become the newly formed 2nd District.

New electoral district boundaries are drawn based on federal census data that is compiled every ten years. Boundaries delineated by population impact local, state, and federal districts.

Cole is conducting the town halls as a means to meet constituents within the newly delineated boundaries and to discuss recently passed legislation including transportation initiatives.

Nancy Buck lives in the city and took the opportunity to meet her new delegate last night.

“I live in Fredericksburg,” said Buck. “This will be a new district for me.”

It was an easy commute for the England Run Library Branch Manager who only had to walk down the hall at the end of her workday.

But transportation and the state agency that manages it, the Virginia Department of Transportation, was high on the list of concerns for attendees. The first question posed from an audience member was about the status of the Falmouth intersection at Cambridge Street (U.S. 1) and Warrenton Road (U.S. 17).

Cole said there has been a design determination. Previously planned flyovers have been eliminated and a more fiscally responsible lane-widening plan adopted.

The delegate said cost of acquiring property for the original plan would have been extremely expensive.

By just widening the road and adding turning lanes, the project will not require massive property acquisitions. And therefore will not be as cost prohibitive as the fly-over design.

Cole lauded the efforts of the new Fredericksburg area VDOT manager Quinton Elliott and Stafford’s Rock Hill District Supervisor and member of the Commonwealth Transportation Board Cord Sterling.

Cole said the Commonwealth also now requires audits of government agencies and the VDOT audit has already had positive impacts.

“Gov. (Robert F.) McDonnell ordered an audit of VDOT that found $1.5B in road funds,” said Cole.

The delegate explained that VDOT had been putting funds into various project accounts. But most projects never came to fruition because they were not fully funded.

The funds have been reallocated to projects that are now underway.

Cole said the recent downturn in the economy has resulted in construction work being bid at lower rates.

To take advantage of the lower costs and to help keep Virginians working, Mc Donnell has increased the annual bond limits so projects can proceed.

“We tweaked the funding to stay under debt ceiling guidelines,” said Cole.

“Virginia law requires the state to have a balanced budget,” said Cole. “We do not use bonds to pay for operational expenses.”
Though the bonds were increased they have been maintained at 5 percent of the budget and that standard has resulted in Virginia maintaining their AAA bond rating.

According to Cole, McDonnell and his staff met with bond rating agencies in New York to discuss increasing the limits from $300M to $600M per year.

Virginia has held a AAA bond rating for more than 70 years. And Cole said as a result of the meeting, the raters said the current status would not drop and “Virginia will be used as the standard by which other states will be rated,”  Cole added.

Other audits resulted in impacts such as changes to the Virginia Retirement System (VRS) that currently operates as a defined benefit plan.

Cole said employees are now required to donate 5 percent of their salary to the fund. But current employees received a raise to offset the change to the system.

However, he said the state is looking at ways to revamp the system for future employees including 401K plans.

Cole said the government has also allocated funds for the STEM program to bolster education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

Antoinette Franke of Stafford addressed concerns about the environment, especially plans for a Dominion coal powered energy plant.

Her comments prompted a discussion of current clean energy efforts underway.

Cole said the state has ongoing efforts and investigations for wind farms, offshore drilling of natural gas, and nuclear power plants.

Voters new to the 88th District will have another opportunity to meet their delegate. Cole will host his fourth Town Hall on Wed., June 22 at 7 p.m. at Salem Church Library in Spotsylvania.