How $3 million of schools’ money could be used to fix a deadly road

James Hill is a section of Brooke Road that sits near Potomac Creek.

There have been nearly 60 crashes along the winding 2-lane road in Stafford County since 1996. The majority of the crashes involved personal injuries.

One of the most infamous crashes to occur here in 1995 and injured 15-year-old Molly Gill, of Aquia Harbour. Gill was paralyzed from the accident and later died after complications from surgery.

The Stafford Sheriff’s Office now honors a victim of crime that has demonstrated resilience and perseverance with an award named in Gill’s honor.

In 2004, Stafford County’s Youth Driver Taskforce identified this section of Brooke Road to be in need of improvement. Transportation officials say a portion of the road needs straightening, and the lanes widened 11 feet wide with six-feet shoulders.

The task force was the brainchild of then Stafford Board of Supervisors member turned Virginia Delegate Mark Dudenhefer, who also lost his daughter to a crash on a two-lane road in Stafford County.

Stafford leaders decided to fund the project. They purchased the needed land to widen the lanes and to relocate utilities and then moved them.

Then money dried up due to declining gas tax revenues and county leaders shelved the project. Now Aquia District Supervisor Paul Milde wants to use about $3 million of unspent carryover funds from the School Board to finish the job.

Each year, the unspent money is returned to the Board of Supervisors for reallocation. Milde said the improving the roadway would benefit all drivers, including students, and he hopes the School Board supports the move.

“Hopefully, they will understand because the need is so unique,” said Milde.

The total price tag for fixing this portion of Brooke Road is about $6 million. The state promised about $3 million in matching funds if Stafford County put up half, said Milde.

The School Board has about $17 million in carryover funds from this year and last. The Board expects to spend $6 million of it before the end of the year ending June 30 to improve the track at Stafford High School, a parking lot at Hampton Oaks Elementary School, and to give each Stafford County Public Schools Employee a $300 stipend, said Falmouth District School Board member Scott Hirons.

Hirons said he saw no problem in spending the $2.8 million to fix the road. If the county doesn’t step up soon it will lose the state’s match funding for the project, said Milde, who plans to bring up the road project to the Board of Supervisors at the June 7 meeting.

However, Hirons said he hopes the Board of Supervisors will put their money where their mouth is and fund a $2 million rebuild of Anne E. Moncure Elementary School in North Stafford. Four years ago, the Board of Supervisors said it wanted to the land on which the 44-year-old school sits, along busy Garrisonville Road.

That land is better suited for mixed use retail development, county documents stated at the time. County officials the laid out plans to purchase about 22 acres of property on nearby Juggins Road, to lease the land back to the School Board at no cost, where a new school would be built.

It’s now 2016, and Moncure Elementary School hasn’t moved.

“The Board of Supervisors asked us to dedicate the money [for the new school] to make the [Capital Improvement Plan] work,” said Hirons, who added the new Moncure Elementary School is in the design process.