Save the Lake Arrowhead dams issue goes before Stafford Board on Tuesday

STAFFORD, Va. — Two dams in Stafford County’s Lake Arrowhead neighborhood neglected since 2003 are failing, and Big and Little Arrowhead lakes could be drained leaving a muddy pit if residents choose to do nothing. 

Lake Arrowhead residents at a public meeting last fall were split on whether or not to repair the dams or let them fail. Longtime residents said the dams could go and argued they 30 years ago were excluded from participating in activities hosted by the neighborhood’s HOA that dissolved in 2003.

If the dams go, so to do the streets that run atop of the dams that connect the neighborhood. 

The cost to repair the dams is estimated to be $700,000. Without an HOA, the Stafford County Government offered to loan $542,000 to residents to fix the dams. The funds would be distributed to a newly created service district, the creation of which the Stafford County Board of Supervisors will vote on at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2017, at the Stafford County Government Center. 

From Stafford Rock Hill District Supervisor Wendy Maurer:

The Lake Arrowhead Service District will be coming before the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, February 7, at 7:00pm.  It will be critical to have as many supporters there to speak in favor of the Service District. I know that the few angry neighbors will be there to speak against the effort in order to get my colleagues to vote no.  I am asking you to attend and speak and bring as many supporters as you can.  Everyone will have three minutes to speak during the public hearing.  This is the last, and most critical, step in the process to get the dams repaired and save the lakes.

The $158,000 difference in the repair cost estimate will be funded through funds found in county coffers by Maurer that once belonged to the now-defunct Lake Arrowhead HOA. 

From Stafford County documents: 

If both dams are brought into compliance with State standards, then there will be an annual maintenance and dam monitoring cost estimated at approximately $30,000 to insure continued compliance with State standards. Staff also recommends a maintenance reserve of approximately $55,600 to provide funding for more expensive and/or emergency concerns if/when they occur.

County staff developed a funding plan (Plan) for these improvements wherein the Community would be included in a Lake Arrowhead Service District (LASD), with an ad valorem assessment included with their property tax bills. It is proposed in the future that the tax rate would be calculated based on the estimated cost of modifications, plus the establishment of a maintenance reserve, and the annual maintenance fund.

Assuming a 10-year payoff for the modifications, the initial rate is estimated at 9¾¢, dropping to approximately 3¼¢ after the renovations are paid off in 10 years. The proposed action under current consideration would only establish the LASD, it would not set the tax rate.

A sign posted near the entrance of Lake Arrowhead stated Maurer does not have the support she needs among the Board of Supervisors to save the dams, and that Stafford Supervisors are “crooks.”