Stafford County will partner with the U.S. Geological Survey to map hydrological features in the area.
The Stafford County Board of Supervisors approved a joint funding agreement with the USGS, allowing the county to join the Northern Virginia Five County Broad Agency Announcement LiDAR Project.
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The Fredericksburg City Council approved a study to help evaluate new projects developed by the city's Planning Commission.
A Capital Impacts Study developed by TischlerBise, a fiscal, economic, and planning consulting firm based in Bethesda, Md., will provide a basis to evaluate cash proffers and conditions for schools and emergency services.
According to the Realtors Association of Richmond website, cash proffers are voluntary home fees on home construction paid by the building firm in the development process and only apply to developments requiring rezoning.
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The Fredericksburg City Council has approved a budget amendment to fund bonuses to retain teachers in public schools.
The amendment to the city’s Fiscal Year 2022 budget approves reimbursements received by the Fredericksburg City Public School system, which will come from Medicaid, state taxes, and the Virginia Department of Education.
Each eligible permanent employee received a bonus from a collective pot of $700,000, and those who work a five-day-a-week schedule will receive $1,000. Those who work on a schedule of fewer than five days a week will receive $500.
The retention bonuses were distributed in June to all permanent employees of the Fredericksburg City Public School system who signed contracts to work for the 2022-2023 school year. Information provided by city staff defines a permanent employee as one who works either a regular five-day schedule or less than five days a week and receives a semi-monthly paycheck.
The city’s report on the item shows that only $550,000 in retention bonuses have been awarded due to resignations at the end of the 2021-2022 school year.
The funding came from three sources: $266,000 from Medicaid reimbursements for school health services, $160,000 from reimbursements from the Virginia Department of Education’s Students with Intensive Needs program, and $274,000 from additional state sales taxes.
The request for this amendment came from the city’s school system after its school board amended its budget to allow for the bonuses at its June 6 meeting.
Fredericksburg incurred no costs by approving this budget amendment.
The Fredericksburg City Council has amended the criminal blight rules to align with state legislation.
The previous city codes related to criminal blight were first adopted in 2012 and were known as “drug blight” provisions. Those provisions were used to designate a building or structure blighted due to unlawful activity such as sales or the use of drugs on an individual property.
Since then, the General Assembly has made many amendments to the criminal blight rule, numbered 15.2-907 in the state code.
The ordinances were designed as a tool to protect public health, safety, and welfare in the circumstances that they addressed and apply to all properties in the Fredericksburg area. However, according to the city’s Public Information Officer, Sonja Cantu, this ordinance has never actually been used in the over 10 years it has been in place.
The revised ordinance has also been expanded to include using the property in the use of commercial sex acts and the use of a firearm in the course of a criminal action.
According to the ordinance, property owners have 30 days to take action to prevent the property from being designated a criminal blight. If Fredericksburg were to take such action, it would also include the expenses of that action to be charged to the property owner. Property owners could also ask for an additional 30 days to deal with the issues.
The amended ordinance was read at the Fredericksburg City Council meeting on August 9.
The Biden Administration has announced a three-part plan to help certain federal student loan borrowers transition back to regular payments as pandemic-era freezes end.
The plan would apply to working and middle-class loan borrowers and could cover up to $20,000. Borrowers had their repayments frozen during the Coronavirus pandemic, and deadlines for the freeze had been moved several times during the pandemic under both the Biden and Donald Trump Administrations.
Biden, Vice-President Kamala Harris, and the U.S. Department of Education have released an outline of the three-part debt relief plan:
- A final extension on the student loan repayment freeze will extend to December 31, 2022. Payments will resume beginning January 2023
- The U.S. Department of Education will provide up to $20,000 in debt cancellation for Pell Grant recipients and up to $10,000 for non-Pell Grant recipients. Borrowers eligible for this relief must have individual income less than $125,000 or $250,000 for households. Borrowers who are employed by nonprofits, the military, or federal/state/tribal/local governments may be able to have all student loans forgiven in a limited window through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. That window will expire on October 31, 2022.
- A rule proposed by the administration would create a new income-driven repayment plan to reduce future monthly payments for lower and middle-income borrowers. Aspects of this plan would include forgiving loan balances after 10 years, covering borrower's unpaid monthly interest, lowering the payments from 10% to 5% of monthly discretionary income on undergraduate loans, and raising the income amount that is considered non-discretionary which would protect it from repayment.
Interested parties must sign-up for the department's newsletter when the process has begun and have until December 31 to apply.
While student loan forgiveness has been an issue of natural interest for some time, colleges and universities countrywide have sat on endowments worth millions of dollars or more.
The following is a list of colleges and universities and the current amount of their endowments as recorded on DataUSA:
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The Stafford Regional Airport held an event to announce the launch of its Aerodrome No.5 project, which will tell the story of the county’s connection to early American aviation.
Professor Samuel Pierpont Langley is noted for successfully conducting the first heavier-than-air flight on May 6, 1896, with the designated Aerodrome No. 5. Langley chose Chopawamsic Island, a small land mass in the Potomac River between Quantico and Stafford County, as his launching point.
The 14-foot structure was launched from a houseboat off of the island’s coast and flew approximately 3,300 feet for 90 seconds before having a gentle landing on the river. The Aerodrome No.5 flight is the first instance of mechanical flight in the U.S., event organizers said.
Until now historians have credited The Wright Brothers are credited for being the first to fully when they flew a heavier-than-air contraption at Kitty Hawk, N.C., on December 17, 1903. The state coined the phrase “first in flight” and printed it on its vehicle license plates.
Langley beat his record on November 26, 1896, when Aerodrome No.6 was launched from the same location and flew 4,200 feet at an average speed of 30 miles per hour.
“Stafford’s history is so rich and deep, we want to get it out there and talk about it,” said Scott Mayausky, treasurer of the Langley Flight Foundation. “What Langley achieved changed the course of world history, he was an instrumental part of that, and it happened right here in Stafford County. We want to recognize that, acknowledge that, and be proud that it happened here in Stafford County.”
In addition to his position with the foundation, Mayausky is also the president of the Stafford Museum and Cultural Museum and the county’s Commissioner of Revenue.
The Foundation and the Stafford Regional Airport have formed a partnership to have a to-scale model of Aerodrome No.5 built to display it in the airport’s terminal. The 14 by 14 model intends to use it for educational purposes for students interested in STEM fields such as engineering, aviation, and mathematics.
Other possibilities of use for the Aerodrome No.5 exhibit include spurring more economic development and tourism, which could attract aviation enthusiasts and airplane and drone development.
“This is an incredible opportunity to not only educate people not only about a little-known aspect of Stafford’s history but to give people a sense of the whole concept of what happened here and how we can move forward in the future,” said Hank Scharpenberg, a member of the Stafford Regional Airport Authority.
The event was-co sponsored by the Langley Flight Foundation, a 501c3 corporation, seeking funding of $350,000 for constructing a replica of Aerodrome No.5. The Wright Experience in Warrenton would build the model, to be housed at the Stafford Regional Airport.
The original Aerodrome No.5 sits at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.
The Langley Foundation has set up a GoFundMe page as one method of raising funds for the exhibit. Donations for the project can also be made on the foundation’s webpage at langfound.org.
Stafford County has agreed to sell nutrient credits to Fredericksburg in a deal that will gain the county $5,000 to $6,000 a year, over the next five years.
The agreement between the two localities will allow Fredericksburg to purchase 1,000 pounds of nitrogen credits and 200 pounds of phosphorus credits each year for the next five years. Stafford County is expected to receive the total revenue from these annual payments is estimated to be $25,000.
Fredericksburg would also reimburse Stafford County for the legal fees incurred for preparing the agreement.
The credits would allow Fredericksburg to meet short-term obligations with its water permits and offset nitrogen and phosphorus reductions under the city’s Municipal Separate Stormwater Sewer Permit.
According to information provided by Stafford County, Fredericksburg is not expected to meet its reduction requirements through 2028 due to changes in Virginia regulations and would be in violation of those regulations without purchasing the credits necessary to make up the difference.
The credits will be transferred from the Little Falls Run Wastewater Treatment Plant to Fredericksburg. The plant is owned by Stafford County and is located at 952 Kings Highway in Falmouth.
Stafford County is allowed to sell unused nutrient portions through the Nutrient Credit Exchange to other members of the Rappahannock watershed under the Rappahannock River Water Quality Agreement for the Chesapeake Bay.
The plant is located along the banks of the Little Falls Run tributary, which runs into the Rappahannock River and into the Chesapeake Bay.
According to its website, the Virginia Nutrient Credit Exchange was established in 2005 to help coordinate and facilitate such exchanges among its members to help improve water quality efficiently and cost-effectively. Currently, the exchange includes 73 owners of 105 treatment facilities that clean wastewater in the Chesapeake Bay watershed to reduce nitrogen and phosphorus.
Potomac Local News first reported on the pending agreement back in July 2022 when it was brought up during a meeting of the Stafford County Infrastructure Committee. Members of the committee were informed that the deal would not affect the county’s own permit obligations since the Little Falls Run plant has consistently produced excess nutrient credits.
Updated 6:15 p.m. -- The Stafford County Public School Board plans to hold its second town hall meeting where it plans to talk about how students use Chromebooks at home.
The School Board decided back in March 2022 to reduce its monthly meetings to once a month to hold town hall meetings to engage with more parents of Stafford County students.
The next town hall meeting, which is scheduled to be held on September 28, plans to address issues related to the use of Chromebooks by students. The school division widely adopted the devices when students and teachers were forced to quarantine themselves due to the Coronavirus pandemic in March 2020.
Stafford County Public Schools followed the lead of other school systems across the country and used the Chromebooks for virtual learning. However, as students have been let back into classes, the devices continued to be used by students to the chagrin of some parents.
Several parents have complained to the school system regarding using the devices at home. Moms 4 Liberty, a conservative advocacy group, sent a letter to the school board outlining their concerns with using Chromebooks, ranging from allowing students to use social media at home to health and wellness concerns, including potential effects on children's minds and potential online bullying.
Virtual learning has also been attributed to learning loss, affecting many students due to not receiving one-on-one instruction from their teachers.
The school division blocked students' access to TikTok, a popular social media website linked to China. It also encouraged students to police their internet activity while at school and at home.
At the School Board inaugural town hall meeting on June 28, Hartwood District Board member Alyssa Halstead told Potomac Local News that the issue of Chromebooks would be one of the issues that would be addressed at an upcoming meeting. The board's second town hall meeting had been originally scheduled for late July but was canceled and moved to August 23.
Today's town hall meeting was also canceled and replaced with a special meeting of the School Board, to take place at headquarters, 31 Stafford Avenue.
Stafford County Sheriff David Decatur will discuss school security with the School Board. The meeting will take place behind closed doors. The School Board will also discuss a contract for custodial services behind closed doors today to protect the division's bargaining position and negotiating strategy, according to a meeting agenda posted on the school division's website.
At the town hall meeting in June, parents and teachers in attendance complained that students have taken what they viewed as a more disrespectful tone since returning to the classroom after the pandemic.
Those individuals also made their concerns known of feelings of powerlessness due to an inability to discipline such students without themselves getting into trouble with administrators.
According to information provided by Sandra Osborn, the school system's spokeswoman, the total number of student discipline incidents in 2019 was 9,950. Out of that total, 1760 incidents resulted in the long or short-term suspension of the student or expulsion from the school system. Another 336 incidents were referred to law enforcement as a result.
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Scharpenberg’s removal came following a closed-session meeting on Tuesday, August 16, and comes after he pitched a proposal of an outer connector road bypassing Fredericksburg that would cut through a swath of the county.
Aquia District Supervisor Monica Gary threatened to remove Sharpenberg if he pursued the bypass proposal, which is not included in long-range transportation plans. Scharfenberg refused to step down, causing friction between him and the Stafford County Board of Supervisors.
During a CTAC meeting last week, Scharpenberg presented a revised proposal for a bypass road around Fredericksburg that would create a path between Stafford and Spotsylvania counties. An I-95 bypass has been talked about for more than 30 years.
Despite its issues with Scharpenberg, the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday decided to send a letter allowing the Fredericksburg Metropolitan Planning Organization, CTAC’s parent, to consider options for an outer connector road.
“We would be negligent if we didn’t look into and study this matter,” said Falmouth District Supervisor Meg Bohmke. “Transportation is near and dear to everyone in the district. This project might end up getting scrapped, but it should be looked into.”
Griffis-Widewater District Supervisor Tinesha Allen and George Washington District Supervisor were skeptical of the matter and requested more information before signing the letter.
Both cited potential issues with past outer connector proposals designed near residential neighborhoods causing concern for potential noise pollution. The current outer-connector proposal seeks to stay away from densely populated neighborhoods.
The board voted to draft a letter to give FAMPO authority to look into the matter. It is expected to be considered during the next board of supervisors meeting on September 6.
Proposals for the outer connector project have been going on and off for the previous 30 years with fluctuating interest and support from local legislators. The current iteration would see an eastern portion of the connector start at Centreport Parkway at the Stafford Regional Airport and end on Route 3 in Spotsylvania County.
Multiple options for a western connector have been considered, one of which would cross through Culpeper and Orange counties. Neither Culpeper nor Orange are members of FAMPO, so any project involving those counties would have to go through negotiations that could take years.
CTAC is a think tank committee within the Fredericksburg Area Metropolitan Planning Organization that offers suggestions for transportation solutions to the member localities, including Stafford County.
Scharpenberg addressed his potential removal during a CTAC meeting on August 10, saying that he was given a chance to step down as chairman by Stafford County supervisors and was told that if he ran for the position, he would be removed.
“The only way that someone can be removed from their position in Stafford County prior to the end of their term is for cause,” explained Scharpenberg during the CTAC meeting. “For cause implies wrong-doing, improper behavior, and in my opinion, to accuse someone of that defamatory at the bare minimum.”
Potomac Local News acquired text messages and email showing that Stafford Supervisors felt that Scharpenberg was “going rogue” for pushing the outer connector discussion and a series of roads which was not in line with Stafford County’s long-range plans.
The next meeting for CTAC is scheduled to be held on Wednesday, September 14 at 6 p.m. at 406 Princess Anne Street in Fredericksburg.
