Author: Rick Horner

The Rappahannock Area Office on Youth will receive funding from Stafford County in order to fund substance abuse treatment programs.

The Stafford County Board of Supervisors has voted to hikes taxes on hotel stays and  and rates for sewer and water.

The county’s Transient Occupancy Tax, a tax on hotel stays, will increase from five to seven percent on July 1. The increase is expected to provide an additional $766,250 in revenue for the county.

Senator Mark Warner (D-Va.) visited Fredericksburg as part of a week-long tour of Virginia to talk about a recently passed infrastructure bill. The Commonwealth will receive funds for transit projects.

Warner walked the recently rehabilitated Chatham Bridge to promote a bi-partisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act package, which contains $537 million to repair and replace bridges in Virginia over five years. Virginia will receive $232 million for projects to improve transit from the act’s total $1.2 trillion in funds.

Stafford County will use money proffered for elementary schools to pay for new turf fields at Colonial Forge and North Stafford high schools.

The county's Board of Supervisors voted 6-1 to use $3 million to pay for the new fields. Colonial Forge and North Stafford are the only two of five county high schools that don't have turf fields. The Stafford County School Board of Supervisors has approved a contract with FieldTurf USA, an American-Canadian company specializing in such fields, to install the fields.

The county School Board, typically responsible for funding its operations, has been wrangling a funding source to pay for the field improvements.

The Board of Supervisors was presented with two options for funding. The method chosen was to use funds from proffers that have been written into Capital Improvement Plans for a future elementary school, the county's 18th primary school. The proffer funds that would go to Whitson Woods and Winding Creek Elementary Schools would be used to fund the turf field at North Stafford.

Winding Woods would provide $411,290, while Winding Creek would provide about $1 million.

The funds for the turf field at Colonial Forge would also come from proffers meant for two other elementary schools, Liberty Knolls West and Westgate. Liberty Knolls would provide $939,827 in funds, while Westgate would provide $506,060 for a combined $1.4 million to pay for the new field.

Carol Leicher and Margaret Lowery have spearheaded the campaign for the turf fields. For months, the pair have based their advocacy on safety issues with the grass fields, parity problems with the high schools that have turf fields, and turf fields have become the standard in high school sports.

"I talked to coaches at other schools, " said George Washington District Supervisor Tom Coen. "What they've told me is that the difference is the speed of the game. On the turf the speed is faster and if they're not training on turf then they're at a disadvantage."

Griffis-Widewater District Supervisor Tinesha Allen expressed disappointment that action for the turf fields were being accelerated over other concerns, such as the issues with the fine arts building at North Stafford, which stands separate from the main building. Allen was the sole dissenting vote.

"I'm not against the fields," said Allen. "I just think there are other pressing matters with the schools that need to be dealt with. I hope that the Fine Arts building at North Stafford can be solved sooner than later."

The board hopes to complete the fields before the beginning of the 2022-23 school year in August.