Brown Casts Deciding Vote On ‘Compromise’
A financing plan to pay for a community recreation center was approved Monday on a 3-2 vote by the Rockbridge County Board of Supervisors.
Toria Brown, the Walkers Creek supervisor who broke a previous 2-2 tie in support of financing for the center, explained that an “overwhelming” number of her constituents had reached out to her in support of the project.
Still, she said, “I want to make sure we’re going into this with our eyes wide open.” Brown said she takes seriously the warnings from others about the perils of going into debt and about the need to plan to pay for future maintenance of facilities like a rec center.
“There definitely needs to be planning that is attached to this project that says we know [in] 20 years we’re going to have to replace certain things [such as an HVAC system],” she s aid, “and we … plan accordingly, … that we [make] sure we’re saving and planning for standard maintenance that we know we’re going to have.”
She described how “very difficult” it is when you have “a split decision where you have one side that wants to spend no money and the other side who says, ‘$18 [million], sure, that’s great.’” She said she considered the arguments of both sides and found that the alternative plan most recently presented – the “compromise” of borrowing $10.75 million – was the “reasonable” path forward. “I feel like it’s a middle ground.”
Other components of this alternative financing plan a majority of the supervisors favor include taking $4 million from the county’s fund balance, paying off $1.1 million in debt on land in Raphine and postponing the $1.5 million expenditure for tennis courts at the high school.
The other four supervisors stuck with their previous positions on whether or not to move forward with financing construction for the rec center: Leslie Ayers and David McDaniel voted in favor of financing for it while Bob Day and Steve Hart cast their votes against it.
Hart said his opposition has nothing to do with this specific project but rather, all of the capital projects, past and present, for which the county is incurring debt. He said he sees this county increasing its debt from $82 million to $191 million over the next several years.
“That’s going to be $65 to $70 million in interest payments that are going to leave the county. If we do it differently, how much are we going to save? We’re going to save the interest payments. … It’s not just about this project. It’s about all the projects. The conclusion I draw from this is that the continued use of debt financing to fund the county and the capital projects is not sustainable. It is not good for our children and it’s not actually in our economic interest because when we look at the $70 million of interest [this leaves] the county in the next 25 years, what could we build with that?”
Day said that “pickleball and recreation is not high on my priority list of things I want the county to go into debt for.”
The innovation center, on the other hand, was the best investment the county has made since he’s been on the Board. “You can’t compare the innovation center with the recreation center.” The former, he said, is enabling students to get “an education and a vocation.”
Reiterating a point he’s made previously, Day said, putting the Rockbridge Area Recreation Organization into “the high school, as far as I’m concerned, is wrong and a mistake.”
Ayers said she agreed with Day that the innovation center was a great investment for the county, as was the Department of Social Services facility that’s nearing completion.
“We funded those with bonds,” she noted. “Those two things in my seven years on the Board are some of the most important things we’ve done in Rockbridge County. I’m incredibly proud of those projects.”
The rec center, too, is a “fabulous project. … I’m a believer in recreation. I’m a believer in athletics. I’m a believer in those things and what they bring to the community.”
For more than 30 years, she said, the community has had a shortage of indoor recreation space.
McDaniel said he understands that “while this center may not be perfect, it meets so many needs. It meets the needs of our students at the high school. It meets the needs of our youth in our community. It meets the needs of our seniors in our community. It is an entire community project.”
A rec center would also be an economic generator for area businesses, he asserted, with the capability of hosting sports tournaments that would bring visitors who would spend money here. These revenues could offset the need to raise taxes for other projects in the future, he maintained.
A dozen citizens weighed in during a public hearing that preceded the supervisors’ discussion. Most supported moving forward with financing for the project, though some continued to voice opposition.
Bill Russell, speaking on behalf of the Rockbridge Taxpayers Alliance, said, “Build a recreation center Rockbridge actually needs. If the students of Rockbridge County are the priority they should be, why are we looking at the Christmas tree of the rec center instead of a focused project built around [students’ needs?” He said the county is lacking a business plan. “Stop shifting costs from one pocket to another and calling it affordability.”
He decried references in the county financial consultants’ presentations to a future 1 percent sales tax to pay for school projects down the road. “Sales taxes hit people who can least afford it,” he declared. “The working poor.”
Travis Patterson praised the supervisors for “putting your heads together and coming up with an alternative [financing] plan. … There’s not a question of whether we need a rec center. That’s already been established. It’s already been discussed, voted on. We need a rec center. The question is whether we’re willing to pay more for it later. Every year we delay the decision we risk paying more for the same community asset while another generation goes without it. … It’s time to have a community investment that checks several boxes. I think the time is now. The longer we wait, the more we pay. … I encourage you to vote ‘yes’ for the financing for this project.”
When the supervisors concluded their discussion, Ayers made a motion to go with the alternative financing plan that calls for borrowing $10.75 million through the Virginia Public Schools Authority’s upcoming fall bond sale. Brown seconded the motion, which passed 3-2, over the dissents of Day and Hart.
