Councilman Williams Update 4/16/25
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- Apr 17
- 6 min read
In Wednesday’s meeting we received several updates from the town manager, voted on a new financial policy, set hearings for budget and tax increases, set a hearing for the CIP, and voted on amendments to the Board of Zoning appeals process.
Approval of Meeting Minutes: October 18, 2023 - vote 7-0
Council Member Announcements
Public safety – Officer Tate voted officer of the year, neighborhood watch April 24 at 5:30 PM.
Planning Commission – they approved their work plan; they addressed the FAR (floor area ratio) suggested some changes and set a public hearing.
Finance – business license is due, golf cart stickers due 4/30.
Schools - Passed budget, several students recognized for accomplishments.
Economic Development - next meeting May 8, chamber award dinner, they are currently measuring online traffic to see who visits Colonial Beach sites, County Administrator toured CB, May 9 at 8 AM business recognition breakfast.
Parks and Rec - 2 vacancies on the commission, Osprey Festival was a success, May 31 is the town yard sale.
Public Works - Beach replenishment underway and scheduled to be completed by the end of the week. Mulch was placed in the dog park.
Mayor - Osprey Festival went well, Easter egg hunts this coming weekend.
Town Manager Update -
New Hires - 3 new police officers, new economic development director with main street experience, hired a new assistant town manager, Kyler Brower.
North Beach update – Jerry Davis our grant contractor expects a notice soon on the grant application.
Special events application/process – Described the different event types with Class A being the largest at over 3,500 people. New fees, with NGO‘s now getting a 25% vs prior 50% discount. No fees are charged for holiday events, space on Townhill is now sectioned off so more than one event can go on at a time. Large events get one officer and after that it’s $50 an hour per officer. They also have a choice of getting private security or criminal justice service. There were changes to the water/sewer fees $25 per hook up, dumpster $30 each, electric $25-$100. Cones only being charged if over original requested number, there will be a charge of $25 per cone. I asked about the fire department being charged for the parade and I was told they are not being charged and never have been charged.
3rd Quarter Finance Report, Lisa Okes, Director of Finance/CFO - we were given a brief overview of last month‘s numbers and were told that water sewer collections are lower than projected. We are in the process of getting our $2.5 million reimbursement from DEQ and will have that along with the remainder of the $5.7 million for infrastructure projects.
1st Quarter Public Safety Report, Chief Parsons - we were given some stats on crime and updates on the volunteer fire department and EMS. I asked if we could get a comparison of previous years during our next briefing.
Sewer Plant Update, John Simmons, Inboden Environmental Services -
February report - we had a significant rain event 5M gallons which is 3M gallons over normal capacity. They were able to manage using various methods. Nitrates are trending down.
March- highest flow for the month was down to 1.5M gallons, Nitrates are trending down, which is a good thing. It should bring us back into compliance with our general permit. A sludge pump was repaired.
I asked about the recent spill and why it was not reported to the public. I was told that it was not a significant enough event and was primarily clear waste water, around 5k gallons.
Westmoreland County Board of Supervisors, Mr. Trivett, District V Supervisor - Absent
Colonial Beach Public Schools, Dr. Addo, Superintendent - the board had special meeting to work on policy updates, approved budget, students recognized for Art, Culinary, Carpentry, etc., the new transformer has been installed, the generator is now in place, they are hiring a project manager for the front entrance and should be out for bid with RFP soon.
Public Comment
Citizen – downtown Colonial Beach announced the hiring of a new Economic Development director. He Attended Main St., America conference.
Citizen - council needs to look at budget needs versus wants, should make cuts versus raising taxes and should mulch the playgrounds before the dog park. Have fun with the budget this year.
Citizen – concerns over water, sewer receipts, need to get the revenue part right, trash fund is taking 2 to 3 years to start, ARPA funds need to be refunded for trash cans, county meeting was lengthy and didn’t get over until 11:50 PM.
Citizen – attended meeting 3 to 4 months ago, where VDOT stated the town could be sued if they know about a problem which still has not been fixed, why did you mulch the dog park first instead of taking care of the playgrounds for the kids, why is nothing being fixed, had enough I’m calling the news. Told new assistant Town Manager welcome to the circus.
Citizen – impressed with the way the town has repaired the beach sand did a bang-up job.
Resolution # 09-25, Adopts Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) Surplus Fund Allocation Policy, Natasha Tucker, Town Manager - this was to introduce a new financial policy for the town that would automatically put any amount over 30% reserve into our CIP fund account. The transfer would happen at the end of the fiscal year. I was personally opposed to this for the following reasons.
The policy was drafted based on the mayor’s suggestion from our strategic planning meeting and I personally do not feel like she’s lead us down a sound fiscal path thus far.
I feel like there could be plans that we are all not aware of that will put us in an even worse financial position than we already are in.
The policy was drafted and presented to council two weeks ago and submitted for a vote the very next meeting (rushed through in my opinion).
In my opinion, this is not a sound financial policy because there is no funding mechanism. It’s a “I hope we collect more this year so we actually have some leftover” way to fund our CIP.
I made the point that if we are collecting more in our general fund than we need, we are over taxing the citizens. And every year we’ve had to raise taxes and fees so obviously we are hoping/ planning to over tax. The rebuttal to that was we would never use that money to fund the budget because that would be irresponsible.
There were a lot of negative comments back to me, especially from Mr. Wood which is typical for him.
Lisa Grandstaff had a few questions and at the end voted no because she still had questions and the mayor stopped her and said, do we need more discussion? While discussion was technically closed and the vote should’ve counted, procedure was broken by the Mayor when she restarted the discussion and Lisa later changed her vote to yes for the new policy.
The final vote was 6–1 with me being the only no vote.
I’m hoping I am wrong about this, but my gut tells me there’s more than meets the eye here by the way this was pushed/ rushed through.
PUBLIC HEARING, Ordinance No. 765, (ZTA 25-01) Amends Article 17 of the Town’s Zoning Ordinance relative to the Board of Zoning Appeals, variances, and provisions for appeal., Darla Odom, Interim Director of Community Development and Zoning - these amendments were mainly to clarify what’s spelled out in Virginia law and removed duplication. We were told the changes were minor. Vote to pass 7-0
FY 2026-2030 Capital Improvement Plan, Darlo Odom, Interim Director of Community Development and Zoning (Request for Public Hearing) - there was a lot of detail added to the CIP since the Planning Commission voted for it. Some helpful information has been added and there’s a lot of money to be spent, over $30 million so I encourage the public to review this budget which can be found in our last agenda packet, link below. Vote to set the public hearing was 7–0. https://www.colonialbeachva.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_04162025-196
FY 2026 Proposed Budget Presentation, Lisa Okkes, Director of Finance/CFO (Request for Public Hearing) - We were presented with the draft budget, which included several updates.
The draft budget was balanced.
Expenses still outpacing revenues.
School’s biggest cost, and on an upward trajectory of increases $3.2-$3.4M.
Noted councils’ reluctance to raise taxes.
Ask for a 2% increase in lodging tax, which includes hotels and Airbnb‘s.
Mentioned several cuts, including finance clerk, parks maintenance, crossing guard, full-time planner, putt-putt golf, computer equipment, etc.
Half of our revenue comes from real estate taxes.
Top expenses are #1 Schools 30%, #2 Public Works and #3 Police Department.
It was noted that there is no cost-of-living adjustment, no new positions and the school match increased by 5.8%.
Sewer and Water increases were proposed at 8% each which is $6.32 and $2.56 per month respectively (+$106.65 year). We are also going to a monthly billing $128.71.
Once again, doom and gloom, we’ve made all possible cut we can and we have to raise taxes. I’m not convinced, but I guess we’ll see. I still contend we have a spending problem, but that’s my opinion only.
Vote to set public hearing was 7–0
Which includes up to 2% increase in lodging and or one percent increase in real estate.
Here’s a link to the presentation and copy of the budget.
Bikefest Application, Sally Adams, Director of Parks, Recreation and Events - this was to discuss and approve the Bikefest application for 2025. After a bit of discussion surrounding event, details, cost of security, benefits financially to the town, etc. we voted 7–0 to approve the application.
Councilman David Williams
Please email or call with questions or comments:
540-604-4335
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