Councilman Williams Update 8/20/25

Town Manager updates, council minutes almost caught up, another vote on park spending, CIP spending updates and legislative priorities were all on Wednesday’s agenda.

Consent Agenda – These are agenda items that the mayor or town manager add that they do not consider needing discussion.  Council members can object and ask for discussion.

Maggie and I both made attempts to separate the minutes discussion/vote from the parks funding vote. Both attempts failed.

Approval of Minutes: June 4, 2025, June 18, 2025 and July 16, 2025, June 1, 2022 and June 15, 2022- No objections were heard but since both votes were not allowed to be separated, the official vote was 4-3 with Tom, Kenny, Rick and Robin voting YES and Lisa, David and Maggie voting NO.

Resolution #24-25, Amends and Appropriates FY 25-26, General Fund for Carry Over Funds allocated for Park Projects - while this vote to spend nearly $280K on new parks (Eleanor and Azalea) was rolled up under a consent agenda, it really should’ve been moved for discussion. The newest council members have never really discussed the parks and the exorbitant spending.  I did not support spending this money previously mainly due to sewer plant priorities and no budget to maintain our current parks let alone two more.  Vote 4-3 with Tom, Kenny, Rick and Robin voting YES and Lisa, David and Maggie voting NO.

Council Member Announcements

Economic development - There are several activities and studies underway to bring in new business including revitalizing downtown, economic vitality, and marketing.  

Parks and Rec- Several events were mentioned, including World, Photography Day, September events like the Northern Neck Music Festival, art walk, etc. There’s a community yard sale on September 27.

Public Works - Utility installs and repairs including wastewater treatment plant, water meter receiver repairs, and drainage.

Police Department - 3 new Academy graduates, officer helped deliver a baby, neighborhood watch meeting Aug 28th at 5pm. 

Planning Commission - Bailey Thompson and Pat Kurtz resigned. They will be taking applications for the two positions. At September’s meeting they will talk about the tree ordinance. 136 of 139 short term rentals have paid their permit fees. Training manual drafted. 30 permits were issued in July averaging just 11 days which is way less than the old average of 60.

Non-governmental - several events underway.

Finance - reminder that monthly payments can be made vs quarterly.

Schools - they had a great start to the new school year. They have five new teachers. Several capital improvement projects complete or underway including parking lot, generator and the front entrance, which is currently at $1.85M, $350k over original estimate, 

Mayor - welcomed the Mayor of Bowling Green, welcomed kids back to school. Reminder of hurricane season.

Town Manager Update

New hire at public Works.  Recognized Blake Sparks for five years of service.

The town brought in $35,000 from the carnival.

Sewer Plant Update, John Simmons, Inboden Environmental Services - he said that July was a rough month with several rain events. There was a small overflow but not bad considering our plant has 2M gallon capacity and we receive 4M gallons of rain. We were lucky. SCADA system still not working properly.

I asked if the DEQ agreement was finalized and we were told almost.  The good news is we will be required to do $4M in repairs versus $30M. He also answered that the plan will be available to the public soon. We were told that more smoke testing will be done soon and that half of the plant is not used due to solids buildup.

Westmoreland County Board of Supervisors, Mr. Trivett, District V Supervisor - He mentioned that he’s still working on the tree that is obstructing the light at McDonald’s. They appointed a new member to the board of zoning appeals. They have a new director of economic development. Storke funeral home has a new location. The duck blinds within town limits were discussed and the possible solutions to eliminate them.

Colonial Beach Public Schools, Dr. Addo, Superintendent - School started August 11. He said after 29 years in education, this was one of his smoothest starts, We are fully staffed. Parking lot project is in the survey stage. Volleyball starts on Aug 29th football starts September 5.

Community Flood Preparedness Grant, Jerry Davis, Executive Director, NNPDC - this is in reference to the grant for the North Beach Boardwalk area. There was a study done 10 years ago and then another study had been done and the US Corp of Engineers actually did a scoping study. Recently we applied for a grant and received $800,000 with no required match. This money is for the study/ engineering portion and will be reimbursed to the town. Area covers roughly 280 ft of shoreline and 13,000 ft.² of wetlands.  This part of the project will take roughly 18 months and needs to go through state procurement.  The mayor asked if the Northern Neck Planning District would be able to manage the project.  The next round of grants will be Fall 2026.

CIP Prioritization, Davenport Financial Services - we were told the town does not have a bond rating, which is neither good nor bad. Our unassigned funds balance is 39% which is well above 15% required amount. We are in good shape compared to highly rated towns.  We are currently $1.5 million over the 15% requirement. We currently pay $650K year in tax supported debt. The main discussion was how do we want to fund our CIP projects; options are using cash, borrowing money or pay as we go.  We were told we have debt capacity, but maybe not affordability without raising taxes.  I asked why the new policy where any funds above 30% automatically go to the CIP wasn’t factored into the presentation and he stated that it could be added. The mayor asked about funded projects and we were told very few were actually funded. I asked if Council could get a list of expectations for decision-making.

Public Comment

Citizen- mentioned the work ahead on the CIP. Suggest closed sessions could be more transparently advertised like they do in Westmoreland. Suggested medical facilities be added to the legislative agenda. Mentioned how there were no parking tickets in August. Suggested that the PC should have more input for the CIP.

Citizen - stated he supported carryover funds for the parks. Mentioned Main Street opportunities ahead.

Citizen – stated 400 kids go to the Northside for Halloween. No parking is needed for the new park. Give the kids the park.

2026 Legislative Agenda, Kyler Brower, Assistant Town Manager - We were provided a list of the 10 items on the 2025 legislative agenda and ask to review and provide feedback for the 2026 agenda.  The list included wastewater treatment plant, beach and shoreline, Dwight Ave Extension, sidewalks, municipal pier, broadband, new municipal center, small communities, maritime efforts, and northern neck 250/Main Street support.  It was suggested that we narrow down the list or provide new items for priorities like in the past where we provided only three or four.  If you as a citizen, have suggestions of items that should be added to the request that goes to our state legislature please let me know.  

Councilman David Williams

Please email or call with questions or comments:

dwilliams@colonialbeachva.gov

540-604-4335