York County officials have a number of meetings scheduled for this week, which we will cover or you can attend. We’ve got details on the meetings and when they’re scheduled in this week’s notebook.
York Supervisors to Host Budget Work Session Tuesday
The York County Board of Supervisors will host a budget work session at 6 p.m. Tuesday at York Hall.
County Administrator James McReynolds is expected to give the supervisors a presentation on discretionary versus mandated spending that goes into greater detail than the presentation he gave at the April 2 work session.
McReynolds proposed in March a $131.2 million budget for 2014. That proposal is $4 million more than last year and includes a 2.3 cent real estate tax increase, which comes a year after the supervisors raised the rate by 8.4 cents.
Of the proposed budget, $48.7 million, or 37 percent, is discretionary. McReynolds said much of that spending is not discretionary in the standard sense of the word — the county is not obligated to provide fire or EMS services, for example. Much of the $48.7 million is related to personnel expenses.
The proposed budget calls for $23.5 million in discretionary spending for education. Supervisor Thomas Shepperd praised the county’s school system at the April 2 meeting, saying that if the county only spent as much as was required of it, the school system would be a “disaster.”
A public hearing on the proposed budget will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday at York Hall. You can see McReynolds’ proposed budget for 2014 by clicking here.
York Planning Commission to Hold Work Session for Comprehensive Plan
The York County Planning Commission will hold its second work session for the Comprehensive Plan, which they are in the process of updating.
They held a public hearing in February about proposed changes outlined in a draft of the document that you can read by clicking here. The public hearing, which saw more than a dozen citizens speak, focused primarily on land-use designations, the population build-out and the county-sponsored telephone survey.
Citizens also were skeptical of how mixed-use developments would affect the county’s build-out goal — the population parameters that guide development — which is currently 80,000. More than 4,000 new residents now live in York County since 2005, when the Comprehensive Plan was last updated.
Once the Planning Commission finishes its work with the plan, it will send the new document to the Board of Supervisors for review. The supervisors have 90 days to make a decision on the draft and will hold another public hearing before voting on the draft.
You can read more about the public hearing by clicking here.
Many of the changes in the draft focus on improving technology to keep pace with advancements. You can read about proposed changes in the draft plan by clicking here.
The draft document of the Comprehensive Plan is available by clicking here.
York Supervisors Present Awards to County Volunteers
The York County Board of Supervisors presented awards to volunteers in the county during at its April 16 meeting.
During the presentation, it was revealed that 2,061 volunteers at 88 groups contributed 59,995 hours of service to the county in 2012. That’s the equivalent of 29 full-time employees. Between their service and $172,494 in donations, the county received $1,500,783 in savings — that’s an almost 2-cent increase on the real estate tax, said Chairman Walter Zaremba.
The volunteers honored with awards are as follows:
- Myrna Graham of the Senior Center of York volunteer
- Morris Randall, Head Start program volunteer
- The Mariners’ Museum, for support of the Head Start program
- Jan Wiener, master gardener volunteer
- Antoinette Landsell, Mosquito Monitor volunteer
- Historic Rivers Chapter of the Virginia Master Naturalists New Quarter Park Bluebird Monitoring Team (Cheryl Jacobson, Jan Lockwood, Joyce Lowry, Jeanette Navia, Wendy Nelson, Dean Shostak, Louis Ullman)
- James R. Parry, Tall Ships Committee volunteer
- Lois Winter, Historical Committee volunteer
Paws to Read Program to Host Event Saturday at Tabb Library
Children ages 6 to 12 may attend the monthly Paws to Read Program event at 2 p.m. Saturday in the Tabb Library Meeting Room.
The event allows children to read to certified pet therapy dogs. A signed parental permission slip is required.
DMV2Go to Offer Services from Yorktown Library Tuesday
The Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles will host DMV2Go from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday at Yorktown Library.
DMV2Go allows people to use DMV services that would normally require a trip to a DMV office. You can renew your driver’s license and other ID cards, obtain vehicle titles and license plates, order disabled parking placards or plates and more.
