Town of Halifax residents can expect a hefty tax and fee increase if council adopts its proposed $1,286,979 budget for FY 2001-2002.
Town Council unanimously approved the proposal for public hearing Tuesday, June 12, at 7:30 p.m. at town hall, but not before questions were raised about a proposed garbage fee, salaries and capital projects.
Council's proposal reflects a five-cent increase on real estate taxes - increasing from 22 cents per $100 assessed value to 27 cents; a five percent increase in water/sewer rates; and a monthly $12 per household garbage collection fee.
The water/sewer rate for an average town consumer (9,000 gallons for a two-month period) is currently $67.19 every two months. It will increase to $70.55 every two months with the rate increase, according to town officials.
The proposed $12 garbage collection fee will help offset the town's water/sewer plant deficit, which is expected to run $55,704 in the sewer fund and $93,020 in the water fund, according to Robert Greene, town manager.
Funds are currently drawn from the town's general fund to address the water/sewer fund deficit as well as the street department, explained Greene.
Draw downs by the town to cover town bills during a three -year period have totalled $135,000, according to the town manager.
The proposed budget lists the following increased expenditures:
· $70,000 includes salary, hospital insurance, FICA, VRS, VRS Group Life.
· $35,000 principal payment on old sewer bond.
· $30,000 repairs and remodeling of town hall.
· $3,898 general liability insurance (vehicles).
· $3,000 general operating cost increase (gas, LP gas, electric).
· $70,000 capital improvement fund.
The plan for the capital improvement project is for the town to borrow $280,000 at 7 percent interest for five years to pay for the following projects: $72,000, a garbage truck; $25,000 for a high-pressure washer; $20,000 for a pick-up truck; $58,000 back-hoe; $40,000 for water line expansion; $50,000 Main Street project to put power lines underground for merchants; $15,000 for wheel trash cans (one per house or apartment).
Next fiscal year an additional annual payment of $87,000 will be required for the new sewer project, according to town officials.
"I just don't think we have the wherewithal to do all of this," said Councilman Jack Dunavant.
Greene countered that the town needed to expand its water/sewer customer base considerably and that to do that, the system needed to go into new areas of the town.
"Where water/sewer goes goes development," he said.
The town manager emphasized that the town operated in a frugal way and noted that it had not had a tax increase since 1985.
"When we reassess the rate drops," explained R.E. Reynolds, town finance director. "The people are paying about the same cost in real estate tax as they did in 1985, but the cost of living, the consumer index, has gone up 47.2 percent," he added.
But he said that the town had to be competitive with salaries for the pool of skilled workers, and he noted that the town had 17 employees when he started to work there (almost a decade ago), and that it still had 17 employees.

Urging "a business-like approach" in government, Lt. Governor John Hager brought his campaign for the GOP gubernatorial nomination to South Boston early Wednesday morning.
During the breakfast meeting Hager sought support from delegates for his nomination bid at the June 2 Republican convention.
Hager said that by using common sense business ideas, the state can save money.
"We can save the money we fussed about over the car tax and apply it to the budget so that we don't have to choose between promised tax relief, which is a good thing, and the delivery of needed services," Hager said. "That is the way I want to go."
The candidate said that he worked on the Transportation Policy Commission for two and one-half years and that 126 recommendations were made. He said that Gov. Gilmore embraced many of those recommendations and "did an outstanding job in VDOT reform, saving $140 million."
Hager said 14 taxes have been relieved in Virginia since January of 1998.
"The fact is, we (Republicans) are in favor of tax relief," he said.
"We are in favor of activities like tax credits to stimulate research and development, partnerships to help attract industry to industrial parks. There is a lot going on, a lot of good things going on, but it is about a business-like approach.
"I am businessman. We have not had a businessman as governor of Virginia since 1954."
Hager told those gathered here Wednesday morning that the business community got the anti-crime Exile program going.
The former tobacco executive has been running behind Attorney General Mark Earley in the competition for delegates following mass meetings statewide.
But it was an undaunted Hager who met with Republicans here.
"I got in politics to respond to people," he said.
Hager said that there are three things that are needed in a governor: accessibility, experience with legislative branch and leadership.
"This convention is wide open, don't let anyone tell you that it is not," he emphasized.
The candidate told the crowd that he has made 500 trips to Northern Virginia during the past several years and that he has support there.
He said that he understands their problems with transportation.
Hager said about a month ago there was a lot of talk about him dropping back. He said that his opponent, Mark Earley, had declared victory even though the ballots had not been counted..
"A lot of people didn't like that," said Hager.
So Hager said that in the name of party unity he decided to pause, step back, talk to people and see what they thought.
He said that he went to 26 localities over Virginia in a little over a week and found very few that wanted him to drop out.
"They said that they wanted a true conservative at the top of the ticket; that they wanted someone who could beat Mark Warner; someone who could embrace a broad segment of the party; that they wanted someone who had the experience, someone they could trust. I heard it all."
When he returned to Richmond, Hager said that he was ready to go, "that the people had spoken."
"The people that attend this convention are empowered," he noted. "We will have one-tenth of one percent of the number of people who voted in the presidential primary in Virginia last Feb. 29 making the decision at this convention Saturday week.
"So you are important, very important," Hager said to delegates.
"We have a had straw poll," he said. "This race is still very much wide open."
Hager called for debates.
"I have tried to debate Mark Earley, I challenged him to three debates."
However, Hager said that the first week his camp got no response from Earley and that the second week, Earley's camp said that he and Hager had those debates at the mass meetings.
"I didn't hear any debates at any mass meetings," Hager said. "I heard the same speech about 100 time."
Hager said this week The Washington Post and the Arlington Republican Committee challenged him and Earley to debate.
Hager said that he has accepted the invitations. "So we will see how this all works out."
Hager said that he was not trying to cause Mark Earley any grief. "I am trying to say the people of the Republican Party deserve to know how we stand on the issues."
He named transportation, education, technology, the environment, what is the best route to build a better life for the future as issues.

A Nathalie resident performing volunteer work at Staunton River State Park was said to have been in satisfactory condition last night while being treated at UNC Chapel Hill Hospital for injuries he sustained when the tractor he was operating ran into a fallen tree yesterday morning.
Harold Woosley of Nathalie was airlifted from Scottsburg by an emergency medical helicopter and transported to a Chapel Hill, N.C. for what was described as a broken arm and a crushed hand. A spokesperson for the family said that Woosley was expected to be admitted following emergency treatment.
State Trooper M.S. Roark Jr. said that Woosley had a cellular telephone in his possession at the time of the mishap and was able to place a call to report the accident and seek help.
The accident occurred at about 10:15 a.m. along a path in a wooded area near the cabins at Staunton River State Park.
Woosley, a volunteer worker, was operatinging a diesel tractor and was bush hogging along a path in the woods about 30 yards from a large open field adjacent to the cabins.
"The tree was broken near the stump and was across the road with the top of the tree caught in another one.
"He should have seen it and stopped," added Roark.
"It wasn't like it was something that you ran up on suddenly. He just drove right into it."
"It (the tree) caught him in the chest," Roark said. The state-owned tractor was equipped with roll-over protection. Its damages included a broken steering wheel and a dent in one of the fenders.
Park officials declined to provide information about the mishap and would only say that the matter is under investigation.

It was a close call but teachers at Washington-Coleman Elementary School say they do not want a form of year-round education implemented at the school.
Fourteen teachers recorded negative votes while 13 teachers voted in favor of a year-round school program during the teachers' final meeting of the year Wednesday on year-round education.
School principal Biddie Plaster could not be reached for comment yesterday afternoon.
Word on the vote count began spreading through the community Wednesday night.
The newspaper confirmed the vote count yesterday with a school faculty member.
Washington-Coleman Principal Biddie Plaster indicated during a May 1 parent information session that if the majority of the school staff voted in favor of implementing a form of a year-round education program, the issue would be presented to the Halifax County School Board for approval.
She also pointed out that if the majority of the staff voted against implementing a year-round education program, the issue of year-round education will likely be dropped.
Washington-Coleman Elementary School teachers were commissioned by School Superintendent Dennis Witt in late October to study year-round education.
Year-round education does not mean that students go to school on a year-round basis.
What year-round education does, however, is reorganize the school year to provide more continuous learning by organizing the year into instructional blocks and vacation periods that are evenly distributed across 12 months.
As part of the task, Witt requested the school staff to make a decision either for or against implementing year-round education this month.
The Halifax County School Board has had the issue of year-round education on its back burner for several months.
C.H. Friend Elementary School Principal Linda Owen appeared before the School Board last July to ask the body for permission to implement a pilot year-round education program at the school in the 2001-2002 school year.
However, since that time, the Halifax County School Board has adopted a school calendar for the next two school years.
Owen's proposal, a Calendar for Alternative Teaching, or CAT, featured nine weeks of regular classroom-time followed by one-two and three- week "intersessions."
Those intersessions, which would run daily from 8:30 a.m. until 1:30 p.m., would be used to provide remediation for the those students who need it and enrichment activities for those students who have mastered the Standards of Learning (SOLs) and seek additional challenges.
Students would be recommended by teachers for remediation or enrichment intersessions based upon SOL test results, classroom performance and nine weeks grades.
Those students found to be in need of remediation would be strongly encouraged to attend the intersessions.
While those students who have mastered the SOLs would be encouraged to take advantage of the enrichment intersession programs, they and their parents will have the option of "opting out" of attending enrichment programs.
Students that did not attend the intersessions would gain additional vacation time.
That's because under the proposal, students would have the same Thanksgiving, Christmas, Spring Break and other holidays that the rest of the school system would observe.
The estimated cost of implementing the program, Owen said, would be approximately $150,000.
School system officials noted, however, that if C.H. Friend were to implement a pilot year-round education program, Washington Coleman Elementary School would have to implement the same schedule due to transportation and other concerns.
Because the Washington-Coleman administrators and staff were not involved in Owen's study at C.H. Friend, school system officials put the matter on the back burner until the faculty at Washington-Coleman could study the matter and reach a conclusion.
Based on Owen's initial cost estimates that are now almost a year-old, it will cost an estimated $300,000 to implement a pilot year-round program at both schools.

Sarah Poole Edwards, 85, of McKeever Trail, Nathalie, died May 23 at Woodview Nursing Home. She was the wife of the late John Edwards.
Mrs. Edwards was born in Wake County, NC on April 28, 1916, the daughter of the late John Poole and the late Bertha Poole. She was of the Baptist Faith.
Survivors include three daughters, Mary Clay of Nathalie, Lillian Quinn of South Boston and Ann Poole of Virgilina; one sister, Mary Quinn of Richmond; seven grandchildren and 11 great grandchildren.
A graveside service for Mrs. Edwards will be held today, May 25 at 11 a.m. at the Clay Family Cemetery with the Rev. Allen Blanks officiating.

Thomas Alvey Young, 69, of 11845 Virgilina Road, Roxboro, N.C., died May 22 in Duke Medical Center.
Mr. Young was a native of Halifax County, the son of the late Alonza and Mary Tuck Young. He was a Veteran of the U.S. Army in the Korean Conflict, a member of High view Baptist Church and a retired TV repairman.
Funeral services will be held today, May 25 in High View Baptist Church at 2 p.m. with the Rev. Ken McCord officiating. Burial will follow in the Virgilina Cemetery.
Survivors of Mr. Young include one sister, Doris Evelyn Dellinger of Bassett and a number of cousins, a niece and a nephew.
The family will receive friends one hour prior to the service at the church.
Those wishing to give memorials are asked to consider High View Baptist Church Youth Fund, 144 High View Church Road, Roxboro 27573.

Barbara Burrage Reaves, formerly of South Boston, died May 22 in Orlando, Fla.
Survivors include her husband, Cecil T. Reaves of Orlando; three sons, Steve Reaves of Canton, Ga., Scott Reaves of Arlington, Texas and Mike Reaves of Orlando; one sister, Beverly Ingram of Virginia Beach; and six grandchildren.
The family will receive friends at Powell Funeral Home Saturday, May 26, from 7:30 until 9:00 p.m.
Graveside services for Mrs. Reaves will be held May 27 at 2 p.m. at Oak Ridge Cemetery.
Memorials may be made to People of Hope, c/o First Baptist Church, 815 N. Main Street, South Boston 24592.

Hurley Jewel Coates Meeler, 79, of 15014 Philpott Road, Alton, died May 23 in Danville Regional Medical Center.
Mrs. Meeler was born in Person County, N.C. on September 26, 1921, the daughter of William Boswell Coates and Hurley Ramsey Coates and was married to James Wallace Meeler Sr. She was a member of Olive Branch United Methodist Church and a past member of the Missionary Society.
Survivors include four daughters, Jean M. Wilborn of Taylors, S.C., Nancy J. Meeler of South Boston, Deborah White of Dry Fork and Jane M. Hall of Alton; two sons, Larry Meeler of Danville and Eldridge Meeler of Roxboro, N.C.; one sister, Alice C. Blalock of Timberlake, N.C.; two brothers, Talmadge Coates of Timberlake and Ernest 'Jake' Coates of Roxboro; 15 grandchildren; and 18 great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by one son, James W. 'Jimmy' Meeler Jr. and one grandson, Gregory Scott Owen.
Funeral services for Mrs. Meeler will be held at Olive Branch United Methodist Church on May 26 at 2 p.m. with the Rev. Michael Teixeira officiating. Burial will follow in the church cemetery.
The family will receive friends at Brooks Funeral Home this evening, May 25, from 7:00 until 8:30, and other times at the home.

Those wishing to give memorials are asked to consider Turbeville Vol. Fire Department or Olive Branch UMC Cemetery Fund.