Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Local law enforcement officials have criticized the decision to cut funding. What do you think?
A recent decision by the Board of County Supervisors to cut funding for substance abuse treatment for inmates at the jail has gotten a lot of criticism from local law enforcement officials. The program, called the Drug Offender Rehabilitation Module, provides treatment for drug addicts and helps the inmates enter classes for their GED and employment. Both Prince William County Sheriff Glendall Hill and Commonwealth's Attorney Paul Ebert criticized the decision in the Washington Post recently. “It’s penny-wise and pound-foolish. That program is going to save the county a lot of money," Ebert told the Post. The Board is expected to use the money from the cuts to hire up to four new police officers. What do you think? Penny-wise and pound-…
Saturday, January 19, 2013
Col. Pete Meletis, jail superintendent, recommended that the expansion be completed within five to seven years.
Prince William County's aging jail is in need of an expensive overhaul—and quickly, the sheriff and chairman of the jail board told the Board of County Supervisors at a recent meeting. Sheriff Glen Hill and Col. Pete Meletis, the jail board chairman, recommended that the second phase of the jail's expansion be completed within five to seven years, at an estimated cost of $60 million. This would allow the county to add on 200 more new beds. The jail can safely house 1,055 inmates, said Meletis, who is also jail superintendent. But it is quickly reaching capacity. On average, 942 inmates have been at the jail every day during the first half of fiscal year 2013. And as Northern Virginia's population continues to expand, the jail's …
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Supervisor Peter Candland said that he found numerous errors in the county executive's report on his budget proposal, sparking a heated discussion among Board members.
Gainesville Supervisor Peter Candland took issue with County Executive Melissa Peacor's assessment of his flat tax bill proposal Tuesday, saying that he found "numerous assumption errors" and "mathematical errors" in Peacor's report. Several members of the Board took exception to Candland's remarks—and also voted 5-3 to have staff prepare a report with what the tax rate needs to be to adhere to Prince William County's current five-year plan. The plan would include a 4 percent rising tax rate to account for inflation. The Board will make a final decision on funding for fiscal year 2014 in the spring. “All I’m asking is that we do like every other family in Prince William County who has had to cut back on the things that they spend their …
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Prince William County stands to lose millions of dollars in direct federal funding, the deputy county executive said.
Prince William stands to lose millions of dollars in federal funding if sequestration proceeds as scheduled—and even if the United States doesn't fall off the "fiscal cliff," the county could still face challenges in the upcoming year, a county official said. The federal government is scheduled to cut $1.2 trillion in spending over a 10-year period beginning Jan. 1; half from the domestic budget and half from the defense budget. One hundred forty-nine programs, such as Social Security, are exempt from cuts. While Congress and the White House continue to bat competing proposals to resolve the issue back and forth, sequestration remains the law of the land. The federal government is poised to cut 8.2 percent ($38 billion) in the fiscal …
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Prince William's health director says deep cuts would impact public safety, but county supervisors say the state needs to provide additional funding.
As the Board of County Supervisors considers budget proposals that would gut funding for the local health department, a health official is concerned of threats to public safety. Dr. Alison Ansher, health director for the Prince William Health District, lobbied a passionate defense of her department at the Board meeting Tuesday evening—arguing that it plays a key, and perhaps underappreciated, role in promoting public safety. "We may not be what one thinks of as classic public safety employees, and we may not wear uniforms, but clearly the health department is essential to the Board of County Supervisors' priority: public safety," Ansher said. "There are very few county agencies and no schools that we do not assist in the provision of …
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Board of County Supervisors Chairman Corey Stewart has proposed about $9.6 million in cuts to Prince William's fiscal year 2014 budget.
If Prince William County citizens want their taxes to stay flat, they're going to see some big cuts in the county's budget, particularly for social services, over the next year. That was Chairman Corey Stewart's recent message to members of the Board of County Supervisors. In a letter dated Nov. 15, Stewart recommended $9,654,148 in cuts for fiscal year 2014. Many of those cuts are aimed at social services, such as substance abuse treatment for inmates, health department funding and juvenile court services. "To get to a flat tax bill, the Board must cut $9,147,808 from the budget. The cuts I am proposing are slightly more than this to give room for Board discussion," Stewart wrote. Some of Stewart's proposed cuts include: To see a full …
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Prince William County Executive Melissa Peacor gave a presentation to the Board of County Supervisors Tuesday about critical needs in the budget.
As the population in Prince William County continues to grow, demands for services are rising, too—and many of them will not be cheap. Executive Melissa Peacor gave a presentation at the Board of County Supervisors meeting Oct. 16 about a number of unmet critical needs in the county's agencies. Many of these needs—such as a new $120 million jail—are necessary in order for the county to stay in compliance with federal and state mandates, Peacor said. "We are very conservative when we say something is 'have to do.' If it's have to do, it really is because we have no other choice," Peacor told the Board. High on the priority list is a new, $120 million jail, that would house an additional 200 prisoners. Though population growth in the area…
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
The 1,000 acre facility will be open for tours and other activities on Oct. 20.
Prince William County Recycles Day is set for Oct. 20, and residents can celebrate by taking a tour of the local landfill. The approximately 1,000 acre landfill will be open for visitors from 10 a.m. til 2 p.m. on Oct. 20. In addition to the landfill tours, there will be educational activities, games, children's activities and face painting. There will also be door prizes and free hot dogs and drinks. Residents may bring up to four boxes of their papers to shred at the landfill, which is located at 14811 Dumfries Rd., in the Independent Hill area. The action coincides with Prince William County Recycles Day. The Board of County Supervisors declared the day at a recent meeting to encourage recycling and reducing waste. To read the …
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
ICE will no longer fund the 287(g) program that allows local law enforcement to identify illegal immigrants and hand them over for deportation.
Prince William County's strict—and controversial—immigration policy has just been dealt a blow. Prince William Board of County Supervisors Chairman Corey Stewart delivered a scathing rebuke of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at the Board meeting Tuesday, after he announced that ICE will no longer fund the 287(g) program that delegates immigration enforcement responsibilities to trained law enforcement officials. The program will expire on Dec. 31, 2012. Stewart—who is also a candidate for lieutenant governor—slammed the decision not to renew the program as political: "This administration is playing politics with your safety." "We have a duty to protect our citizens. If someone commits a crime and they’re here illegally, they …
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
County executive Melissa Peacor gave a presentation on the county's choices for the next fiscal year.
Libraries. School resource officers. Senior centers. These things are all part of the question facing the Prince William Board of County Supervisors: what does the county value—and how much is it willing to pay for those services? County Executive Melissa Peacor gave a presentation last week to the Board of County Supervisors on the budget choices for the upcoming 2014 fiscal year. Peacor presented a wide range of choices that the county could make with its $914 million budget, making a distinction between mandated services, strategic choices the county has made in the past, and discretionary spending. The county has already made steep cuts to some agencies in recent years, which narrows some of the options on the table. Peacor stressed …
JustTheFacts
9:05 pm on Wednesday, May 1, 2013
I don't know enough about the program to say "yes" or "no", but I do know that addictions are a personal choice, but directly linked to family dysfunction, the lack of confidence and low self esteem. Fix those issues and the need to escape reality disappears. more ›