Sentinel

This Month

Note from the Editors

Message from Supervisor McKay

Neighborhood Watch

Announcements

Babysitters

Classifieds

Board and Committees

Sentinel Archives

Note From the Editors

We would like to hear from you!
Please email or call the editors with your thoughts and suggestions, as well as any news items you’d like to include. Sentinel editors are Carrie Wehling Michaud and Jessica Kaplan. You can email us at (Jessica) and (Carrie), call us at 703-765-9448 (Jessica) and 703-768-9723 (Carrie), or drop us a note at 6823 Stoneybrooke Lane (Jessica) and 6820 Lamp Post Lane (Carrie).

Message from Supervisor Jeff McKay

You could call the County’s FY2010 budget a lemonade budget—if ever we made lemonade out of lemons, it was this year. In a year that saw the steepest drop in property values since the County began keeping records, the FY2010 property tax rate of $1.04 per $100 of assessed value will still result in a lower tax bill for most Lee District residents. It is also a year where bipartisanship prevailed with a 10-0 vote to adopt the budget.

I would have liked to see the property tax rate be even lower and I will be working with my Board colleagues to find ways to diversify revenue so that the burden does not continue to fall most heavily on property owners. Currently, almost 64 percent of the County’s General Fund comes from homeowners. That’s way too high and given the volatility of the real estate market, that’s not sound budgeting.

I went into our budget deliberations believing that there are some government responsibilities that are not negotiable and I am pleased that my positions prevailed. Critical police and fire public safety cuts, including regional shopping center officers, school resource officers, and the sexual predator enforcement and detection team, among others have been restored. Unacceptable response times for medical emergencies were avoided with the restoration of EMS services, and many vital human services that are especially necessary during tough economic times were spared.

It was very important to me that we not lose the progress we’re making keeping our neighborhoods healthy, so I insisted that the proposed cuts to zoning enforcement, property maintenance, and the strike team be restored. I also successfully pushed for funding to be restored to our senior centers and services.

While we held the transfer to the school system at the same level as FY2009, at 53.8 percent of the County’s budget, it’s our biggest priority. We were also able to restore core functions of the schools including police resource officers, clinic room aids, and Head Start. We were also able to fully fund transit—both Connector bus services and Metro.

When we began our budget process, we were looking at a projected $650 million shortfall to maintain our FY2009 level of services. We closed the shortfall through a number of means. We froze County employee salaries, cut 306 positions, and held budgets for most County agencies at or below the FY2009 level. We cut half the Penny for Affordable Housing, reduced overtime funding, and cut funds budgeted for fuel and take home cars. And—where we could, we raised fees in such areas as commercial parking violations and construction permits.

You can find more detailed information on the County’s website at http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/government/budget/

It’s obvious that our citizens have high expectations for their local government, the services it provides, and the quality of those services. Now that the FY2010 budget has been adopted, I have begun the hard work of FY2011. I would value your observations and opinions as we move forward.

News From Neighborhood Watch

Don Faxon sent us concerns about drivers not being courteous or careful or even law-abiding at the Lamp Post Lane/Stoneybrooke intersection. Writes Don:

Cars continue to roll through the stop sign at the street corner; everyone seemingly in a hurry to pick someone up or drop someone off, quite a few without their brakelights coming on; though the garbage trucks and lawn service vehicles manage the stop. One morning a parent dropping off a child at the corner bus stop impatiently pulled up behind another child on a skateboard who had crossed over to the wrong side to let the car pass… the child was bullied off the street…. Thankfully, no child has yet been hit.

Let’s all be careful at that (and other) Stoneybrooke intersections!

One other neighborhood safety issue: Jessica Kaplan reports that she accidentally left her car unlocked overnight and returned to find it in disarray and a roll of quarters stolen. Reminds us all that this does
happen with some frequency in the neighborhood, unfortunately. Please lock your vehicles, even during the day! Do not keep valuables in the car overnight!