State declines to reimburse Haymarket for flood damages

By Dan Roem

In an unexpected twist, the state government has declined reimburse the Town of Haymarket for spring flood damages to the Town Center property.

Town officials had been counting on the Department of Emergency Management to provide about $16,000 to cover flooding costs.

According to Haymarket town manager Gene Swearingen, Haymarket just was not that high up on the state’s priority list to receive the money.

“I think there were so many other issues around flooding at that same time around the state that we just didn’t rise to the level of some other communities and I think there was just not enough for us,” he said after the Monday night town council meeting.

Town chief financial officer James Naradzay revised an earlier deficit assessment in the last couple of weeks and determined the town will have finished the FY2008 cycle with a deficit at a little less than $3,000.

That money is covered from a general fund bank account.

How all this affects town finances for the next year depends on who you ask.

The town has already paid for the bill and it should not affect the FY2009 budget according to council members John Cole, Bob Weir and David Leake because it amounts to 1 percent of the total budget.

Swearingen, however, was less sanguine though he is in talks with the office of western Prince William County state Sen. Chuck Colgan’s (D-29^th), the senate finance committee chairman, about bringing some money back from Richmond to reimburse the town.

“But, I think, I mean, when you have a budget of a million and a half dollars, $16,000 is a huge hit for us,” he said.

Cole remained optimistic.

“Each year that I’ve been on council, it always been getting to the wire and it always works out,” he said, referring to the budgetary process. “We’re watching it very carefully. I’m not concerned because I know Gene and James are on top of it.”