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Residents urge PW not to cut nonprofit funds
Some years, residents turn out at budget hearings en masse to ask the Board of County Supervisors to cut taxes.
This year, they instead urged the board not to cut funding for human service groups.
In a tight budget year, supervisors are considering massive cuts to the county budget, including 15-percent cuts to “community partners” like the SERVE shelter.
That didn't sit well with residents and volunteers who showed up at Monday's public hearing wearing yellow stickers that read “Campaign for a World Class Community.”
“PWC used to be 'People Who Care,'” said Jean Reynolds, who helps serve meals to underprivileged residents in eastern Prince William.
Reynolds derided the supervisors' boast that Prince William has the lowest tax rate in the region, saying more emphasis should be put on services.
“That's not a county who cares,” she said. “That's not a world class community.”
Danny Glass echoed that sentiment. A homeless resident who described himself as “just some guy in a tent in the woods,” Glass said he's been living outside since 1972 and woke up one morning to find his friend had frozen to death next to him in the night.
He asked supervisors not to cut funds for the county's homeless shelters.
The Rev. Fred Parish, pastor of Bethel United Methodist Church, spoke on behalf of Project Mend-A-House, another community partner threatened by the 15-percent budget cuts.
If Project Mend-A-House loses 15 percent of its income, senior citizens and disabled residents -- particularly wounded veterans -- will have a harder time getting their homes retrofitted with the ramps, he said.
“When you make reductions, you're really hurting the quality of life for people who need it most,” Parish said.
But human services advocates weren't the only ones to speak out. The library system had its own fan club on Monday night as volunteers and patrons urged the board not to cut services.
In an effort to help cut $855,000 from the library budget, the county staff is recommending shutting down Lake Ridge and Independent Hill -- the two least-used neighborhood libraries. That measure alone would save $458,000.
The Library Board of Trustees, however, is asking instead that supervisors reduce the neighborhood libraries from 40 to 20 hours each week, close all of the libraries on Sundays and reduce the hours at all libraries by an additional four hours each week. Those cuts would save the same $458,000.
“Closing the neighborhood libraries -- I couldn't just sit down and say nothing about that,” said library trustee Anthony Foster. “That's unacceptable.”
Roy Burrow, who lives near the Independent Hill library, said he's an avid library patron and that closing the Independent Hill branch would effectively shut off the county's library system for him and his wife.
“The two of us will end up driving an hour round-trip to any other library,” he said, noting that he could read an entire book in the time it would take him to get to the next closest library and back.
Cornelia Long objected to both the library board and county staff proposals, saying that closing two libraries would mean staff layoffs and overcrowding at the other libraries. Cutting out Sunday hours, on the other hand, would seriously hurt patrons' ability to use the library.
“Sundays are in fact the best time to go to the library,” she said.
Supervisors will hold another public hearing on the budget at 7:30 p.m. April 12 in the Board Chambers at the McCoart Building.
They'll vote on a final spending plan and tax rate on April 27.
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