With a large goldfish on his arm, Supervisor Gerry Hyland (D-Mount Vernon) told members of the South County Federation the neighbors in Huntington need their help.
"I've been spending a lot of time down there," Hyland said of the community that was hit with "an 8-foot wall of water without warning" following the severe rainstorms of the past few weeks.
The goldfish tattoo, courtesy of some children in Huntington, was left over from a visit to the community last weekend. "I've tried just about everything to get this off, but nothing works," he said, laughing. "They originally tried to put it on my head, but for some reason, it didn't take."
Residents in Huntington are "really hurting," Hyland said, adding that the residents there live in "one of the few areas of the county that is truly affordable housing."
A foundation has been established for people who wish to donate money to help out the Huntington residents by sending checks in care of the United Community Ministries, 7511 Fordson Road, Alexandria, VA 22036.
In addition, Hyland told the handful of Federation members at the meeting on Tuesday, July 11, that he was awaiting word from the U.S. Army and Fort Belvoir as to which of three recommendations would be approved for the location of 21,500 people expected to be moved to Fort Belvoir as a result of BRAC changes.
THE FIRST OPTION, Hyland said, was to put all the workers on the North and South posts of the Army base, leaving the Engineer Proving Grounds unchanged. The second option would be to located all those jobs at the EPG, and the third option would be some dispersal of jobs and services among those three locations.
"There's a lot of conflict as to where to put the hospital," Hyland said. "The Army commander wants to put it on the North and South Posts, while other people, possibly including Supervisor (Dana) Kauffman (D-Lee), would rather have it on the EPG."
Hyland said that the proposals did not include any sort of transportation recommendations or funding for infrastructure projects, other than suggestions that Fairfax County or Virginia foot the bill.
"The federal government needs to step to the plate to make this work," he said. "We don't have any more to build these roads."
A meeting was scheduled for Thursday, July 6 at the Pentagon for the Army to present the three BRAC options, but Hyland said he wasn't sure if any decisions had been made.
"I hope we'll hear something soon because that will trigger everything we need to do to accommodate BRAC by 2011," he said.
Hyland also told members of the Federation that the Board of Supervisors voted to discontinue the use of $25 car decals.
"Incorporated towns like Clifton, Herndon and Vienna will still need them," said John Fedorshik, chairman of the Federation's public safety committee. "Also, we're the first county in Northern Virginia to do away with them, so if you get pulled over and a police officer asks to see your license to determine county of origin, he has every right to do that."
Transportation continued to be a topic of interest, as Del. Dave Albo (R-42) stopped by the meeting just before it ended to give a summary of the recently-ended extended session of the House of Delegates.
He outlined the difficulties faced by the House this year, mostly the struggle between Northern and Southern Virginia in terms of how much funding Northern Virginia should receive for the construction and maintenance of roads.
"We're struggling for transportation money, but we only have 25 percent of the vote," Albo said. He and other members of the Northern Virginia delegation were trying to secure $800 million in funding for the 2006-07 fiscal year but were only able to get about $300 million dedicated to transportation across Virginia.
ALBO AND OTHER Republicans designed a proposal to raise between $400 million and $500 million through increased taxes on car rentals, hotel rooms, the use of office space and other things that contribute to traffic congestion on roads.
The final portion of his plan would include car fees, like an additional registration fee the first time a car is registered in Virginia that would cost 0.75 percent of the car's cost, to be combined with a $30 per year registration fee for every vehicle.
"I've never voted for a raise in taxes but I'm at a loss for what to do," Albo said. "If we keep going this way, by 2011 all the money we've been paying will only be enough to cover maintenance, we won't be able to build any new roads."
He also said that if the plan were approved, there would be three unarguable rules to go along with it: "No one touches our money, we alone control how it's spent, and the money doesn't go to fund anyone else's projects."
The money raised would be spent to extend Metro across the county and to increase Virginia Railway Express service, Albo said. In the future, some of the funding could be used to extend Metro to Prince William County and for the construction of smaller, secondary streets to help keep drivers off main highways, he said.