James City capital spending doubling, but financial advisors say it can handle it

Good morning. Today: James City County's debt load gets a passing grade from its financial advisor, curbside recycling comes to a halt, home sales are up.

Sep 25, 2025

James City County renderings of the proposed government center, left and library annex, right

Editor’s Note: we are reposting this newsletter because of several sloppy editing mistakes. We mistakenly referred to Passover coming this weekend, when it was in April. And in the story about campaign newspapers, we mistakenly referred to the Virginia Independent as the Williamsburg Independent in a second reference. The Williamsburg Independent is a different online publication and is not a campaign publication. We apologize for the errors.

James City County has nearly doubled the capital spending plan numbers that it showed ratings agencies a year ago, when its AAA bond rating was reaffirmed, the county’s financial advisor told the board of supervisors Tuesday.

But total debt, and the spending to pay it down, are still within the limits required to keep that bond rating, said David Rose of Davenport & Co., which has been the county’s advisor for nearly three decades.

James City County will spend as much as $687.3 million over the next 25 years to service its debt, with conservative assumptions on interest rates, Rose said. He said there was a good possibility the interest rates the county ends up paying will continue to decline.

In October 2024 the county met with the three major ratings agencies – Fitch Ratings, Standard & Poors Global Ratings, and Moody’s Investors Service -- to discuss a five-year capital spending plan of $183 million.

This year, that plan grew to $332 million to accommodate the cost of a new government center and library annex, along with several other projects, Rose said.

Rose said it does not make sense to defer construction projects while construction costs continue to grow, adding they have increased 50% since the Covid pandemic.

“All the new debt that we’re talking about keeps us within (the bond ratings agencies’) new policies,” Rose said. He warned, however, that factors beyond local control, such as population growth and the economy, always leave an element of risk.

Rose recommended holding off more borrowing until 2027.

“We can do all the right things….but it doesn’t mean that our triple A (ratings) are absolute out into the future,” he said.

James City County’s five year plan assumes that tax revenue will increase by 7% with every biannual assessment of property values, and 3% in the other years.

During Tuesday’s meeting, the supervisors approved a $1.61 million change order agreement to complete the design on the library annex to the proposed government center.

Assistant County Administrator Brad Rinehimer said the county was going through the final design plans for the government center itself, adding the construction costs will be around $175 million. By speeding up plans to build the library annex concurrently, the county should save money, he said.

Rinehimer said county staff are reviewing bids from firms interested in serving as construction manager for the project.

By Digby A. Solomon

Nestled among the campaign brochures stuffing your mail box these days are two less-obvious pieces of political proselytizing dressed up as newspapers.

Both papers mix a variety of consumer or sports features with stories designed to deliver a message for a particular party.

Neither the Williamsburg Sun nor the Virginia Independent feature blatant campaign advertising hyperbole. But their goal is to provide coverage that favors the policies of a particular party.

The front page of a recent edition of the Williamsburg Sun featured a cover story on Republican House Delegate Chad Green, and a story quoting a conservative activist saying Democratic gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger was more concerned with “radicalism and elite ties over service to Virginians.”

The Virginia Independent’s cover story blamed soaring back to school costs on the Trump Administration’s tariffs, with inside stories warning about the impact of Medicaid cuts and charging Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares “cozies up to an anti-abortion group”.

Neither newspaper has any advertising, and both are delivered by mail (an expensive proposition) at no charge.

The Williamsburg Sun is one of several publications across the country published during political campaigns by Local Government Information Services, owned by Brian Timpone of Illinois. I worked with Timpone when I was at the Tribune Company, and he was providing records such as real estate sales to our newspapers.

Timpone told me The Sun’s editions are funded by various conservative advocacy groups.

The Virginia Independent is owned by the American Independent Foundation, controlled by Democratic operative David Brock.

Brock, a former writer for the conservative American Spectator, fueled a sexual harassment suit against then-President Bill Clinton with his 1994 “Troopergate” investigation.

But Brock had a very public change of heart in the mid 1990s, becoming a liberal activist and Democratic party fundraiser for Hillary Clinton.

Brock has founded several liberal organizations, including the super Pac American Bridge 21^st Century, which specializes in opposition research on Republican candidates.

Reserve your seat for our candidate forum

Save the date and reserve your seat for the WHRO/Williamsburg Watch candidate forums next month at the Williamsburg Regional Library on Scotland Street.

Candidates for the James City County board of supervisors, and the Williamsburg-James City County School board, will answer questions from our panel and from attendees Oct. 8 from 6:00 – 7:30 p.m.

The forum for candidates for the local House of Delegates seats will be Oct. 15.

Seats are limited, so register at this link today: https://www.whro.org/whro-events/event/williamsburg-candidate-forums-17-09-2025-12-40-06

Curbside recycling is being paused in James City and York counties this month.

The Virginia Peninsula’s Public Service Authority board of directors voted Tuesday to terminate its recycling contract with Tidewater Fiber Corporation effective Sept. 30. That contract serviced customers in James City and York Counties and the cities of Williamsburg and Poquoson.

The group cited “significant performance issues” including lack of documentation from Tidewater Fiber to back up its billing, missing records, failure to meet performance standards and increasing amounts of spilled trash and fluids due to what it said was the poor condition of vehicles.

Since the pickup operates on a biweekly schedule, that means some customers will not receive any further service before the agreement terminates next week.

James City County advised its customers to hold on to their carts, but stop adding recyclables to them and use the county’s convenience centers until a new solution is found. York County told its customers they will pick up recycling during October and treat it as regular trash, and stop collecting after Oct. 31. Williamsburg said it had contracted with Republic, its regular trash collector, to handle curbside collections without interruption

James City spokesperson Renee Dallman said the authority acted after Tidewater Fiber rejected its demands for a restated contact, demanded a higher rate and threatened to terminate the contract Oct. 1 if an agreement was not met.

“VPPSA has elected to terminate the contract with TFC on its own terms to provide greater certainty to the localities as they work to provide recycling solutions for their communities,” the spokesperson said.

For more details, customers were directed to their local service authority:

James City County: jamescitycountyva.gov
York County: www.yorkcounty.gov/recycle
City of Williamsburg: williamsburgva.gov

Home sales – and prices – increased last month in most of the Historic Triangle, where home values are firmly above the statewide average, according to the Virginia Association of Realtors.

James City County saw the largest jump in home sales in August, up 25% from the previous year to 159 total sales. Median sales prices increased 3%, to $485,000.

Average home prices in Virginia increased to $430,000 last month, the Realtors’ group said.

York County sales increased 6% to 85 sales, and median sales prices increased 3% to $445,000.

Only Williamsburg saw a drop in sales, down 45% to 12 sales, while the median sales price jumped 57% to $561,200. Because of the small volume of sales in the city, its numbers can fluctuate dramatically from month to month.

“Inventory growth has been one of the big stories of 2025,” said the group’s Chief Economist Ryan Price. “With listings up more than 26% from last year, buyers across the commonwealth are seeing more options than they’ve had in a long time. While supply is improving, demand continues to be tempered by economic uncertainty.”

Homes are also taking longer to sell, according to the Realtors group.

The median days on market reached 17 days, five days longer than last August, marking the slowest August pace since 2019. Pending sales, however, showed modest momentum, rising 3.4% year-over-year.

Mortgage rates remain elevated, though they have trended modestly downward. The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate dropped to 6.26% in mid-September, the lowest in nearly a year.

“The recent drop in mortgage rates is a positive sign for both buyers and sellers,” said Virginia Realtors President Lorraine Arora. “If that trend continues, we could see stronger sales to close out what has been a muted year so far.”

Area tourism bucks national downward trend

Williamsburg is bucking the downward trend in tourism spending this year, the CEO of Visit Williamsburg told the James City County supervisors Tuesday.

Edward Harris said the taxes collected from overnight guests who stay at hotels, motels, Airbnb’s, timeshares, bed and breakfasts and campgrounds are up 10.3% in the past year in the Historic Triangle.

“While tourism has been soft nationally, Virginia has been resilient…especially Williamsburg,” Edward Harris said.

Harris said consumer concerns about the economy could lower travel spending nationally by as much as $18 billion.

The economy is seeing a growing gap between spending for luxury travel for well-heeled consumers, which is up 4.1%, and spending on midscale and budget hotels, which is down 1.5% this year.

But destinations that consumers can drive to for a relatively inexpensive weekend getaway are doing better, Harris added.