Let us vote on $189 million govt. center: JCC taxpayers demand referendum

Good morning! In other news: who has the lowest water rates? Man charged in Yorktown crash death of pregnant woman and one other.

Apr 10, 2025

Cost of the proposed government center nearly doubled in 3 years

James City County should hold a referendum on its planned $189.5 million government center, local residents asked in a public hearing on the budget.

A majority of the speakers at a public hearing Tuesday on the county’s proposed $389.5 million budget protested the additional costs it includes for real estate taxes, water and sewage charges. The new budget goes into effect in July.

Speakers focused much of their wrath on the $189.5 million government center, whose projected cost has ballooned to nearly double what consultants estimated when they recommended it in 2022. At the time consultants said building a consolidated facility would over time be cheaper than expanding and renovating the county’s existing offices.

The county plans to borrow money in three separate debt issues over three years, and it will cost taxpayers $15 million a year in debt service, according to the county finance staff.

“Put this to a referendum and let the people decide on this, because you’re spending a lot of money,” Stonehouse resident Jay Everson told the supervisors. Everson, who sits on the county planning commission, said there is time to place the referendum to a vote during November’s elections.

Berkeley resident Chris Henderson said the money used to pay the government center’s debt would be better used to give pay raises to local schoolteachers and fully fund the police department.

“People don’t care about a brand new shiny toy for the municipal government,” said Henderson, who is former chair of the local Republican party. “They’re more interested in putting food on the table and getting their kids properly educated and having safe streets and a fire department that will show up when they need it.”

Seven of the eight residents who spoke complained about the budget’s plan to raise home property taxes by 6.5%. The budget will eliminate a temporary tax credit that was put in place last year to ease the sting of reassessments that raised average property values by double digits.

“The people who work here cannot afford to live here,” county resident Dan Roose said, warning this will continue to drain the county’s workforce.

Earlier, the general manager of the James City Service Authority proposed a budget that will raise combined water and sewage fees by 8.8% starting this summer, to $55.11 a month for the average single-family home. Over the next five years, that monthly bill would rise 45%, to $73.40.

impact of proposed rates on home using 5,000 gallons a month

M. Douglas Robertson said the rate increases would cover rising costs and the need to make capital improvements to maintain an aging infrastructure.

Assistant County Administrator Brad Rinehimer said the government center’s cost increase was driven by several factors:

The county modified the original proposal to include underground parking, changed the building design and beefed up the Emergency Operations Center so it would be sturdy enough to continue operating during a major storm, he said.
Construction costs have been increasing 5-10% every year since the first proposal, Rinehimer added.
The price tag includes furniture, fixtures and equipment, which normally accounts for 10-15% of the total cost.

The two largest components of the county’s proposed $389.5 million budget are a capital improvements fund for construction and purchases, and the general fund for operations.

The general fund is projected to grow by $7.3 million to $262.7 million, according to County Finance Director Sharon McCarthy. She said $2.8 million of that increase will go to fund a portion of the extra money requested by the Williamsburg-James City County School Board.

Nearly 71% of the county’s revenue comes from property taxes, and 75% of that money comes from real estate taxes. McCarthy said removing the tax credit this year will increase the monthly taxes on a $400,000 house by $17 a month, and the owner of an $800,000 house will pay $33 more a month.

The supervisors are scheduled to discuss the budget again during their work session April 22, then adopt it at their regular meeting May 13.

Hunter Nelson Arnold (courtesy York-Poquoson Sheriff’s Office)

Smithfield man charged with homicide in Yorktown crash death of pregnant woman

The driver accused of causing a car crash that killed two people, including a pregnant woman, had a history of drunk driving and has been charged with four felonies, including two counts of homicide, the York-Poquoson Sheriff’s Office announced.

Hunter Nelson Arnold of Smithfield, 22, was driving a Dodge Challenger that crashed into a Honda Fit in Yorktown April 3, a spokesperson for the office said.

The crash killed Williamsburg resident Abigail Pedroza Navarro, 34, who was a passenger in the Honda, and her unborn child. It also killed a passenger in Arnold’s car, 21-year-old James Leslie Stewart of Windsor.

Arnold’s car struck the Honda just after 8 p.m. on April 3, the Sheriff’s office reported. The driver of the Honda was treated for a leg cut and released from the hospital.

Arnold was treated at Riverside Hospital for his injuries but is now at the Virginia Peninsula Regional Jail.

Deputies charged Arnold with a felony DUI for what they said was his third charge for driving with an elevated blood alcohol level in less than five years.

He was also charged with two counts of felony homicide, one count of DUI felony maiming, reckless failure to maintain control and reckless driving for speeding.

Whose water rates will be lower, Williamsburg or James City County? Depends what you count

When he laid out his justification for an 8.8% increase in James City County’s water and sewage rates, the director of the James City Service Authority proudly noted the county would still have the lowest water and sewer rates in Hampton Roads.

A day earlier, Williamsburg’s city manager had said the city would have the lowest rate even if it approves his planned 30% hike in the water rates

What gives?

The county rates provided by M. Douglas Powell, the general manager of the James City Service Authority, lay out monthly costs for both water and sewer for an average home using 5,000 gallons a month.

JCSA comparison of water and sewer rates..

But it does not include a separate monthly charge from the Hampton Roads Sanitation District, the regional organization that treats the wastewater discharged by those sewers. James City residents receive a separate monthly bill from the wastewater agency for that service, and in the case of this writer it easily is half again as much as the JCSA bill.

Williamsburg includes sewer fees in its water bill, a spokeswoman told us.

The city also bills residents quarterly for the sanitation district’s wastewater treatment services and passes that along to the regional agency. Its comparison includes all those fees: