The Board of Supervisors had a work session today, April 6, on the County’s proposed FY 2020-2021 budget. This meeting was live-streamed on Facebook. You can access the recording of the proceedings at https://www.facebook.com/pg/Westmoreland-County-106190124376685/videos/.

We can’t tell you when, but we anticpate that the GH-CP Sanitary District budget will be taken up at some point during the (recorded) meeting. The County Administrator, Norm Risavi, will present his recommendation to the BOS for the Sanitary District. Mr. Risavi’s recommendation is consistent with the GHCP Association’s request dollar for dollar in each budget category. He kept the Engineering Services line at $46,274 (this is for the Cabin Point Beach Engineering Study) and increased the Contingency Fund from $5,000 to $25,900. This is consistent with his recommendation raising our assumed recreational user fee (RUF) income of $253,000 to $273,900. This increase is based on a review of prior years RUF income and delinquent account collections made by the County. No increase in the RUF was recommended by the Association or the Administrator. The Engineering Study is to secure engineering services for evaluation of land and water conditions and develop options to address long-term erosion control problems and beach replenishment for Cabin Point Beach, and dredging of the Cabin Point Creek inlet channel to maintain a navigable waterway. The identified funds are for the study only and not for project work. Updates on pending waterway and shoreline projects: (1) The County has hired Brandon Basar Construction to undertake the most critical groin repairs along Cabin Point Beach. The start date for the repair work is not set. (2) A request for permit extension has been submitted to VMRC to permit maintenance dredging of the inlet channel at Cabin Point Creek. We anticipate maintenance dredging of the inlet channel will be needed later this year. (3) The contract work and VDOT culvert repairs to Crystal Lane Beach are complete. We are monitoring drainage flow to determine that repairs are performing as expected. If you have further questions or comments about waterway, shoreline, or dredging projects, send them to GHCPAssoc@gmail.com. We’ll be glad to answer your questions directly and post information to gh-cp.org.

(Posted 4.6.2020)