Save the programs on the chopping block, many speakers urged at last night's public hearing on Chesterfield County's fiscal 2011 budget, which drew an overflow crowd to the county's public meeting room.
More than a hundred people signed up to speak, and many of the initial speakers focused on painful cuts in the Parks and Recreation Department and libraries, proposed at 15 percent and 17 percent, respectively.
The county's outdoor programming -- all of which could be eliminated -- and Rockwood Nature Center, which faces closure, were particular topics of interest.
Mac McMullen, a Boy Scout and eighth-grader at Midlothian Middle School, asked supervisors to keep open the nature center, where he has attended camps and now volunteers.
"To permanently eliminate an educational opportunity that the youth of Chesterfield County cannot find anywhere else when their schools are already being cut is just wrong," he said. "Allow us, your future constituents, to preserve what we feel is important."
Liess van der Linden-Brusse, president of the county's historical society, opposed the mothballing of most county historical sites, as part of the $1.6 million cut for Parks and Recreation.
"Now, 400 years of history is threatened with elimination," she said, noting that the sites were opened with taxpayer money. "May we remind you that these are the people's historic sites."
Andrea Brown, with Friends of the Chesterfield Library, made a bid for restored funding to prevent the closure of all nine library branches one day a week.
"More than ever, Chesterfield residents need their libraries open, fully staffed and stocked with up-to-date materials," she said, noting that many residents rely on the branches as a place to search for jobs.
A few speakers addressed funding for the school system, which faces $16 million in additional cuts on top of the $26.5 million already planned by the School Board.
George Sproveri scolded the board for not considering a higher real estate tax rate to offset some of the cuts and help public schools. Only one supervisor, Chairman Daniel A. Gecker, favored advertising a 4-cent increase of 99 cents per $100 of assessed value.
Because of declining assessments, that increase would have generated the same amount of real estate revenue as the current rate and caused little change in tax bills.
"The other four members of this board that turned down his proposal, turned down the equivalent -- on a $200,000 home -- of a cup of coffee a week to stop some of the educational hemorrhaging in this county," Sproveri said.
Many others thanked supervisors for saving their dollars during tough times.
The total general fund budget is $700.4 million, a reduction of 2.1 percent from the current budget, which is less than Henrico County's 4 percent. But Chesterfield last year was forced to cut 4.6 percent while Henrico's spending plan actually rose slightly because real estate tax collections were not squeezed as much.
Henrico was able to make up a large part of its shortfall by eliminating unfilled positions. Chesterfield, which exhausted that option last year, is faced with eliminating 84 full-time and 61 part-time positions.
Contact Wesley P. Hester at (804) 649-6976 or whester@timesdispatch.com.
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