By Joanne S. Fico

When I was growing up, we had a neighbor who would say, “It’s time to circle the wagons folks,” when times were difficult.

We all knew what he meant with his allusion to the wagon trains of days gone by. Every night when it was dark and scary the wagon train would circle the wagons and create a safe place for all the travelers heading west. They would share stories and songs and sometimes provisions and always give each other the emotional support needed. Together they got through all the hardships. Most of the time Powhatan is much like those wagon trains of old. We circle our wagons and help each other out and make it through the hard times. That is until budget season comes in January. Suddenly it seems everyone is going for the jugular. This is particularly true for the Board of Supervisors (BoS) and the School Board (SB).

This year, however, I had great hopes of better cooperation between these two boards. The school district has a new assistant superintendent in charge of finance who is open and direct and who was able to develop a budget break-down that even I could understand. There seemed to be a feeling of new cooperation between the two boards that was welcomed. But with all these good things came the cloud of doom. If the School Board did not receive an additional $1,376,652 school staff would be laid off - 42.2 people would lose their jobs. Mr. Walton was so impressed by the clarity of the School Board’s budget presentation on Feb. 16 that as chairman of the BoS he said he would try to see if some extra funding could be provided. $1,376,562 would not be feasible but perhaps $200,000 -$300,000 could be shifted to the School Board budget. Mr. Walton is a man of his word. The BoS pared the budget requests from the various county departments and took more out of the general fund than planned. By doing so, the BoS provided the SB with $439,118 in additional funding. Since that Feb. 16 meeting, state funding came through at an additional $203,000 for a total of $642,118 in additional funds.

When asked, Dr. Meara stated that this extra funding would save 18 jobs. This should mean 24.2 people would lose jobs. This is not good but certainly better than the original 42.2 job loss. So why did the SB send out lay-off letters to 36 staff members right before a budget meeting with the BoS? Dr. Meara and SB Chair Mr. Gresham stated at the last SB meeting that the letters were sent out early to give the people involved the best opportunity to look for new employment. I hope this was the motivation but the timing is suspect. Of course, that still doesn’t answer the question of why the SB chose to send out far more letters than needed. Do they not plan to use the extra funding to save jobs? Keep in mind the SB’s required contribution to the State pension fund was almost $125,000 less than anticipated and those additional funds were added to line item fuel costs and not used to save jobs. With the price of oil rising, this was probably a necessary move. Times are tough right now and tough decisions have to be made. Unfortunately, there seems to be a constant implication that the BoS could give the SB the extra funds and save all the jobs if they wanted to do so. This simply is not so.

Folks, it is time to circle the wagons and start thinking about the entire community. The students in the Powhatan School District make up 16 percent of the entire population. Last year if you added the money given to the SB for their operating budget and the money paid on behalf of the School District for the loans taken out to build the High School and Flat Rock Elementary School and Utilities costs, 71 percent of the county’s entire budget was used for school related uses.

The sad truth is, as one school board member recently said to me, there is no magic bullet. Revenues are down, state funding has been reduced and the Federal stimulus money was a one-time extra. Because of this, we are not able to fund either the schools or the other county departments at the levels we would like to. Educating our children is so important but we cannot forget that 100 percent of the population is serviced by the remaining 29 percent of the budget. We cannot provide more funding to the schools without cutting in to that 29 percent. So where do we cut? County buildings must be maintained. We cannot cut our daytime EMT responders because people could die waiting for help.

Our Sheriff’s department can barely keep up with all their calls with the staff they have now.

Our Domestic Violence counselor has saved many woman and children from life threatening abuse. The library has cut their hours multiple times. Maybe we should not have reading readiness programs for the pre-schoolers or provide computers for people who are looking for jobs. Maybe we can forget about all the home schoolers who use the library as a resource. Should we do away with 4H, or the soccer and baseball programs? Would it be OK for our kids to hang out at Sheetz and end up killing one another?

We all should want what is best for everyone. Right now we can’t afford everything and have to make do with what we have. We have to share the resources in the fairest way possible.

We cannot just focus on our own special interest but must take care of the needs of others as well. We need to share what we have so all can survive. Folks, it is time to circle the wagons!

My Point of View welcomes submissions that pertain to life and issues in Powhatan County. The views expressed in the column are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the editorial views of the staff of Powhatan Today.