Affordable Housing

I keep hearing the term "affordable housing". Affordable to who? What income level is used to determing if housing is affordable? Help me solve this mystery by taking a quick survey. (Click on the online survey to the right).

Rural Areas Study

The question of how, and indeed do, we preserve the rural character of the county that still remains has been brought to the forefront of the publics mind. No doubt you have seen or read about the public hearing that was held at the planning commission meeting. Many participants, mostly local farmers, came out to express their opinions about the proposal to reduce the density of undeveloped land from 5 acres to 10 acre minimum lot size. Landowners and the farming community is mostly concerned about the reduction of value in their land when they decide to sell it for development or, for the farmers, the ability to sell off 5 acre lots to pay for unforseen emergencies requiring cash flow.

The Winchester Star editorial recently weighed in on this issue with a one-sided opine about the virtues of a previous rural areas study (last edited copy March 2005). While this document may be a good starting point, it fails to enumerate or detail the potential effects on our existing infrastructure such as roads, schools, emergency services, etc. Should we not consider the impact on all citizens of Frederick County as well as the owner of the properties? Will not the sell off of our rural land have an impact on taxes on all citizens, as well as its consequences on the viewshed?

How long will Frederick County be a member of the agricultural community? Will one of our greatest assets, rural/open land be lost forever to development?  There are obviously methods and means to solve this issue. Chairman Shickle has taken a huge step forward by appointing a committee to gather input from all sources, study and debate that information and then make a recommendation to the Board of Supervisors for consideration.

What do you think?

Consolidation/Cooperation?:

Raising its head again is the issue of consolidation. I say let's give it some public debate and then make a decision. My thoughts? Reading the reports, I saw nothing that gave me a warm and fuzzy feeling that this was the right thing to do at this point. Where is the cost savings? How would the governing body be organized? Who assumes what debt? Will Winchester's tax rate go down and Frederick County's up? So many questions, so few answers at this point.

Let me know your thoughts.

Fee for Service (May it rest in peace, for the time being)

How long has it been since you had to have the emergency services ambulance transport you to the hospital? Maybe never? If you have a need to utilize this service, should you pay? Do you consider this separate from the fire fighting operation? It seems most of the local fire/rescue companies have an aversion to the fee for service as it would apply to the emergency transport function. They believe that if a fee is enacted it will reduce the amount of money generated from their fundraising efforts and that will impact their whole service delivery operation. Will it? One suggestion I heard was to enact a "fire tax". Why? Maybe the whole idea of  "fire and rescue" companies should be visited. Is it time to separate fire from rescue? Would that solve the problem of folks not contributing to "fire" companies because it is a separate function not provided by the dedicated individuals and/or paid staff in the "volunteer" stations? Food for thought.

Something on your mind?

If there is anything you are concerned about or you just want to let me know of something taking place in your community that I should be aware of, please let me know. I can be reached via email or by phone at 540 247 4147.

Thanks!