Matt Kelly is no longer on City Council, but from his decades-long experience working on city matters, he has some advice for the new Council and the citizens who will build the City’s tomorrow.
by Matt Kelly
GUEST COLUMNIST
I wish to thank the citizens of Fredericksburg for allowing me to serve our community on City Council, various boards and commissions for the past few decades. I want to also thank the new City Council members who acknowledged during the recent election campaign what a great and accepting city we live in.
Before I shift gears in my life I want to pass on a few observations as I have seen and participated in the ups and downs of this city and feel I have some insight that may be of value for the future.
People and Tools
It is easy to get wrapped up in projects, those golden shovel moments, and photos ops, and sometimes forget the people who work to make them happen. Making sure there is clean water, the streets are safe, and ambulances and fire trucks arrive on time is more important than any golden shovel moment or photo op.
We have police and fire equipment in need of replacement, and staffing issues with police, fire, social services and schools. I’ve seen a needed fire station put off three times while on council.
Our city faces issues with the water and sewer system, and transportation infrastructure. To ensure staff retention and ensure equipment is available, working effectively and efficiently, we need to ensure pay parity as well as safe and dependable equipment.
In addition to salaries, we need to look at adopting a life cycle maintenance program, which has been adopted by other jurisdictions and organizations, that expand the life of equipment and provides a long-range blue printed for equipment needs.
Historic Preservation
When the City Council passed the current Preservation Plan it included the establishment of an independent Preservation Commission to help oversee, support, and ensure city compliance with the Preservation Plan.
It was to have been implemented this past year but that did not happen.
This commission needs to be established as quickly as possible to understand the current development pressures Fredericksburg faces. Further the commission needs to be as independent as possible to provide the City Council and staff with the expertise and information it needs to hear and consider.
If we lose what makes this community unique, we become nothing more than another stop on the I-95 corridor and an end to a vibrant self-sufficient city.
The preservation issue now before us is the Renwick Courthouse. The Renwick Working Group should continue its work dealing with the restoration and re-use of this building of national significance.
The immediate focus needs to be stopping the building’s further deterioration and completing exterior repairs to prevent further degradation. If nothing else, this work would be necessary to make the building marketable for a public-private project. It would also help to secure national historic designation thereby ensuring federal funding to meet the goals outlined to Council at its last meeting.
Sustainability
On the issue of waste management, the R-Board has recently adopted policies necessary to undertake public-private partnerships with local haulers to expand efforts in recycling, composting, and solar energy. Preliminary discussions have centered on building a Materials Recovery Facility at the landfill to expand recycling efforts.
Sharing the cost and benefits of these projects with the private sector is the only cost effective way we can bring about these such improvements in addition to others related to composting and solar energy. The R-Board has already done such a project with the gas conversion to energy project with AMERESCO.
21st Century Transportation
We can’t end traffic congestion by building more roads. We need to invest in a multi-modal transportation system including transit and trains.
Discussions recently started between the Fredericksburg Regional Bus System (FRED), the Fredericksburg Area Metropolitan Transportation Authority (FAMPO), and the Potomac, Rappahannock Transportation Commission (PRTC) which oversees OmniRide commuter and bus service from Prince Willam County into Washington, DC.
Recently OmniRide began running commuter bus service to DC from Spotsylvania and Stafford Counties. These discussions, whose focus is to build closer collaboration between FRED and PRTC has the potential of rapidly expanding transit in the region.
These discussions are also an opportunity for the city to learn from PRTC recent planning efforts on building fossil free infrastructure. Recently PRTC also looked at outlining the cost associated with fossil free infrastructure, the future of fossil free technology, and a long-term plan to implement a fossil free strategy.
There are significant upfront costs associated with this technology and having a transitional plan is a requirement for significant state/federal funding.
As the city embarks on its Comprehensive Plan review, I would strongly urge using the expertise of both FAMPO and the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT). Specifically, their transportation modeling and understanding of the regional and state transportation system. We have a very good and hardworking planning staff, but they do not have the expertise FAMPO and VDOT are able to offer.
Sustainable Growth
We are a small city in the fastest growing region in Virginia, and we can’t plan in a vacuum. Council needs to take the time to fully understand the development going on all around us and its impacts on our future development.
There also needs to be an understanding of the infrastructure costs associated with planned development. We also need to understand the level of services necessary to support the level of development we adopt. We cannot close our eyes to this. It is our reality.
Finally, when Council meets for it’s retreat later this year, I would strongly suggest building a bit more flexibility in the city’s Goals & Priorities. We currently do not seem to have the flexibility to deal with the ups and downs that the city will go through.
It is also interesting to note that capital equipment and basic services are not directly mentioned. More needs to be addressed regarding basic services. We need to ensure basic services are provided as that is the number one goal of any governmental organization.
Fredericksburg is a great city in which to live and raise a family. But it is a city that faces many challenges in the future. If City Council faces those challenges honestly, keeps the community informed of the pros and cons and long-term direction, makes the strategic investments necessary, and keeps the focus on Fredericksburg’s unique character, it will remain the city that attracted us all here in the first place.
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