The county is losing money on staffing and maintaining the Historic Port, staff said this week. By Hank Silverberg.
There could be a move to restrict access to the Historic Port of Falmouth beach on the Rappahannock River in Stafford County.
After seeing a report on revenue, Board of Supervisors member Darrell English raised concern about large crowds and the cost of keeping the site open for out-of-town beachgoers.
That report, reviewed by the supervisors at Tuesday night’s meeting, shows that Stafford spent $91,961 on staffing and maintaining the beach in 2023, yet received only $57,550 in revenue from non-residents, who pay $25 per car to use it.
That trend continued this year, with the county spending $70,756 through July 8, while taking in only $54,625.
There were 9,208 out-of-town visits last year, and 8,740 so far this year.
Residents of Stafford and the City of Fredericksburg can access the beach for free, but according to the report, most of them come during the week. Overcrowding on weekends was attributed to out-of-town guests.
The expenses are mostly for labor—for the fire and rescue squad to be on hand, and for deputies from the Sheriff’s Office to be on patrol.
But the county also pays for trash clean up, portable bathrooms, and credit card equipment to process the parking fee.
English said he’s concerned because the Sheriff’s Office has handled 155 incidents at that beach so far this year.
“I know we can’t close it by law, people have to have access, but I just want to prevent something from happening down there,” English told the Advance. “Something is going to happen.”
According to statistics from the Sheriff’s Office, the number of incidents this year is already an increase from 143 in all of 2023. Most of those incidents were related to intoxication, fights, or illegally parked cars, though there was at least one assault and one indecent exposure.
Two of the incidents this year were water rescues.
By state law, the river must be accessible to the public and Vice Chair Tinesha Allen said the Board can’t just close it.
The Board plans to hold a work session to discuss other options, which could include closing off the parking.
The Sheriff’s Office is already towing away some overflow cars and one industrious local resident is providing parking on his property for the same $25 fee.
The Falmouth beach is just across the Rappahannock from the popular Old Mill Park in Fredericksburg.
English notes that the river is technically in Stafford County, so if anyone from the Fredericksburg side gets into trouble on the water, it is Stafford County which has to respond. That adds even more expense.
No date has been set for the work session on possible Falmouth beach restrictions.
Conditional Use Permit for Elementary School #19 Approved
In other items at Tuesday’s meeting, the Board voted 6-1 to clear the last hurdle for the much-discussed construction of elementary school #19, granting a conditional use permit to waive the height restrictions for buildings in an agricultural zoned area.
This will allow the school building to exceed a height limit of 35 feet. With roof access, the three-story school will now be 57 feet.
That vote came only after the school district construction manager agreed to add mature trees in one area of the site to help block light from the school reaching into an adjacent neighborhood at night.
The new school will take three years to build. The site is next to Brooke Point High School and Stafford Middle School off Black Hawk Drive.
The lone dissenting vote was Supervisor Pamela Yeung, who called approval of the school on the Brooke Point campus a “bad decision, bad location, bad for the neighborhood and bad for transportation.”
Chair Meg Bohmke voted in favor of the height change, but before casting her vote she said, “I still think it’s a terrible location with all the traffic and what will happen over the next three years.”
Some Stafford residents had been complaining about the location of the school since it was approved by the Stafford School Board, raising concern about traffic and bus travel times for future students.
By Hank Silverberg
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