Gary Wilson is an outright, pathological liar; and I have proof.

Here’s what Gary Wilson had to say about the National Boy Scout Jamboree leaving Caroline County in today’s edition of the Richmond Times-Dispatch:

Meanwhile, Caroline County Economic Development Director Gary Wilson said yesterday that the county wasn’t particularly stung by the loss, because the jamboree was self-contained and didn’t add that much to the local economy.

[…]

The jamborees routinely attract 30,000 to 40,000 Boy Scouts and their leaders, along with hundreds of thousands of visitors.

Despite those numbers, Wilson said the jamborees typically have not left a massive economic footprint on the locality, primarily because the participants tend to arrive in buses, go directly to the military post and stay there.

“We did a study after the last jamboree that indicated the actual increase in sales for a two or three-week period every year was about $815,000,” Wilson said. “Caroline County is not particularly feeling any sting from the loss of the Boy Scouts, frankly. A.P. Hill is hermetically sealed, practically, and we just didn’t get very much out of it.”

First, it’s absolutely amazing that the Economic Development Director considers $815,000 to be chump change. Especially as the county is forcing the Sheriff’s Office to give unpaid furloughs to sheriff’s deputies due to budget cuts.

And here’s what Gary Wilson had to say about the National Boy Scout Jamboree after the ACLU successfully sued the Department of Defense on the grounds that the DOD couldn’t constitutionally provide support to the Boy Scouts of America and thus the jamboree couldn’t be held at Fort A.P. Hill (the case has since been successfully appealed and the Boy Scouts could legally hold the jamboree there):

Losing the jamboree would be a serious blow for Caroline, which gets about $1 million in revenue during the event, said Gary Wilson, the county’s economic development director. Events such as model train shows and book fairs are timed to coincide with the jamboree, and local businesses print up promotional material to hand out to Scouts’ families.

Residents work at the event and sell the Scouts raw materials, and guests fill hotels and restaurants.

“Our hotels are booked four years in advance,” Wilson said.

That’s from the July 17, 2005 edition of The Washington Post.

From the May 23, 2004 edition of The Free Lance–Star:

Caroline County, a popular stopover for people visiting Paramount’s Kings Dominion, isn’t expecting a significant increase in visitation this summer. But the numbers should climb next year, said Gary Wilson, the county’s economic development director.

[…]

“We’ll also have the 2005 Boy Scout Jamboree,” Wilson said. “That’s always a plus.”

And then there’s this story from WFLS from September 10, 2003:

Having your name on a Boy Scout logo…Priceless.

Soon Boy Scouts everywhere will be recognizing Caroline County.

The organization is changing its international jamboree logo to include a prominent reference to the county. Economic Development Director, Gary Wilson, says by the year 2005, just in time for the next event, every item related to the Boy Scout Jamboree will say Caroline County, Virginia.

Wilson says this is a thank you from the Boy Scout organization

The recognition is expected to be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars of free marketing for the county.

And going way back to the October 15, 2001 edition of The Free Lance–Star:

Caroline County made more than $1.25 million in food and hotel-room sales during last summer’s National Scout Jamboree, a new report shows.

The total regional economic impact of the jamboree was expected to be in the tens of millions of dollars, officials from Fort A.P. Hill, which hosts the event, said earlier this summer.

[…]

Caroline’s gross food sales this July were nearly $1.16 million more than for the same month last year, when no jamboree was held, according to the report.

County hotels earned about $128,000 more than last year.

The report also said that gasoline sales were far above typical for July, and that many local contractors and suppliers of building materials were used to prepare A.P. Hill for the jamboree. Exact figures for these two sectors were not available for the report, Wilson said.

Great one, Gary: National Boy Scout Jamboree moving to Goshen, Virginia.

I wonder how much sales and gasoline taxes the country is going to lose from buses that used to stop at Carmel Church (Richmond Times-Dispatch):

The Boy Scouts of America may be doing a good deed for Virginia and West Virginia.

The organization announced yesterday it has settled on Goshen, Va., as the permanent home for its national jamboree. The community is in Rockbridge County near the George Washington National Forest.

[…]

Scout officials told the Charleston Daily Mail the decisions come after an 18-month review of possible locations to create a national scouting center. The center would focus on creating a permanent home for the jamboree, establishing a new high-adventure base and creating new training opportunities.

Now, can someone explain to me why the county is paying $200,000+ to the Economic Development Office for Gary Wilson’s expert leadership? Can someone show me a single thing he has done to get any economic development in the county?

More on that un-freakin’-believable $694,701,315 request from Caroline County: It just goes to show that this country has absolutely no priorities.

Can someone explain to me why it cost $30,000,000 to upgrade the county’s current wastewater treatment plant — which can process 0.5 million gallons of wastewater per day — to a facility that can process 1.5 million gallons per day (MGD) (Potential Economic Stimulus Package Projects, p. 1), but only cost $11,000,000 to upgrade the facility to a 3 mgd design (Id., p. 12)? Is that $11,000,000 in addition to the $30,000,000 needed for the 1.5 mgd upgrade?

Hell, they even included a request for $39,000,000 to upgrade the facility to a 6 mgd design (Id., p. 39). Again, is that in addition to the money necessary to upgrade to the 1.5 mgd and 3 mgd designs? Does the county really think that they are going to need the ability to process 12 times the amount of the waste they can process now?

Then you have the county’s request for $12,600,000 to construct a Public Safety Building (Id., p. 5). They note that “[d]ue to limited space the County’s Public Safety Departments, Caroline County Sheriff and Fire & Rescue are located in multiple facilities that greatly impact their operational efficiency. The low crime rate and emergency response capabilities in Caroline County are of paramount importance to the ability of the County to recruit economic development opportunities for the County.”

Note that they seem to think that “economic development opportunities” are more important than us lowly citizens in this country.

Supposedly this is of “paramount importance” to the County, eh? Then why did the country decide that in 2007 that it was a good idea to spend $4,000,000 to buy the old Union Bankshares building and convert it into an county administration building, instead of using it as a public safety building as was request by several officials? And why is that when County Administrator Percy Ashcraft proposed a $16,000,000 public bond referendum for a public safety building in early 2008, the Board of Supervisors completely ignored the proposal? So, how much of a “paramount importance” is the public safety building?

Care to guess what the single most expensive item on the list? $120,000,000 for “Carmel Church Multimodal Transportation Center” (that’s what politicians call a “train station”) (Id., p. 16). Not only is it the single most expensive item on the list, but it beats the second most expensive item by 100% (The $59,754,000 request for the Rappahannock River Water Treatment Plant). Not only do they want $120,000,000 for a bloody train station but it’s ranked as a higher priority than new and upgraded construction for schools!

And speaking of that Rappahannock River Water Treatment Plant, uh…why does anyone think we need a 12 mgd water treatment facility in northern Caroline County? Is it for that booming development known as Haymount? Oh wait, they were drilling their own wells and they haven’t built a single house despite having the development approved a decade and a half ago.

Then there’s the tens of millions dollars requested to expand the coverage area of their existing water and sewer coverage. The county can’t provide adequate services to the areas that are in their coverage area, and they want to extend it?

And can someone tell me what a “speculative distribution building” is and why it cost $23,000,000 (Id., p. 16)? You would think that with all the speculation that has occurred in the real estate market in the last couple years, the last thing a government would be involved with would be “speculative” building.

Only in Caroline, folks…

Un-freakin’-believable: Caroline County requests $694,701,315 in funds from the federal stimulus.

That works out to almost $25,000 per citizen.

Do they not realize that they just requested $694,701,315 in funding? Not $6,947,013.15 in funding, not $69,470,131.50 in funding, but $694,701,315. Do those idiots realize how much freakin’ money that is? It’s almost 10 times the amount of their yearly operating budget!

And the sheer volume of these requests reduces the likelihood of actually getting a dime from the government. They’re just going to laugh in the county’s face when they get this list.

$120,000,000 for a fraking train station?!

This crap just reinforces the perception that Caroline County is populated with — and ran by — a bunch of hicks and idiots.

Everyone on that Board needs to be voted out of office, and whoever on the county staff decided that the $694,701,315 figure was a good idea needs to be fired.

FFS, I give up.

Stimulus package – 2009.pdf

Stimulas Package Projects spreadsheet.pdf

Assorted idiots from “Friends of Tidewater Trail” v. Caroline County et al.: A copy of the idiots’ filing.

Here’s a copy of their filing in PDF (1.43 MB).

Once I have a chance to give it a thorough read through I’ll write-up a post with my thoughts.

Assorted idiots from “Friends of Tidewater Trail” suing Caroline County, et al. for granting a special exception permit to Clark’s Cut II.

Plaintiffs include Carl Helfin, Kathy Bullock, Gilbert and Judy Shelton, Joe and Patricia Parker, and John and Lois Garrett. There are 12 plaintiffs in total. Not all are listed on the online Circuit Court records so I can’t tell you all the people involved.

Defendants are the Caroline County Board of Supervisors, the County of Caroline, Clark’s Cut II LLC, and Emmet Snead.

Not sure what the plaintiffs are alleging. I’ll drop by the Circuit Court tomorrow and see what has been filed in the case (which will also give me a list of all 12 plaintiffs).

Nice to see that some things are changing in Caroline County…

Richmond Times-Dispatch:

Caroline Because of budget constraints, the Caroline County newsletter will not be delivered in the mail to residents, county officials announced. Until further notice, the newsletter only will be posted on the county’s Web site:
http://www.co.caroline.va.us.

One thing that annoyed the heck out of my last year was that a week before the November 2007 elections, the County decided that it would be a great idea to send out those newsletters out talking about how great every Board member was. Nice to see one district figured it out even with the paid advertisements from the county.

Why are we [the county] paying this guy $18,693.20 a year?

Jeff Sili at the November 13, 2008 Board of Supervisors meeting:

[flv:https://www.imsurroundedbyidiots.com/videos/gardengnome.flv 352 240]

Well, look what yours truly (this enterprising hate-blogger), found in five minutes of looking at the county’s web site. Caroline County Zoning Ordinance, Article XV, Section 19, Resource Sensitive Area Overlay District, Purpose and Intent (p. 15-56):

The purpose of this district is to protect and promote the public health, safety and general welfare by encouraging the most desirable development and use of land along the Route 17/Rappahannock River Valley corridor that reflects the historical development patterns within the corridor, to encourage architectural designs and land development patterns which result in functional and attractive relationships between buildings, cultural, historical, natural and scenic resources and the surrounding areas, and to preserve the agricultural use of land that dominates the corridor.

It is the intent of this district to implement the Resource Sensitive Area designation of the Comprehensive Plan.

And the Permitted Uses in the Resource Sensitive Area Overlay District, Section 19.5 (Ibid., at p. 15-57) [emphasis mine]:

All uses permitted by right or by special exception/use in the underlying zoning district(s).

And the Caroline County Comprehensive Plan, Chapter Eight – Land Use (p. 8-9 – 8-11):

RESOURCE SENSITIVE AREAS

The land bounded by the Rappahannock River, Portobago Creek, the Fort A.P. Hill Boundary and Snow Creek (collectively the “Corridor”) is an unusual, if not unique, area for a number of reasons.

The area is the location of significant wetlands. These wetlands function as habitat for numerous species, including game species and threatened or endangered species. Eagles nest along portion portions of the Corridor. The area is a watershed for the Rappahannock River, a significant tributary of the Chesapeake Bay. The Rappahannock River is an unusually scenic river that is used for recreational purposes as well as water supply.

The area has attracted people for centuries, resulting in rich archeological resources ranging from prehistoric to colonial artifacts and sites. Because so much of the area has remained in private hands through the years, these resources have remained largely untapped.

The Corridor area is separated from the balance of the County by Fort A.P. Hill, which results in the funneling of commercial traffic into other jurisdictions such as Fredericksburg and Tappahannock. Because of the planned location of a commuter station near Fredericksburg, there will be an increase in the pressure for development within the Corridor. Traditional forms of unrestricted large lot subdivision development within the Corridor have not achieved the results desired by the County.

Large lot development still require that County services be extended to the Corridor area. Fire and police protection must be provided. Schools must be provided, and school buses still must travel to the most remote ends of the County. Unrestricted large lot development often leaves control of significant archeological features in private hands as well as leaving significant environmental features controlled by individuals and often unavailable to the public. Such development has the potential for increased runoff into the river and the unregulated destruction of both the scenic natures of the river and significant habitat features such as eagle roosting trees.

Unrestricted large lot development within the Corridor will likely preclude the achievement of other goals deemed significant by the County. Farms may not be protected or preserved, they may simply be divided into large housing tracts. If overall density is kept too low within this portion of the County, then the goals of stimulating new commercial development will not be achieved and the money of County residents will continue to be spent in other jurisdictions and the accompanying tax dollars associated with such expenditures will benefit those other jurisdictions.

Finally, because development pressure generated by the proximity of the commuter rail and the beauty of the Corridor is likely to be strong, detailed planning for this area is warranted.

Consequently, the Corridor is designated a “Resource Sensitive Area” (Figure 8-9) in which the following additional objectives are to be pursued:

OBJECTIVES

Objective 1

Encourage the use of innovative designs and planning to achieve goals which may be especially important within the Corridor. Encourage the use of planned unit developments, which cluster units and permanently preserve large areas of open space. Such developments should be designed to achieve the following:

  1. To develop according to a design derived from the natural forms while striving to preserve
    existing terrain, vegetation and other natural features;
  2. To develop a mixture of private and public uses that are organized in such a way as to be compatible with each other and with surrounding areas;
  3. To develop creatively, producing an efficient network of streets, walkways, utilities, and open areas;
  4. To develop a broad range of housing types and styles;
  5. To develop communities in which the social and community interaction is encouraged through a balanced mixture of compatible uses and through the provision of public or quasi-public facilities intended to foster social interaction;
  6. To develop according to high standards of land planning and site design in order to create
    distinctive visual character and identity for integrated development;
  7. To develop so that facilities and programs reduce reliance on the private automobile as a
    means of transportation and reduce the effect of development on the transportation network; and
  8. To develop so that necessary public facilities will be available contemporaneously with occupancy of new development by its citizens.
  9. To encourage the preservation of agricultural/forestal lands by preserving open space and reducing the potential for interface problems between agricultural/forestal and nonagricultural/forestal uses.

In general, the County desires to stimulate a flexible approach to land development that encourages the comprehensive design and integration of residential, commercial, cultural and recreational uses in a manner that will achieve the greatest harmony with the existing ecological balance in the area.

Objective 2

Require any development within a Resource Sensitive Area to document its likely impact in the following areas and to mitigate such impacts through necessary on-site and off-site measures:

  • Archeological resources;
  • Wetland resources;
  • River frontage and access;
  • Drainage and water quality;
  • County infrastructure and resulting fiscal impact;
  • Botanical and Wildlife habitat with special attention to threatened or endangered species;
    and
  • Existing Agricultural or timbering operations.

In undertaking assessment of these impacts the developer should consider the impact of other existing and planned developments within the Corridor as well. The County should strive for a design concept that utilizes carefully planned communities to attract residential density into towns, which significantly reduce the resource impact of such development. These towns should be developed in a context that resists the development of immediately adjourning development for the distance necessary to accommodate any unfiltered residual impacts. Thus, significant development cannot be located immediately adjacent to areas already identified for development but instead must provide sufficient separation for full mitigation. Moreover, “infill” development must also overcome such impacts on the area’s resources. Designs, which result in substantial “greenbelts”, are to be particularly encouraged.

Objective 3

Require that all development within a Resource Sensitive Area limit the number and extent of accesses to the Rappahannock River (or any other significant adjacent waterbody) and specifically plan where public access to that waterbody may be appropriate. Development fronting upon the river should be required to reduce its visual impact on the river so that, in any event, the minimum necessary river frontage is opened or developed.

Objective 4

Recognizing that the studies required for development within the Resource Sensitive Area, the reservation of substantial open spaces and the limitations on development necessary to adequately protect the resource area are sometimes expensive, the County should, in cases where it is appropriate to do so, permit developments meeting the objectives set forth herein, but only when such development independent of other County revenues, generate sufficient revenues to provide the infrastructure necessary for support of such density, including but not limited to, adequate water and sewer facilities, public roads, and sites for schools and other municipal facilities.

Objective 5

Because of the importance of achieving the objectives set forth for the Resource Sensitive Area, developers should be encouraged to proffer resource related mitigation measures and to commit in detail to the parameters of any proposed development.

Objective 6

Encourage the “scenic” designation of Tidewater Trail (Route 17) in order to preserve its natural charm, beauty and historic character. The County recognizes, however, that Route 17 is a primary transportation link to Tidewater Virginia. As such, this road must continue to be used by all types of vehicles, including trucks and other commercial vehicles.

The goals and objectives set forth in this section are to be applicable to residential development and commercial uses, such as fast food restaurants, convenience stores or other commercial uses arising from residential development. These goals and objectives shall not be applied to, other commercial uses arising from residential development. These goals and objectives shall not be applied to, otherwise limit or interfere with, any use, such as agriculture, silviculture, horticulture or sand and gravel extraction operations, permitted by right or by special exception within the zoning district in the Corridor.

Especially note part of the last paragraph: “These goals and objectives shall not be applied to, otherwise limit or interfere with, any use, such as agriculture, silviculture, horticulture or sand and gravel extraction operations, permitted by right or by special exception within the zoning district in the Corridor.

Nice to see Jeff Sili is doing his job!

Pop quiz: How are Caroline County and the federal government alike?

Both of them built visitors center that went over-budget and took forever to complete (Citizens Against Government Waste Press Release):

The nation’s premier taxpayer watchdog group, Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today expressed dismay over the exorbitant final price tag for the Capitol Visitors Center (CVC).

Initially conceived in the early 1990s and projected to cost $71 million, the CVC has become an example of out-of-control government contracting and mismanagement. After costs ballooned and construction schedules spiraled out of control, the three-level, underground monument to congressional excess finally came in at a whopping $621 million and three years behind schedule.

“The mismanagement and bloat associated with the construction of the Capitol Visitors Center is emblematic of the rampant waste in the nation’s capitol,” said CAGW President Tom Schatz. “This boondoggle should give pause to anyone contemplating the expenditure of hundreds of billions more taxpayer dollars for any federal infrastructure projects as part of any new stimulus package. Like the federal budget itself, Congress used the CVC as a warehouse for tens of millions of dollars in extravagant bells and whistles for itself. Even more reprehensible, members of Congress seeking to add special features for themselves used security concerns surrounding the September 11 attacks to justify their extravagant add-ons and constant change orders.”

H/t: Matt “threat to Democracy” Drudge

More lies from the Caroline County government and The Free Lance–Star

From that rag (get your own link):

The visitors center was nine years in the planning and building, as the county sought private sponsorships and slowly amassed the money to pay for the 7,000-square-foot building, which also houses the county’s Department of Economic Development and Tourism.

No tax money went into the project; it was funded entirely by grants, gifts and donations.

Oh, really? Then why did the county borrow $600,000 or so just to finish building the visitors center?

The debt service on that loan will be paid out of the transient occupancy fund (that money comes from the transient occupancy tax) and the general fund (real estate and personal property taxes).

Not only that, but the county decided a whole next position was needed just to run the visitors center: the “tourism manager”, Kathy Beard.

The county is also in the process of hiring three or more “travel counselors” to staff the visitors center!