Transcription
Dumfries says
By Peter Kaplan
Journal staff writer
Dumfries officials are hoping to harness
burgeoning growth in the town to reverse
its long-held reputation as one of the
county's backwater jurisdictions.
The growth could usher in a new era for
the town, which some residents feel has
been used as a dumping ground for unwanted
Prince William projects.
Because past town councils have done
little to protect its interests, Dumfries has
been saddled with a number of unpopular
county projects, such as the Potomac
Landfill, said Mayor Robert McClanahan.
Most recently. town council members
were taken aback when they discovered
the county is considering a 30-bed home-
'Don't pick on us'
- Town resists shelter/A26
less shelter there, and that the Virginia
Power Company was stringing a massive,
500-kilovolt power transmission line
through the town.
Dumfries officials are concerned that the
shelter will bring drug users and the mentally
ill into the town.
And they worry about possible health
effects of the electromagnetic field generated
by the power line.
Recent studies have not confirmed suspected
links between the powerful electromagnetic
fields and cancer and Leukemia.
But the 500-kilovolt field is so strong it will
disrupt electronic equipment and will even
light up unconnected fluorescent bulbs
nearby, according to Khazar Westi of the
state health department's toxic substances
bureau.
Town officials did not oppose the power
line, which will lie across 100-foot towers
on Route 1, when Virginia Power told them
about plans for it during the early 1980.
Please see DUMFRIES/A27
The Prince William Journal/POTOMAC Wednesday-Thursday/September 13-14, 1989 A27
Mistakes of past come back to haunt Dumfries
DUMFRIES from A1
They have no way to resist it now,
McClanahan said.
In addition, past town officials
failed to get desperately needed
state funding for roads and water
and sewer projects here.
"We lacked the desire" to get state
funding, said former council member
Samuel Bauckman. Many of the
town's problems came "through lack
of knowledge and inability to deal
with what was going on in
Richmond," he said.
"Time was we had a sleepy little
town," said one Dumfries official.
Now, "we need to take care of it, in
[the] right way."
I just don't think the concern was
here," said Mayor McClanahan. "It's
like they figured they'd wake up
the next morning and the town still
be here.
"But now the world's changing,"
he said. "We're an urban community."
"Nobody's ever stood up to actually
ask questions," McClanahan
said, referring to the power line.
"Now, we ask questions."
During the last 4-5 years, the
development that has transformed
the eastern part of Prince William
County has filtered down to
Dumfries,the oldest incorporated
town in Virginia.
Last month, the council hired
James Crouch to be the first town
manager in its history, responding
to the administrative burden of a
flood of commercial and residential
growth in recent years.
And none too soon, some officials
believe. During the last several
years, the small staff has had
trouble keeping pace with growing
administrative needs, they said.
Crouch will manage a town whose
budget has ballooned from $243,399
in 1980 to $784,779 in 1989. During
the same period, the town's staff
has grown from seven employees to
19.
The changes have brought new
headaches and new responsibilities.
But Brown said he believes it will
also bring the money to deal with
the problems.
The town has issued 345 building
permits so far this year, compared
to 360 in all of last year, and 156 in
all of 1982, Crouch said.
Because of the growth, the town
was sometimes unable to enforce
its own zoning ordinances. "We just
didn't have the manpower to follow
up" on some of the violations, said
Grant Angel, the town building and
zoning officer.
Dumfries will have to spend more
to police some of its streets. The
town is facing a growing drug problem,
with dealers peddling marijuana
and cocaine regularly in Williamstown,
only a mile from town
hall.
During the last fiscal year,
Dumfries officers arrested four
times as many people as the year
before because of the expanding
market for crack, marijuana and
PCP (an hallucinogen), said Acting
Police Chief Calvin L. Johnson.
In addition, the drug trade is
probably responsible for a threefold
increase in the number of robberies
there, Johnson said.
Twenty years ago, Dumfries had
one police officer. Today the department
needs every one of the ten
officers in its budget to cover the
town.
Dumfries' population is projected
to swell from about 3,500 in 1980 to
almost 5,500 by 1990, Angel said.
The growth will dramatically increase
Dumfries' share of state revenues
and widen its tax base, said
Brown.
It was the the town's beefed-up
budget that enabled the council to
hire Croucher. In recent years, it
delayed hiring a town manager
because it did not have the money,
Brown said.
"Now we can afford to do some
things," he said.Transcriber
Adam KitchenLanguage
English
