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VRE backers win in Spotsy
Pro-Virginia Railway Express candidates win in Spotsylvania, ensuring the county will join the commuter rail service in February
Date published: 11/4/2009
By DAN TELVOCK The two pro-Virginia Railway Express incumbents won re-election to the Spotsylvania County Board of Supervisors last night, ensuring the county's membership to the commuter rail service. Supervisor Gary Skinner, who represents the Lee Hill District, won easily over challenger D.J. McGuire. Skinner won with 58 percent of the vote based on unofficial results. Supervisor Benjamin Pitts defeated Chris Yakabouski, who held the seat from 2004 to 2007. Pitts took 54 percent of the vote. Both Pitts and Skinner supported VRE membership, which became a top issue in the election after the Board of Supervisors decided in August to join VRE, but opted to wait until after last night's election to make it official in February. Skinner, who held a celebration with friends and family at Danny's Pizza near Massaponax, thought his support for VRE was one of the chief factors in his win. "We had such a great turnout from the VRE supporters," Skinner said. "The people that don't use VRE know it is a good thing for this county." Skinner said he wants to focus on tourism and bringing business to the county in his four-year term. Spotsylvania County moved to staggered terms last year, which meant three districts would have two-year terms for one election cycle. "It is nice to know I have four years to get something done. Two years went really, really fast," Skinner said. The other supervisor with a shortened term, longtime Berkeley representative Emmitt Marshall, was uncontested for re-election. Skinner and Pitts saw their campaign coffers filled late in the campaign with thousands of dollars from developers and Realtors. The Realtors Political Action Committee, an arm of the Association of Realtors, gave both candidates $1,500. Landowner and real estate advisor Fitz Johnson, who is a key VRE supporter, gave $500 to both candidates. Last night's results mark the second election cycle in a row in which Spotsylvania Republicans candidates lost in contested races. McGuire and Yakabouski, received most of their money from local Republican stalwarts, such as Alfred King, Gary Bullis and the Spotsylvania Republican Women's Committee, who gave each candidate more than $2,200 total. Benjamin Pitts said his VRE support did play an important role in his race. "I think the people I represent want to move Spotsylvania forward into the 21st century," Pitts said. "We need to find multi-modes of transportation to address the issue." Pitts said he will focus on education, public safety and transportation issues during his four-year term. Pitts said joining VRE was attractive to him because the county is expecting excess revenue from the 2.1 percent wholesale gasoline tax it will enact by becoming a VRE member. County officials have estimated that after paying its share of VRE operations, the county could have $3 million annually left over to use for local transportation projects. Pitts said the county also needs to do a better job with recycling and building green, energy-efficient buildings. Dan Telvock: 540/374-5438
Read more stories about Spotsylvania Date published: 11/4/2009
Okay, so Spotsy's now been sucked in . . .
(posted by
GRice74
, Nov. 5, 2009 12:50 pm)
It'll be interesting to see how long it takes the VRE scam to make its impact felt. I suppose the first thing we'll see is the county borrowing the $12M they budgeted to build the VRE Station. I wonder how many years of "free money" from the tax it'll take to compensate county taxpayers for that loan (+ interest)? Then there's the escalating VRE costs . . . Let's face it - we've been royally suckered by our friends in Fredericksburg, Stafford, and our own leaders.
Southwest
(posted by
myturn
, Nov. 5, 2009 8:34 am)
Gee thanks Southwest for educating me in this..I feel smarter already...I'm smart enough to know how many millions of dollars this county has wasted...Let's see.. how about 23 million dollars on a mile 1/2 stretch of road out on Gordon for "improvement" Jesus..how much did they spend on that stupid sign sitting out there telling everyone about it. It would have taken less than a million dollars to take care of the employees of Spotsylvania for the last two years..don't preach to me about education!
Don't Thank Me
(posted by
MattKelly
, Nov. 4, 2009 10:13 pm)
Thank the voters of Spotsylvania. I will conceed that the success of VRE now rests with the BOS in making land-use and economic development decisions that take atvantage of the opportunities the VRE will provide.
Johnson
(posted by
wiseman
, Nov. 4, 2009 6:41 pm)
Johnson gave each candidate $500. Wow, what a great investment, how many millions does he stand to make from the sale of the land for VRE. And the realtors gave $1500? Chump change, they stand to make millions from the housing boom we will see from VRE. More traffic, more taxes. Congratulations Matt Kelly, you won yesterday and Spotsy lost.
why
(posted by
Opiniontoshare
, Nov. 4, 2009 6:16 pm)
Not all of the people who don't ride VRE regularly resent the idea of a small tax on gasoline going to benefit VRE riders, as well as directly and indirectly benefitting other commuters. I'm not sure those adamantly opposed to joining VRE realized that prior to yesterday's vote.
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