Community groups feel the pinch

By Kelly Alm

The fiscal 2009 budget has alloted $477,650 in funding for 33 community organizations, but that includes only $12,731 in new money.

These organizations meet a number of needs in the county, providing services that the county often has neither the resources or expertise to provide. Such services include health and medical care for low-income people; food and employment assistance; tutoring and day care; help for the elderly and disabled; dispute resolution; and historical preservation and education. Others are responsible for county entertainment events such as First Night in Warrenton, and the county fair.

For FY 2009, the responsibility for funding these organizations was returned from individual departments to a single fund. The change is designed to improve monitoring and accountability.

Despite rising rents, utilities, and resources weighing on many of these organizations, the only funding increases made were those previously approved by the board of supervisors.

The most significant increases are a $5,184 hike for the Rappahannock-Rapidan Regional Commission and a $5,000 raise for the Disability Services Board.

The Occoquan Watershed Monitoring also received a $2,386 increase.

Approximately a dozen organizations received the amount of funding that they requested, even though they did not receive an increase. However, approximately another dozen organizations received less funding than they asked for, and subsequently expect to struggle to meet their goals in the upcoming fiscal year.

The Afro-American Historical Association (AAHA), located in the Plains, requested $15,000 and received $1,000, the greatest discrepancy between funding requested and received. AAHA President Karen White said the association, which relies on both a paid staff and volunteers, needs the money to cover operational costs, projects and outreach. “We appreciate any amount, but there is so much more we could do,” White said.

The AAHA would like to expand its research on the underground railroad and local segregation, as well as printed literature, such as maps and brochures. Likewise, White said they would like to develop grade-level appropriate tours for the school groups that visit, but underfunding prevents them from doing so.

“The history that exists here is not circulating in as many minds and homes as it could be,” White said. “It needs to be preserved and made available.”

The Elk Run Site Preservation Project is in the same boat. It is working to restore the southern Fauquier site of the county's first Anglican church. The project committee requested $9,000, but received a mere $1,500.

Ed Dandar, chairman of the preservation committee, said that it is a shame the project isn't receiving more funding since it will be difficult to finish the project for Fauquier's 250^th anniversary. Since the project began in 1999, it has relied solely on volunteer and pro bono work.

Dandar said that funding is needed to cover the cost of materials, as well as a minimal amount of professional labor to complete aspects of the project that volunteers aren't qualified to do.

“Everything will help, but we could really use more to get it finished by 2009,” Dandar said. “It's where the county's history began,” he said.