"We Need to Facilitate These Conversations:" Stafford Elected Officials Hold Joint Town Hall
School Board and the Board of Supervisors leadership heard and responded to citizen questions at town hall on Wednesday.
By Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
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The Chair and Vice Chair of the Stafford School Board and Board of Supervisors held a joint town hall on Wednesday evening—offering citizens an opportunity for two-way conversation with their elected leaders, and elected leaders a chance to share how county processes work.
“This is the first time we have ever done this,” said Deuntay Diggs, Chair of the Board of Supervisors, at the beginning of the town hall, which was held in the library of Colonial Forge High School.
Citizens submitted questions and were called by Diggs to ask those questions aloud. The resulting conversations made it clear that Stafford residents have many worries about the future, but also that they love and want the best for the county.
“My heart is full right now,” Diggs said at one point in the meeting.
Diggs was joined by Tinesha Allen, Vice Chair of the Board of Supervisors, and by Maureen Siegmund and Maya Guy, the School Board Chair and Vice Chair. All four elected officials wore t-shirts bearing the hashtag #OneStafford, emphasizing their commitment to strengthening the working relationship between the two boards.
Monica Gary, the Aquia district supervisor, and Virginia Delegate Paul Milde also attended the town hall, along with Daniel Smith, the school division superintendent, and Donna Krauss, deputy county administrator.
Many of the questions and concerns shared by residents had to do with data centers, specifically with a project that has been proposed in the George Washington district in south Stafford, off Kings Highway.
“We want our voices [in opposition to this project] heard,” said one resident. “We need to be heard by the whole board. How can we do that?”
Buc-ees, which has submitted an application to open a location off Courthouse Road in the Garrisonville district, was also a topic of conversation, with one resident asking how the potential revenue from that project would affect taxes.
Diggs and Allen both stressed that neither Buc-ees nor the Kings Highway projects have come before supervisors—or the Planning Commission—for approval. Development applications first go through a review process by county staff, a process that can take nine to 12 months, Diggs said.
The projects will then be subject to public hearings before the Planning Commission and supervisors.
Allen said citizens can track these projects through the staff review process at the county’s website, and that publicly-posted agendas will let residents know when the projects are scheduled to come before the Planning Commission or Board.
“It will never be a situation where the wool is pulled over your eyes,” she said.
Diggs also asked constituents to let the process play out.
“When you hear about these projects that are coming, they cause stress and anxiety,” Diggs said. “[The review] process is meant to work those things [concerns about noise, environmental impact, traffic, etc.] out.”
“I hate to see people be stressed out for a long time,” he continued. Instead of letting anxiety consume them, he asked constituents to first “let me do my job” by visiting potential development sites, talking to staff and developers, and hearing and gathering resident concerns to share with his colleagues.
In general, Diggs said, the board is “committed” to not pulling water from the Rappahannock River or the aquifer for use by data centers. He said he personally would not support a project that proposed to do this.
Allen noted that the two data center projects that have been approved by the Board of Supervisors have proffered major improvements to the county’s water utility system, meaning that cost will not be born by the county’s taxpayers.
Also regarding taxes, Diggs noted that the board is “committed to bringing in additional businesses.”
“Any of those would lower the amount of revenue we have to rely on citizens for,” he said.
A resident asked the School Board members whether there is a plan for managing the local effects of the Trump Administration’s move to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education.
Siegmund said the current understanding is that some of the funding that was provided to school divisions by the federal education department will now flow through the state education department.
But as Guy said, “we can’t plan for what is so massively unknown.”
Another resident asked how the school division is protecting students from the potential threat of deportation and from bullying based on assumptions of citizenhsp status.
Siegmund said that next to educating students, the school division’s number one job is to keep them safe. She said that when parents or guardians enroll their children in school, the division asks for two documents—one to prove they are residents of the county and one to prove they have the legal authority to register that child.
“There’s no ‘gotcha’ moment,” Siegmund said. She noted that the school division has a simple mandate to educate the children of the county.
“We want Stafford kids in Stafford schools,” she said.
Regarding bullying, Guy emphasized that students and parents need to report every incident to building administration so that it can be dealt with before it escalates, and Allen asked that parents not allow their children to echo any polarizing discourse they may hear on the news or in the community.
“A lot of that starts at home,” she said.
In response to a question about how the relationship between citizens and elected officials can be less adversarial, both chairs said conversation is the key.
“Put on a pot of coffee and invite us over and we’ll come,” Siegmund said. “We need to facilitate these conversations because that’s what community is.”
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