More than 600 Bull Run Mountain residents want Prince William County to raise their taxes for road improvements.
The Bull Run Civic Association requested that the county raise the special district’s tax from 10 cents to 12 cents per $100 of assessed property value to help pay the $1.3 million to tar and chip the private gravel roads on the mountain.
“They are in poor condition,” said Dan Stapleton, the association’s president, who added thatfour-wheel drive vehicles “take a lot of uncertainty out of the ability to get around” on the steep mountain roads.
The special tax district, established by the county years ago to maintain the roads, could not afford to fix gaping potholes and add more gravel twice a year at a cost of $160,000.
The steep inclines and shallow underlying bedrock prevented the roads from meeting Virginia Department of Transportation standards, according to a memo from acting Public Works Director Thomas Bruun.
To transfer the roads to the state’s rural roads program, the association would have had to pay much more to meet the extensive requirements, Stapleton said.
“We are facing a situation where we need to increase the levies as they are, but working with the county, they have advised us, and we believe, the tar-and-chip surface will be less to maintain,” Stapleton said.
The additional tax will raise a total of $170,000 a year toward paying off the project’s loan. The funds will be added to $200,000 available through the county’s transportation road improvement program this year, said Craig Gerhart, county executive.
“Our expectation is that after the five or six years, when the loan is paid off, we will be able to maintain the tax where it is or lower it,” Stapleton said. “We are likely to end up with a surplus in that account.”
Two cents worth
» Special Tax District created in 1990 for water and road improvements.
» The current 10-cent tax generates some $140,000 per year.
» The 12-cent tax this year would add more than $28,000 to that amount.
