Despite having already borrowed $11 million over the past 16 years to build a new fire station for the Cherrydale Volunteer Fire Department, Arlington County has failed to start construction and will seek Tuesday to borrow an additional $13 million to keep the project going.
The county issued bonds to raise money for the station in 1990, 1994, 2004 and 2006. Numerous delays have kept the project from moving forward, and more money must be borrowed to complete it. In the meantime, condominiums have been built on the original site, which has more direct access to Lee Highway.
Cherrydale is not the only bond-supported project with problems. An additional $8 million for Westover Library was requested in Arlington’s 2007 Capital Improvement Plan. This is on top of the $4 million raised in a 1998 bond issue. Construction has yet to begin on the library.
Arlington was not prepared to begin these projects when money was raised and was forced to issue bonds repeatedly — and ultimately borrow more money in total — to keep them going, said Wayne Kubicki, a member of the County Board-appointed Arlington Fiscal Affairs Advisory Commission. As a result of the delays, the total amount of interest that must be paid on the borrowed money has increased.
Part of the problem, Kubicki said, is that bonds are only put before the public for a vote every two years. County planners are rushing to make the ballot before projects are fully thought through, he said.
“Stuff is hitting the ballot prematurely,” he said. “There’s a dollar amount they’re slapping on it” and asking the public to approve it.
The committee, in a report to the board on the improvement plan, recommends the county have bond referendums annually so that the project’s scope is defined before money is borrowed. Projects such as Arlington Mill, a planned community center for which a $26 million bond is being proposed for the 2007 ballot, should be delayed until all details are known, they said.
Bobbie van Druff, a capital analyst for Arlington, said the county implemented a policy in which separate bonds would be issued for design and construction so that the scope of the project is better defined and costs better estimated.
