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Call for compromise
“The Planning Commission did not say in the ' 'omprehensive Plan that we should concentrate our office pace needs in the Town of Washington. Our number one concern is education. I’d hate to see money taken from children to fulfill the whims of taste."
That was the opinion of Hampton District Supervisor Mike Massie, after the supervisors were told Monday that Washington’s Architectural Re-view Board has postponed its approval of the county's plan for an addition to the jail. It wants the opinion of its consulting architects as to the suitability of the addition to the historic.structure.
Mr. Massie’s comment deserves serious thought and consideration. We hope that it is taken not as a threat, but as a call for accomodation between the county and the ARB.
While we’re reserving judgement until the ARB announces its decision, it is plainly not in the county’s interest 1 o spend extra tax dollars its residents don’t have to redesign t he jail addition. There are also considerations beyond the additional expense.
We agree that the jail is a historic building. But it is also a jail. There are security requirements, essential to the safety >f the law enforcement officers who work there, which might override aesthetic concerns.
There is also the matter of the tenuous agreement >■ between Hampton Inn owner William Frizzell, who is now supplying meals for the jail’s inmates, and the county. Mr. Frizzell has asked for a 30-day notice provision in the contract, and has indicated that if the addition does not proceed on schedule that he will terminate the contract.
The inmates must be fed, and even though it is more expensive to bring meals in, until the kitchen is completed the '■ounty has no choice. If Mr. Frizzell terminates the contract, In- county may be left without a foodservice supplier.
Yes, the Town of Washington is a historic district, and ' here are certain aesthetic requirements which must be fulfilled.
But the County of Rappahannock does not have unlimited resources. We hope that some accomodation can be wached between the wishes of the ARB that the historic ut.egrity of the town be preserved and the realistic, “bottom ■me” needs of the county, which has many more requests for money that it has resources available.
With the county’s taxpayers facing a severe hike in taxes “his year, any suggestions which would add appreciably to the taxpayers' burden must be justified — beyond, in Mr. MassieV words, "the whims of taste.”
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