Hopewell council votes to pay for two recreation needs through department salary savings

HOPEWELL – City Council had a dilemma Tuesday night: Do we want to see Hopewell up in lights, or do we want to finally reach the end of the trail for a recreational trail?

After 30 minutes or so of back-and-forth discussion among councilors, it was decided to do both. Council voted 6-1 to earmark $56,000 in anticipated salary savings to pay for engineering the third phase of the Riverwalk trails network and $36,000 in salary savings to repair the electronic marquee in front of the Hopewell Community Center.

Some councilors questioned the speculative nature of the spending, especially since it had been determined earlier that salary savings would help pay the tab for the Robert Bobb Group’s work on repairing Hopewell’s fractured financial infrastructure.

Recreation & Parks director Tabitha Martinez said the Riverwalk project was eligible for a $280,000 reimbursable grant from the Virginia Recreational Trails Program, but the city would have to approve 20% in local matching funds totaling $56,000. Martinez and City Manager Dr. Concetta Manker said the rec department would have enough in salary savings to cover that amount.

The Riverwalk has approached its third and final phase, which is completing an access point at its other end near the Hopewell marina. Right now, should someone at that end of Riverwalk experience an emergency, then first responders would only be able to get to them through the access point at City Park on the other side of state Route 10.

Vice Mayor Jasmine Gore put forth a motion for that request. However, she withdrew it after learning that the cost of repairing the community center’s electronic billboard would be about $20,000 cheaper than the grant’s match.

Gore noted the request's timing was so close to the fiscal year's end that any grant money could be absorbed into the upcoming 2024-25 city budget. She amended her motion to approve Martinez’s application for the grant with the stipulation it would be covered in the next budget, and then pinpoint $36,000 from the department’s salary savings to fix the marquee.

“Isn’t the marquee used to spotlight what is going on at the [community] center?” Gore said. “I would rather see the marquee fixed as an operations cost. Isn’t this more important as an operational cost?”

“If I had to choose between the two, then the marquee would be more important,” Martinez said.

What ensued after that was discussion – and some confusion – over what council was deciding to do.

Ward 6 Councilor Brenda Pelham asked if the city administration had any hard numbers on the amount of salary savings from all departments. Interim Finance Director Russ Branson said he probably would not have a definite number until the actual end of the fiscal year, but Manker said they would start focusing on where all salary savings could be spent after April 30.

“It sounds like you already know,” Pelham said.

“We know individually which departments ... but an analysis has to be done, and we have to be careful about what we are asking for with savings,” Manker replied. “A lot of those savings are paying for the Robert Bobb Group, so I’m not sure exactly how much will be returning back to the general fund.”

“Right now, we’re just looking at her department,” Branson said of Martinez’s request. “We will come back holistically in May with how much we will have.”

Manker said the rec department is looking at $146,000 in salary savings.

Ward 7 Councilor Dominic Holloway said if that much is known, then the city should be able to fund both the marquee and the Riverwalk completion. Gore did not seem to be on board with that, again because of the timing.

“This is actually a next-year's question,” she said. “It’s not a this-year's question. I don’t think there is a need because it’s going to be next fiscal year before she finds out if she gets the grant.”

Mayor Johnny Partin Jr. said he would opt to spend the savings for the Riverwalk project if council were forced to make a choice Tuesday night.

“I understand the marquee is important,” Partin said, “but I don’t think you’ll convince any citizen that a marquee is more important than finishing the Riverwalk. I mean, in terms of tourism, in terms of recreational assets to the city. And also the public-safety piece of it. If something happened to someone at the very tail end and EMS had to be called ... I agree with Councilor Holloway. I say we go ahead and approve it.”

Gore wound up voting in favor of Holloway’s recommendation. The only dissent came from Pelham.

The length of the marquee-vs.-Riverwalk debate prompted council to postpone discussion on creating collective bargaining for Hopewell’s police department. That now is set for council’s May 14 meeting.

Bill Atkinson (he/him/his) is an award-winning journalist who covers breaking news, government and politics. Reach him at batkinson@progress-index.com or on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @BAtkinson_PI.

This article originally appeared on The Progress-Index: Hopewell votes to fund rec needs for sign, trail development