Callander: Wish list for county goes on and on

In this season of Santa Claus and little elves, let me suspend belief and make a wish list of how to spend the mysterious $6.2 million dollar surplus that the county has discovered.

To start out, I would buy new FRED buses and expand service between Stafford County and Fredericksburg, including the University of Mary Washington, so employees and students could take the bus and avoid having to drive and park their cars.

It wouldn’t take an hour-and-a half to get to work or school, because the route would be direct and the buses would run more frequently than they currently do. The extra buses would provide quicker, convenient service for those who do not own a car because of cost or disability or lack of a driver’s license.

Bus service would also be available in southern Stafford to Leeland Station VRE, so commuters wouldn’t have to buy a car to leave in an overfilled parking lot all day. From their subdivision commuters could hop on a bus (on schedule) a couple blocks from their home and get dropped in front of the station. The healthy, brisk walk to the bus in the morning would replace the lengthy hike from far corners of the parking lot to the train.

Less cars on the road would be a wish fulfilled!

Also on my wish list are expanded social services for those struggling in the bad economy, including funds to help families avoid home foreclosure or eviction from rental apartments.

Support groups to teach folks coping skills (practicality verses extravagance) would be a positive, as would expanded free medical services to assist those who’ve lost their health insurance coverage due to loss of employment. Throw in some free medical/dental care for those who haven’t had health insurance regardless of employment. (That $6.2 million is looking tiny at this point…)

Direct assistance to viable small businesses to help them hang on in the credit crunch is another worthy use for a portion of the surplus.

A need that is particularly close to my heart is a new county-run animal shelter to handle aspects of animal protection and control that are best handled by a government run organization. The windfall doesn’t provide enough money but perhaps there is some aspect of the excess that could provide immediate, more humane treatment of animals.

Support for free spay and neutering is a possibility, reducing the overpopulation of cats and dogs that so negatively impacts our community.

The list goes on. How about improving all the county’s narrow, winding secondary roads that have appalled me from the first time I road them over 20 years ago? Some have been improved since then, but the need is so great that $6.2 million would be a drop in the bucket (…or in the pothole).

How can I forget the schools? They need the whole surplus!

We could cut out all wishful thinking and just secure the money in savings!

Alane Callander is a south Stafford resident active in many local causes. Reach her at info@staffordcountysun.com.