Town okays arts grant application and bad debt write offs

Photo and Video by Mark Williams, Royal Examiner.

In business other than explaining rising costs of service causing Town electric rates to go up and moving toward covering those expenses, on Monday, March 11, the town council authorized contributing funds toward a Virginia Commission of the Arts Creative Partnership Grant for three local organizations; and approved a resolution updating its Bad Debt Policy in conjunction with dropping five years of accumulated bad debt off its books.

First, by a 5-0 vote with Meza absent, Council approved a total of $4,500 that would be matched by the state Commission of the Arts Creative Partnership to be divided between the Blue Ridge Arts Council, the Front Royal Oratorio Society and the Blue Ridge Singers. The Town contributions would be $3500 to the Arts Council and $500 each to the Oratorio Society and Blue Ridge Singers, resulting in state-local matching grant totals of $7,000 to BRAC and $1,000 each to the singing groups when awarded.

Then by the same margin, a bad debt total of $277,974 (and 34 cents) was approved for removal from the Town ledger as uncollectable. No positive action toward collections on those 17-plus pages of unpaid bills was reported over a five-year period. A quick look-over showed unpaid bills as low as $34.25 and as high as $5,346, the latter likely on the commercial side.

Councilwoman Letasha Thompson observed that the Town averages a collection rate of 99.5%, adding, “I think staff is doing a tremendous job” on the collection front.

See discussion and the votes on this Royal Examiner video: