Previous School Board Chair’s wife counters North River candidate’s Project Budgeting claims

There have been many rumors spread during this school board election about my husband, Arnold Williams, Jr., and his tenure on the school board; none of which have been true. The worst of them all made by North River School Board candidate Melanie Salins is the claim that “the renovation projects have gone millions over budget”.

If anyone knows my husband and his extensive background in real estate and construction, they will readily know that the last thing my husband would allow is for a renovation project to go over budget. There were two major renovation projects and the construction of the new Warren County Middle School during his service on the school board. Incidentally, you don’t have to take anyone’s word in these regards, as everything that will be discussed here is public record and the actual budgets, bids, and financials are available in hard copy or can be downloaded online.

For the A.S. Rhodes remodel project, the board had just over $1 million left over, yes that is leftover, from the construction of the Warren County Middle School. The building fund already contained a substantial amount that had been put aside for the renovations needed for A.S. Rhodes (any smart board will always save for capital improvements) and then added just over $1 million from the WCMS project that making it a total budget of just over $3 million to work with. The board got projected estimates from the engineering firm which also itemized the projects within the renovations. Those projected estimates came back higher than the budgeted funds due to increasing costs of supplies and the general construction market at the time. Therefore, the board then prioritized the needs of the school and sent bids out for renovations that met the budgeted funds. The entire A.S. Rhodes project was completed with budgeted funds and NO DEBT was added to the board and NO TAXES were raised to the citizens.

The same process was used for the Ressie Jeffries project in that part of the money came from the capital funds and the other came from a repayment program contracted with a company called Ameresco in which the company essentially pays a school system to install lighting and plumbing that is energy efficient. In fact, the project did run out of funds to complete the playground so public donations were received that allowed for the relocation and renewal of the playground (I’m sure you won’t find Ms. Salins’ name on that list).

Not one project that my husband had the thankless pleasure of overseeing went over budget or raised tax dollars to the citizens of Warren County. Just because someone, in this case, Ms. Salins, says their father was a project manager does not mean they know the first thing about managing a $3-5 million dollar construction or renovation project. She is woefully underqualified for the position that she seeks, so makes inflammatory and false statements about the public school system and her predecessors to get people to vote for her. I can tell you that not a single claim that she has made about my husband’s tenure on the Warren County School Board has been true, and has done nothing but tarnish the many years that he worked hard for this community.

I would hope citizens of the North River District will consider facts, rather than false or hollow claims when they go to the polls to cast votes for their School Board representative this Tuesday. My husband and I support Angela Robinson for the school board and hope that you will too.

Nancie Williams
Front Royal