Newsletter — August 2020

Good evening and goodbye to August!

It has been a busy and hot month here in Williamsburg. We have seen the return of students to the Colonial Capital, who have been adhering to William & Mary’s Healthy Together Community Commitment. We have also had a packed Council agenda this month, as we discussed and decided upon an exciting rebuild of our current Fire Station. Below are a few of the items the City Council and I have worked on in the weeks prior.

1. Fire Station Rebuild — With our Fire Department having been in need of repair for many years, I was glad to vote for the rebuilding of our current station at our Council meeting on August 13th. Here is a video link to my comments on the project, which were centered around two points: one, the strong need for new facilities and, two, a necessary financial limit on this expenditure. In 2018, funds were borrowed specifically for “public safety infrastructure,” which left us today with roughly $14.5 million for this project. Despite the stated need for two stations, I did not feel it was possible to build two without overspending from this amount. This would have been a misuse of public funds, and the public trust, at this time, but I am hopeful to see fundraising for the needed second station begin in our Capital Improvement Project budget soon.
2. Presentation of W&M’s Path Forward Plan — Also during our meeting, Sam Jones, chair of W&M’s Coronavirus Task Force, came to speak with us about the plans our community’s university is taking to keep our Williamsburg area safe. Here is the presentation he gave, in which he highlighted randomized testing and a strong emphasis on social distancing
3. Outside of our regularly scheduled Council meetings, I have enjoyed serving on the Voter Engagement Action Committee (VEAC) out of W&M’s Office of Community Engagement as the community representative. Our entire mission is educating students on how to register to vote and how to actually vote. More information is on our website.
4. On the 20th, I enjoyed “zooming” into a planning meeting to establish a Minority Business Council in Williamsburg. This was the brainchild of former Councilmember Benming Zhang and NAACP Chapter President Brian Smalls. Now on the City-side, I’m excited to continue this effort and advocate for the further inclusion of racial justice initiatives in our City’s Goals, Initiatives, and Outcomes (GIOs) plan for 2020–2022. More to come on this!

As a final note, these newsletters are my effort to be open about what City Council has worked and is working on. If you would like to discuss an item or idea further, I’d love to! Please feel free to respond to this email or simply text/call me at 757–707–9672.

I hope you have a blessed rest of the week. Thank you for reading and for caring so about our community.

With gratitude,

Caleb

**this Newsletter is mine alone and does not represent the input of the entire City Council