Town Council votes to make Joan Platt its newest member

Meeting via Zoom teleconference for the rst time ever, the Washington Town Council voted unanimously Monday night (May 11) to appoint a seventh member to its ranks — longtime town resident Joan Platt — and then took care of several COVID-related issues in less than half an hour.

“I am grateful that she will join us,” said Mayor Fred Catlin, who said he’d email Platt to let her know of the vote to replace former council member Katharine Leggett. Leggett resigned in March as she was moving out of the county.

After a unanimous vote to support Catlin’s declaration of an emergency (a requirement to allow the council to meet in a videoconference session), the council also unanimously approved a resolution authorizing Catlin to pursue nal agreement with Virginia Resources and the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to defer payments on the town’s loan to build its wastewater treatment plant.

The town’s next payment of $98,605.89 is now due in May 2021. As Town Attorney John Bennett said they’ve done for many localities, Virginia Resources and DEQ took the unpaid 2020 payments and divided by the number remaining payments (in the town’s case: 18).

“It’s a real accommodation on their part,” Bennett noted, pointing out that the arrangement adds no interest or penalties. Catlin thanked council members Joe Whited and Gail Swift, who also serves as treasurer, for working out the details.

The council also voted to authorize an expenditure of $150 to advertise its June 8 public hearing on the town’s 2020-2021 budget. The resolution originally had speci ed an expense of “up to $900,” but after council member Patrick O’Connell asked whether that was for one advertisement in the Rappahannock News (and Town Clerk Barbara Batson said it was not the Rappahannock News but for another newspaper, although she wasn’t at the time sure which one), O’Connell suggested the town only needed to advertise in the Rappahannock News. Bennett con rmed this and Catlin changed the amount to $150.

“Why don’t we ask the Rappahannock News to publish it gratis?” O’Connell added. “We’re a town without an income, and they’re a community-minded newspaper. So I strongly suggest we tell them we’d like the ad without payment.” The amended resolution passed unanimously.