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The basement vault floods regularly. A locked office with important documents isn’t secure, because the doors pop open. Cumberland supervisors heard from different departments during last week’s budget discussions, each detailing different issues that need to be fixed. The question, as always, is where will the money come from? 

For Clerk of Circuit Court Deidre Martin, the problem is about flooding. The basement vault where records are kept floods on a pretty regular basis, at least once a month, she says. And while they’ve managed to keep everything off the ground, “the humidity is about 70% on average and if there’s water in there, it’s more,” Martin told supervisors. “So I have mold and mildew on documents. I try not to put too much down there, but I am required to keep some things secure and they can’t be secure in the record room because it’s public, so the election results are in there and any type of juvenile matter, anything that needs to be locked up. And I have some old stuff down there because I don’t have anywhere else to put it.” 

Martin said she recently asked the Library of Virginia to come and get some of the older documents, just because they were deteriorating in the vault and she wanted to save them. 

Supervisors asked if any dehumidifiers are running in the basement and she said no, because that would require someone to go in and dump it on a regular basis. That works great if someone is in the office, Martin said, but on weekends, they would have to shut it off or it just becomes more water. 

“We’re legally responsible to maintain those records,” Supervisors Vice Chair John Newman said. “And we knew this was flooding last time and we really haven’t done anything about it. We have an issue.” 

It’s not just court records, but material from the treasurer’s office and other county records down there too, staff pointed out.  

The problem, Cumberland Administrator Derek Stamey said, is that the drain is undersized and it gets backed up. Newman suggested that staff look at ways of addressing that and Stamey said he’d make it a priority. 

An issue in the records room 

But records aren’t just kept in the vault. There are plenty still stored in the records room. That’s another problem, as the smoke detectors are wearing out and it seems the room may not actually meet the requirements set up in the Virginia Code. 

“I kinda have my back up against the wall,” Martin told supervisors. “The ceilings in the record room have asbestos. The smoke alarms are old and the new fire codes say (any new ones) have to be hardwired in.” 

The alarm company won’t touch that with the older models, so at some point, the fire alarms will just stop working and Cumberland will have to get a brand new system. There’s another problem, in that the Code requires the records to be in a fireproof room. 

“The Code reads fireproof room, not alarmed,” Supervisors Vice Chair John Newman pointed out to the rest of the board. 

The door is fireproof, but the rest of the room, especially the roof, is not. At some point, that also has to be addressed. 

Martin also asked for some increases in her budget. The first is a $5,000 request for the Easy Jury system, which would send the jury summons out digitally, create and process the jury questionnaires, as well as randomize the jury pool and selection. Also, it would assign numbers to each juror chosen, rather than having to do that in court, as it happens now. Martin pointed out that it might not be a great idea for the defendant in some of these cases to hear the juror’s name and then see them given a number. 

More than 100 counties in Virginia use the Easy Jury system, and the randomization would help with the jury selection as well. Right now, Martin said, she has to put names in a basket, pull them out and give them numbers. 

Martin also asked for $1,500 for professional services to be put back in the budget, as it was taken out last year. That’s what she uses to cover the cost of sending out the jury questionnaires. 

Costs keep going up in Cumberland

For the Cumberland Commissioner of Revenue, there’s a tiny problem with her office, one that like Martin, Commissioner Julie Phillips had asked to be addressed last year. She needs new doors for her office. The two glass doors, if you pull on them hard, they open, even if they’re supposed to be locked. 

“That needs to be fixed,” Newman said. “Not only does she have financial records in there, but all the DMV materials, stickers for license plates, all that’s in her office. I’m concerned about that one room being secure.” 

Aside from that, Phillips also asked for office supplies, as “just like everyone else, (the cost of) everything is going up so fast we can’t keep up.” 

The same was true for County Treasurer Lee Pfeiffer, who has also seen costs for his office increase. But that’s partly due to a change his department made this year. 

“The biggest increase is the credit card processing fees. They’ve gone up,” Pfeiffer said. “Part of the reason is this year we’ve put a QR code on the front of the bill, to make it easier for taxpayers to go directly to the website. I’ve noticed a big uptick after those bills got sent out. It’s proved to be pretty popular and pretty helpful at the same time.”

So on the one hand it’s beneficial, he said, but it also means costs climb. And much like the other departments, Pfeiffer said he’s seen costs increase for supplies, from just simple paper to the cartridges that go in the printers, everything costs more. 

And Commonwealth’s Attorney Wendy Hannah came asking for the money to fund an additional position, but it’s not by choice. Since the sheriff’s department is getting body cameras, Hannah explained that state law requires a staffer be hired to handle that on the Commonwealth’s Attorney side. 

“There’s nothing I can do about it, there’s nothing the sheriff can do about it,” Hannah explained. 

Budget talks move forward 

Newman was for the most part the only supervisor who asked questions, as the others just took in the information from the presentations. Supervisors Chairperson Eurika Tyree asked one question of each department, as she has throughout the process. How many people are in your department and how many of them are minorities. 

Budget talks will continue this month. The next regular meeting of the Cumberland Supervisors is set for Tuesday, March 11. They also held a joint workshop with the planning commission to ask questions of the Green Ridge landfill application, which we’ll be covering online and also have in Friday’s edition of the paper, as it was too late for presstime.