After years of thinking the Taber Fund principal could not be spent, the current Urbanna Town Council recently voted to withdraw $500,000 from the fund as a loan to pay for a proposed community swimming pool, with the provision that it be repaid.
At the May 11 town council meeting, discussion on diversifying the Taber Fund investments led to Councilor Larry Chowning commenting on protecting the Taber Fund.
As part of the $500,000 pool loan, council agreed to not take the annual cash disbursement from the Taber Fund, but to reinvest any dividends or interest back into the fund until the $500,000 is repaid.
Chowning commented, “One of the things that I’ve been running into is citizens are saying, ‘You’re never going to pay it back.’ And it would be hard to pay it back, I know that. But I see this (fund diversification) as a means of paying it back. So we need to be proactive.”
The town is the lender and the borrower, something Chowning characterized as the fox guarding the chicken house.
At the April 27 meeting, town resident A.B. Gravatt spoke against taking principal from the Taber Fund, and warned that the loan might not be repaid. Gravatt’s comments came as council considered adding $70,000 to the $1.1 million pool estimate…
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